1-158-905 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Napoleon's troops defending a telegraph tower, c1815, (c1870). The incident took place shortly before Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo by the allies under Wellington, 18 June 1815. Claude Chappe's (1763-1805) optical telegraph station used a system of rope and pulleys operated inside the station which enabled the arms on the post to be moved into different semaphore positions. At the next station in the chain operators, using a telescope, would read the semaphore message, then pass it to the subsequent station. From Les Merveilles de la Science (The Wonders of Science), by Louis Figuier. (Paris, c1870).