Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-11-14
SUN SIGNALS.
Mirrors that Flashed Messages
Nearly 200 Miles.
TALK OF THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED
A Signal Service Record Disputed by the
Coast Survey-Heliotrope Work In
Caiifornia's Clear Atmosphere.

vice goes ON insisting, as the dispatches
say he insists, that his department has
just broken the world s record in sun
flashing, he wi Il have trouble with the
Coast Survey.
'Heliograph" work is what Captain
Glassford of the Signal Service. calls
it, "Heliotrope" work is what the
Coast Survey men call it. Recent Col
orado dispatches say that Glassford and
Greeley are feeling dreadfully proud
because Glassford and his party have
just signalled 1873 miles. from Mount
Allen, New, to Mount Unoompahgre,
Utah.
Facts are that Coast Survey men ac-
complished this same feat some years
ago, and since then they have flashed
their tiny signals longer distances than
that. Probably, in order to avert de-
partmental war. General Greeley will
say that he only claims that Glassford
has beaten the Signal Service record,
for if he says more there are several
California mountaineers who will dis
pute him. Heliotroping is done every
summer by parties under Professor
Davidson of the Coast Survey. The
men who do it are not necessarily
scientists, but only men with keen eyes
and good endurance. They've been
busy all the past summer surveying the
boundary line between Nevada and
California.
Professor Davidson does not begrudge
the Signal Service all the honors they
are entitled to, but he thinks it only
justice to the helpers in the Coast Sur
vey work in California to note the
priority of their long g-distance hello
trope work.
The longest lines upon which hello
trope signals have been observed by the
parties of the United States Coast and
Geodetic Survey lie in the line of the
transcontinental triangulation, rang
ing along the parallel of thirty mine de-
grees north, and in the Pacific Coast
main triangulation, lying between the
Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada.
In the triangulation through Utah
and Colorado some long lines have been
observed, especially that between
Mount Ellen, latitude 38 deg. min,
longitude 110 dge. 40 min., and Un-
compahgre, in latitude 38 deg. A min.
and longitude 10S deg. 20 min., is 1873
statute miles in length. Both sta
tions have been occupied by the part
of William Elmbeck of the Coast Sur
vey. At each station heliotroper was
posted to show signals to the observer
at the other station, and remained ON
duty more than month, until observa-
tions closed There is no difficulty in
such work, and no difficulty in the
heliotroper understanding the code of
signals which the observer establishes
for his direction. The code of signals
is made as simple as practicable, and
heliotropers think little or nothing of
the operations. Wherl they are expect
ing observations to be cloesd they are
wide awake for the signal that says
"We have finished" and Garry out
your instructions The heliotroper
may then either direct his heliotrope to
another station, or he may leave his
station and make his way to another
peak hundred and more miles away.
The duty is at times dangerous, be-
cause in thunder storms the electrical
discharges at the peak are terrific, and
sometimes instruments are injured
and observers have to fly from the
mountain top. Even at their camps
they are frequently badly effected by
the electrical discharges.
In the main triangulation between
the Sierra Nevada and the Coast
Ranges, long lines have been observed
upon heliotrope signals since 1878, and
in late number of the Buffalo ''Ex-
press, September s, Hon. Frank M.
Thorn, ex-Superintendent of the Coast
Survey, has called attention to the sig
Mailing on long lines, in letter upon
long distance signals. He says: ''In
the transcontinental triangulation now
approaching completion by the United
angles have been observed by signal
flashing with degree of accuracy and
along length of lines unrivaled in the
godetic work of any other nation. This
is partly due to the trained skill of our
observers, and partly to the excellent
opportunity for observing upon trian-
giles or other geometric figures of vast
extent afforded by the clear atmosphere
and lofty SUBMITS of the Rocky Noun
tains, the Sierra Nevada and the Coast
Ranges.
Even the purposed signalling of 1873
miles was surpassed fifteen years ago
by B. A. Colonna, of Professor David
sons party. From his interesting ac-
count of his Mount Shasta trip, printed
in the Overland Monthly. 1 quote:
81 turned my telescope in the direction
of Mount Lola, and there was the
heliotrope, 1863 miles off, shining like a
star of the first magnitude l gave a
few flashes from my own, and they
were answered at once by flashes from