The Opelousas courier., 1893-12-09
SOME QUEER f%ELEGRAPHS,
NOVEL WAYS OF SENDING MES
sAeFs LONG DISTANCES
Series of Booming Cannon, Beacon
Fires and Signal Towers-Com"
municating by Sun Flashes.

AN/ opened NE" AoLh 70
y Y Buffalo, it was announced
by the booming Of cannon
ali along the route the ma with the
big gun at Buffalo began, and the one
at the next station heard it, and fred
his, and SO on step by step till the city
of New York was reached. That was
n kind Of telegraphing, but the eye
is employed in signaling more often
than the ear.
Beacon fires flashing CON 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-
envy was approaching, that there we're
few or many, and 80 on.
Jeremiah, the old Jewish prophet,
called on the people Of Benjamin to
kindle a fire signal on a mountain top,
and the old Greek poet, EscLylus,
tells us that the commander Of the
Greeks ct the famous siege Of Troy
telegraphed the message Of the city's
fall to lis wife. who was in far.of
Greece. The news wal flashed by fires
from peak to peak of eight intervening
mountains, travelling the whole dis
lance in n 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 neal the coast had its
bonfire reauy 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 q ship was landed
on the coast.
In later times the s%emaphore 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
triet signals could be made. A simpler
arrangement was afterward used on
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 &C.
acknowledgement received at Greenwich
within three.qnsrters Of a minute. OF
course q fog rendered these signals
useless, and they we're gladly given up
when men began to play with light.
ming and train it to carry their mes
Flags are used more OF less at
sea for signaling, but a fog also rem
ders them useless, and the ftfulness
of the wind is another difficulty; too
breeze leaves them Tapping at
the post, too much may futter them
with the end toward the other party.
Then the semaphore system is used,
as a mast or pole with its two arms
can be set up anywhere on g ship.
There is still another mode of sig
used largely between the army
posts in our Western country, in which
old Sol writes the letters of the mes
sage. Perhaps every boy Or girl has
the suns light by means of a
mirror, and enjoyed seeing the vivid
spot dance at his will, by the adjust
nent Of the looking glass. Some one,
with the kind of brain which sees a
further than his comrades does,
said: "WhT not make practical use of
this vivid ~far-reaching FASH" and
the heliograph or sun writer
came into being.
It is a small compact affair ; a tripod
holds q bar which supports q mirror,
IN the bar is projectionlik the sight
a gun to guide the eyein adjusting
t. A small hole is scratched through
he quicksilver at the centre Of the
which, Of course, makes a dark
pot or shadow in the centre Of the
of light. The operator takes
lis instrument to the highest point
convenient and with it "covers" the
mountain peak where he knows the
,ther party with whom he wants to
peak must be.
Attached to the sight on the rod is a
mall white disc. The operator ad.
usts his mirror till the little dark spot
# shadow is thrown on the disc, and
Is he knows from the tanning" or
sighting" of the rod that the disc
overs the spot he wants to strike, he
8 sure that the strongest glare of the
light is just where he wants it to be.
Sow the nan on the other mountain
Watching the vivid spot, sees it fash,
lash, fash, then move SO fast that it is
merely a flicker then fash again with
or shorter intervals, and just as
he length Of the dash in the alphabet
f the electric telegraph makes the
or words, SO does the length OF
he flash Of light in this system. The
position Of the sun makes no differ.
nee, for when he is in the wrong
'lace, q second mirror is substituted
or his majesty and throws the beam
the first one.
In the Hinalayas, where the atnos.
here is so clear, a message has been
sixty. miles, but the success of
ne Photograph of cours depends IN
arge measure on the absence oil
LIQUIDS. New York Observer.
The Savage Soudanese.