Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1893-11-10
SOME QUEER TELEGRAPHS.
f!OvEL WAYS OF SENDING MES
SAGES LONG DISTANCES.
Series of Booming Cannon, Beacon
Fires and Signal Towcrs-Com-
municating by Sun Flashes.

big gun at Buffalo began, and the one
at the next station heard it, and fired
his, and so on step by step till the city
of New York was reached. That was
one kind of telegraphing, but the eye
is employed in signaling more often
than the ear.
Beacon fires flashing from hill to
hill is the earliest way of sending mes
sages of which we know anything; of
course, those in charge of the fires
understood each others signs-one,
two, three blazes by night, one, two,
three columns of smoke by day, meant
to those who understood that an en-
emy was approaching, that there were
few or many. and SO on.
jeremiah, the old Jewish prophet,
called on the people of Benjamin to
kindle fire signal on a mountain top,
and the old Greek poet, EscEylus,
tells us that the comman der of the
Greeks at the famous siege of Troy
telegraphed the message of the city's
fall to his wife, who was in far-otf
Greece The news was flashed by fires
from peak to peak of eight intervening
mountains, travelling the whole dis
tance in one night. Three hundred
years ago, when all England was
stirred with terror at the coming of
the great Spanish Armada, how eagerly
they watched by night for the first
flicker on the hilltop.
Each peak near the coast had its
bonfire ready laid, and below waited
men with swift horses ready to carry
the message of woe if the Spaniards
came by day. But the flint never
struck the spark from steel to start the
blaze, the trusty horses never clattered
down into the valleys, for the winds
and waves of the Atlantic scattered the
great fleet, and not ship was landed
on the coast.
In later times the semaphore served
a very good purpose to carry messages.
Towers were built on commanding
points, five or ten miles apart; frames
on these held shutters by the opening
and shutting of which sixty-three dis
trict signals could be made. A simpler
arrangement was afterward used con-
sisting of two arms worked up and
down from within these towers. On
the lookout room were telescopes
which were constantly fixed on the
tower next in line. So perfect was the
system that when the time ball was
dropped at the Greenwich Observatory
at the hour of noon, it was signaled
to Portsmouth and the message of ac-
acknowledgement received at Greenwich
within three-quarters of a minute. Of
course fog rendered these signals
useless, and they were gladly given up
when men began to play with light
ming and train it to carry their mes
sages Flags are used more or less at
sea for signaling, but n fog also rem
ders them useless, and the titfulness
of the wind is another difficulty; too
little breeze leaves them Tapping Mt
the post, too much may tiutter them
with the end toward the other party.
Then the semaphore system is used,
as mast or pole with its two arms
can be set up anywhere on ship.
There is still another mode of sig
mailing used largely between the army
posts i'll our Western country, in which
old Sol writes the letters of the mes
sage. Perhaps every boy or girl has
flashed the suns light by means of n
mirror, and enjoyed seeing the vivid
spot dance at his will, by the adjust
ment of the looking glass. Some one,
with the kind of brain which sees u
step further than his comrades does,
said: "Why not make practical use of
this vivid far-reachin9 fiash?' and
forthwith the heliograph or sun writer
came into being.
1t is n small compact affair tripod
holds bar which supports n mirror,
ON the bar is projection like the sight
ON gun to guide the eye in adjusting
it. A small hole is scratched through
the quicksilver at the centre of the
mirror, which, of course, makes "A dark
spot or shadow in the centre of the
patch of light The operator takes
his instrument to the highest point
convenient and with II "covers" the
mountain peak where he knows the
other party with whom he wants to
speak must be.
Attached to the sight on the rod if n
small white disc The operator adj
iusts his mirror till the little dark spot
of shadow is thrown ON the disc, and
as he knows from the ''aiming' or
sighting" of the rod that the disc
covers the spot he wants To strike, he
is sure that the strongest glare of the
light is just where he wants II to be.
Now the man on the other mountain
watching the vivid spot, sees IT flash,
flash, flash, then move So fast that II Is
merely flicker then flash again with
longer an shorter intervals, and just as
the length of the dash IA the alphabet
of the electric telegraph makes the
letters OF words, so does the length of
the tiash OF light IA this system The
position of the sun makes no differ
ence, for when he In ia the wrong
place, second mirror is substituted
fnr his majesty and throsa the beam
ou tho first one.
ia the illmalaYas, where the atmos
pheru a. 80 clear, e messags has heeu
flashed siKtY miles, hui the sueeess of
the heliogFaph If course iepends in
large measutu uu the abseueo ui
clouds Nra infk ObsvrNtr
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