Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz

Abraham Niclas (Clewberg) Edelcrantz (28 July 1754 – 15 March 1821) was a Finnish born Swedish poet and inventor.

In 1783 he moved to Stockholm to lead the Royal Theater and later work as the private secretary of the king Gustaf III.

He inaugurated his telegraph with a poem dedicated to the Swedish King on his birthday in 1794.

The several positions of the shutters formed combinations of numbers which were translated into letters, words or phrases via codebooks.

In 1797, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.