#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

Virtual Tour

Research Research Projects

International scientific project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden - valorisation and promotion”

I. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Friday, April 8, the National Museum of History of Moldova organised a special event in the village of Varnița - the official launch of project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden from Varnița - valorisation and promotion"/SITVAR...

II. INFORMATION REGARDING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

MAY 2016

Topographic research

Land topography

Topographic research included: Control topographic survey - 2016 Scale 1:500; were assigned: land with existing borders and all objectives, reconstituted land, land reconstituted according the cadastral plan (10.06-1992), comparison of plans for 2011-2016, comparison of plans for 1992-2011, field research from 1993. The research revealed that existing land borders differ with minor errors from the borders indicated in the documents of ownership.

Three objectives were identified on the ground:

Monument (obelisk) dedicated to King Charles XII of Sweden
Monument (stele) dedicated to hetman Ivan Mazepa
A cellar from the nineteenth century.

JUNE 2016

Land cleaning

In May 2016 were started the works for cleaning the land where the historic site Camp of the King Charles XII of Sweden is located from unnecessary vegetation. The work was coordinated by Varnița local public authorities. A group of youth and members of Association Woman. Hope. Future. were involved in these works. The aim was to prepare the land for magnetometric research. During this activity were identified a foundation of some stone structure, certain archaeological objects. In this connection, professional archaeologists from Chișinău and Odessa (V. Levciuk, I. Sapojnikov) were invited in Varnița who found unnecessary magnetometric research, but deemed necessary archaeological excavation research.

Historic and documentary research

The researchers from the National Museum of History of Moldova have studied the funds of the museum archive and the National Archive of Moldova for documents related to the history of installing the monument dedicated to King Charles XII of Sweden in Varnița. Research in the National Archives of Romania is to be undertaken.

JUNE-JULY 2016

Archaeological excavations

A group of archaeologists from the National Museum of History of Moldova have conducted archaeological excavations, their funding being provided by the National Museum of History of Moldova. During excavations a foundation of a stone structure was found, in further research the specialists will determine with exactness the purpose of the building. The shape of the structure is rectangular, size is 25x10m, south-north oriented. We can assume that this is the Chancellery of King Charles XII of Sweden, based on archive data and plans of the camp of the Swedish king in Varnița published over time.

Elaborated projects

In June and July were drafted the project of restoration of the monument of King Charles XII of Sweden situated in the historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden in Varnița, project of land development of the historic site, project on conservation of discovered remains identified during archaeological excavations.

AUGUST 2016

On August 2 was held the meeting of the National Council for Public Monuments where were discussed and approved the projects on land development of the historic site, the project of restoration of the monument of King Charles XII of Sweden, the project of conservation of stone structures identified during archaeological excavations. The projects should be implemented further on.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2016

Conservation of the vestiges discovered during the archaeological excavations is underway, including conservation of the Royal Chancellery wall. Also the monument consecrated to King Charles XII of Sweden is undergoing restoration works. The works are conducted by S.R.L. Softconstruct (Anenii Noi).