The Guibout Telegraph Fraud

We have written about the Chappe Telegraph system before (here and here) but what we didn't know was that the telegraph in Tours was involved in an intriguing criminal case.

The Chappe Telegraph in Chambray les Tours 

As is the case today, even in the nineteenth century if you receive market information before your rivals did, you could make money. A lot of money. If you know whether government bonds have risen or fallen before your competitors do, you can buy or sell accordingly.

In 1836, a fraud involving the Chappe telegraph was uncovered at Tours. It involved Guibout, a telegraph "stationnaire" at Tours, and the Blanc brothers, bankers in Bordeaux.

The Blanc brothers worked out a system by which they received information about movements in the Paris price of government funds before that information reached Bordeaux by normal means. Use of the telegraph was restricted to official government communications, so ordinary commercial news travelled by mail.

The scheme was simple, but effective. Their Paris correspondent, Gormand, (and later a man called Franck), sent parcels to Guibout by mail coach. The parcels contained gloves or stockings. Their colour indicated whether the price had risen or fallen. Between August 1834 and August 1836, 121 parcels were sent.

Guibout worked at telegraph station No. 4, which was situated on the mairie in Tours. After receiving the parcel, he inserted a false signal into the first message he had to transmit towards Bordeaux and then sent the telegraph signal meaning “error”. The false signal continued along the line and was repeated from station to station until it reached Bordeaux. There, the message was corrected with the error signal and the false signal removed from the official transmission

At Bordeaux, the inserted signal was received by Pierre Renaud, a former telegraph employee, who passed the information to the Blanc brothers.

The fraud was discovered in August 1836. A search of Guibout's house foun letters, telegraph notes, gloves and money. The investigators also found a notebook containing telegraph signs corresponding to the days of the week and indications involving white or coloured gloves. 

The trial took place before the Court of Assizes at Tours from 11 to 14 March 1837. Guibout, Renaud and the Blanc brothers were prosecuted under the provisions of the Penal Code concerning corruption. The prosecution alleged that Guibout had received payments for transmitting the signals and that the Blanc brothers had arranged the payments. The possible penalties included civic degradation, a fine equal to twice the value of the payments or goods received, and imprisonment for up to five years. 

The jury found that Guibout had transmitted signals other than those of the administration and had received payments for doing so. However, it found that he had not made those transmissions "in the exercise of his official employment". This meant that the corruption provisions did not apply. Guibout and the Blanc brothers were therefore absolved and ordered to pay the costs of the trial.

The case showed the government that its control of the telegraph rested on administrative practice rather than legislation. A law was subsequently passed establishing the government's monopoly over telegraph communications. It was enacted on 2 May 1837.

A big thanks to my brother who alerted me to this!