J. H. Kromhout

Properties2
tagsperson, officer, dutch, engineers, telegraph, aceh-war
aliasesMajoor-Ingenieur Kromhout, Kromhout, J. H. Kromhout

6 min read

J. H. Kromhout was a Dutch Majoor-Ingenieur (Major-Engineer) of the Korps Ingenieurs, Mineurs en Sappeurs who, in 1873, devised an optical-telegraph system intended for use by the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger in the forthcoming second Aceh expedition. The system was studied at the Mineurskamp at Zeist in June 1873 by the four engineer officers selected for the detachment to Atjeh, including the young Tweede-Luitenant C. J. Snijders and his colleague J. W. N. Cramer, but was ultimately set aside in the field in favour of the optical-telegraph system of the Dutch Navy.

The 1873 Optical-Telegraph Project

After the failure of the first Aceh expedition under Generaal-Majoor Köhler in April 1873, the Dutch government prepared a second expedition and called for volunteer engineer officers from the metropolitan army. By Koninklijk Besluit of 10 June 1873 No. 33 four engineer officers were selected, the youngest of whom was Snijders. Before departure, Snijders and his fellow selectee J. W. N. Cramer were instructed at the Mineurskamp at Zeist for some days in the application of the new Kromhout optical-telegraph system, “welks toepassing bij de voorgenomen expeditie zou kunnen worden gebruik gemaakt.”

The biographer D. van den Berg records that the instruction took place at Zeist, and that Snijders on arrival in the Indies was first employed at the Hoofdbureau der Genie at Weltevreden to draft a memorandum on the “seinstelsel-Kromhout.” When it became clear that the navy’s system would be used in the field, Snijders was posted to the Staf der Genie at Surabaya instead, and the Kromhout system played no further part in the Atjeh operations.

Significance

Kromhout’s system belongs to the early history of military field telegraphy in the Netherlands and of Dutch engineer efforts to provide the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger with the command-and-control means needed for the protracted Atjeh-oorlog. The episode also illustrates the recurring inter-service rivalry between the Genie and the Marine in the colonial expeditions: the navy’s system was adopted without prior consultation with the engineer officers who had been instructed in the rival system.

Kromhout is one of a series of nineteenth-century engineer officers — together with W. Cool, W. Rooseboom, and others — who rose from the technical ranks of the Genie to staff and command positions. Van den Berg’s biography of Snijders notes that the future Sous-Chef and Chef van den Generalen Staf closed the line of “een vijftal genie-officieren (merkwaardigerwijze allen bij het wapen aangekomen binnen een tijdsbestek van 16 jaar)” who reached important staff functions, of whom Kromhout was the earliest (aanst. 1856).

See Also

Source

Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk, by D. van den Berg (Voorburg: September 1944), pp. 21–22 (Kromhout system, Zeist instruction, and Weltevreden memorandum) and p. 62 (on the line of Genie officers reaching the Generalen Staf). Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872.

J. H. Kromhout was a Dutch Majoor-Ingenieur (Major-Engineer) of the Korps Ingenieurs, Mineurs en Sappeurs who, in 1873, devised an optical-telegraph system intended for use by the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger in the forthcoming second Aceh expedition. The system was studied at the Mineurskamp at Zeist in June 1873 by the four engineer officers selected for the detachment to Atjeh, including the young Tweede-Luitenant C. J. Snijders and his colleague J. W. N. Cramer, but was ultimately set aside in the field in favour of the optical-telegraph system of the Dutch Navy.

The 1873 Optical-Telegraph Project

After the failure of the first Aceh expedition under Generaal-Majoor Köhler in April 1873, the Dutch government prepared a second expedition and called for volunteer engineer officers from the metropolitan army. By Koninklijk Besluit of 10 June 1873 No. 33 four engineer officers were selected, the youngest of whom was Snijders. Before departure, Snijders and his fellow selectee J. W. N. Cramer were instructed at the Mineurskamp at Zeist for some days in the application of the new Kromhout optical-telegraph system, “welks toepassing bij de voorgenomen expeditie zou kunnen worden gebruik gemaakt.”

The biographer D. van den Berg records that the instruction took place at Zeist, and that Snijders on arrival in the Indies was first employed at the Hoofdbureau der Genie at Weltevreden to draft a memorandum on the “seinstelsel-Kromhout.” When it became clear that the navy’s system would be used in the field, Snijders was posted to the Staf der Genie at Surabaya instead, and the Kromhout system played no further part in the Atjeh operations.

Significance

Kromhout’s system belongs to the early history of military field telegraphy in the Netherlands and of Dutch engineer efforts to provide the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger with the command-and-control means needed for the protracted Atjeh-oorlog. The episode also illustrates the recurring inter-service rivalry between the Genie and the Marine in the colonial expeditions: the navy’s system was adopted without prior consultation with the engineer officers who had been instructed in the rival system.

Kromhout is one of a series of nineteenth-century engineer officers — together with W. Cool, W. Rooseboom, and others — who rose from the technical ranks of the Genie to staff and command positions. Van den Berg’s biography of Snijders notes that the future Sous-Chef and Chef van den Generalen Staf closed the line of “een vijftal genie-officieren (merkwaardigerwijze allen bij het wapen aangekomen binnen een tijdsbestek van 16 jaar)” who reached important staff functions, of whom Kromhout was the earliest (aanst. 1856).

See Also

Source

Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk, by D. van den Berg (Voorburg: September 1944), pp. 21–22 (Kromhout system, Zeist instruction, and Weltevreden memorandum) and p. 62 (on the line of Genie officers reaching the Generalen Staf). Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872.

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