consent, married the attorney, John Chapone, who had been befriended by
Richardson. Her husband died within a year of her marriage. Mrs Chapone
remained in London visiting various friends. She had already made small
contributions to various periodicals when she published, in 1772, her
best known work, _Letters on the Improvement of the Mind._ This book
brought her numerous requests from distinguished persons to undertake
the education of their children. She died on the 25th of December 1801.

See _The Posthumous Works of Mrs Chapone, containing her
correspondence with Mr Richardson; a series of letters to Mrs
Elizabeth Carter ... together with an account of her life and
character drawn up by her own family_ (1807).

CHAPPE, CLAUDE (1763-1805), French engineer, was born at Brulon (Sarthe)
in 1763. He was the inventor of an optical telegraph which was widely
used in France until it was superseded by the electric telegraph. His
device consisted of an upright post, on the top of which was fastened a
transverse bar, while at the ends of the latter two smaller arms moved
on pivots. The position of these bars represented words or letters; and
by means of machines placed at intervals such that each was distinctly
visible from the next, messages could be conveyed through 50 leagues in
a quarter of an hour. The machine was adopted by the Legislative
Assembly in 1792, and in the following year Chappe was appointed
_ingenieur-telegraphe_; but the originality of his invention was so much
questioned that he was seized with melancholia and (it is said)
committed suicide at Paris in 1805.

His elder brother, Ignace Urbain Jean Chappe (1760-1829), took part in
the invention of the telegraph, and with a younger brother, Pierre
Francois, from 1805 to 1823 was administrator of the telegraphs, a post
which was also held by two other brothers, Rene and Abraham, from 1823
to 1830. Ignace was the author of a _Histoire de la telegraphie_ (1824).
An uncle, Jean Chappe d'Auteroche (1728-1769), was an astronomer who
observed two transits of Venus, one in Siberia in 1761, and the other in
1769 in California, where he died.

CHAPPELL, WILLIAM (1809-1888), English writer on music, a member of the
London musical firm of Chappell & Co., was born on the 20th of November
1809, eldest son of Samuel Chappell (d. 1834), who founded the business.
William Chappell is particularly noteworthy for his starting the Musical
Antiquarian Soci