100 Years Later

100 years after its introduction , the optical telegraph was regarded with little less than contempt. It had come to symbolise a bygone world and at the golden jubilee of the (electrical) telegraph service, people could jauntily sing: "We want none of that".

Picture from a party song written on the occasion of the golden jubilee: the optical telegraph is being sold to an antique dealer, depicted in the worst anti-Semitic style of that age. The songs refers to "the prelate Chappe", who had to cast off his monk´s robe in order to make the optical telegraph. The Danish optical telegraphs were not mentioned in any song that evening.

"A hundred years ago". Painting by scenographer Carl Lund. 1904.

Fisker´s telegraph in action at Nyborg. The picture was probably shown at the national exhibition at Århus, 1909, where it was intended to show how far things had come since the age of the optical telegraph.