Estudio del telégrafo de Agustín de Betancourt

Abstract

The transmission of information has gone through various stages of evolution throughout its history. A stage before that of the electric telegraph was the so-called aerial/optical telegraph. It was developed towards the end of the 18th century and was in service until the middle of the 19th century. The system developed by Claude Chappe in France was the first to be in consistent use. However, a new and technologically superior system was proposed soon. Its inventor was Agustín de Betancourt, who, together with the distinguished clockmaker Breguet, presented it to the French Authorities in the turbulent decade of the 1790s. This doctoral thesis presents a historical review of this telegraph and analyzes its technical characteristics. It presents analytically, numerically and graphically some of the statements made about the telegraph, and corrects other subsequent observations. Lastly, a detailed reconstruction of the telegraph is made using different advanced CAD techniques, which provide an accurate static and dynamic view of each of its parts.