Washington sentinel., 1898-02-12
Ancient Methods OF Signalling.
CoyShiH Magazine.

Probably the earliest and sim
plest form OF long distance signal
ling is that by beacon fires. In
cIiira ates where the atmosphere is
unusually llear and the country
not too fiat, this method can gen.
orally be relied upon for forward
ing clear signals Of smoke by day
and light by night. Thus, in
Holy Writ, Jeremiah refers to the
former and Isaiah to the latter; in
deed, the use of beacons may al
most be said to be "as old as the
hills" on whose tops they are
placed. Relays OF torch holders
were also frequently employed by
the ancients.
According to KschYlus, the TAX
ing OF Troy-alter its ten years
siege by Agememnon three thou
sand years ago-was made known
in Greece to his wife, Queen ely
temnestra, by beacons lighted on
Mounts Ida, Athos, Cith9ron and
other intervening heights. FIRE
signals were also used by Mardon.
ius in the time Of Xerxes, and
are mentioned frequently in
Thucyd.des. We read that sig
mailing by light was turned to a
very tender purpose by Hero, the
beautiful priestess OF Venus, in her
love for Leander, to whom she dis
played a lamp in her tower at Ses-
tos whenever he was to swim
across the Hellespont from Aby-
dos to see her. But one night the
lamp was blown out-he was
drowned, and she then threw her
self into the waves. Theseus, in
the Argonautic expedition, adopted
another form OF visual signals
namely, the colors of the sails
hoisted, but killed his father
through a telegraphic error; for,
flushed with victory, he forgot his
signal, and old Kgeus, seeing the
black sail, and feeling sure his SON
was dead, flung himself into the
sea.
1t was these wideawake people
also who employed the clepsYdra
a very clever contrivance, for night
communications afar. This inven-
iion was attributed to the tecticIan
Arnias. 1t consisted of a tall YES
sci containing water, which was
let out slowly by tap on the bot
tom; on the water fioated cork
disk, carrying a guage with divis
ions down the side, and on each
division a separate sentence was
incribed. Each sig gnalling point had
one ofthese contrivances; and on a
light being shown from one station
it was acknowledged by the other
and each clepsydra opened at the
same moment. When the surface
OF the water receded to the sentence
required, the signalling station
again showed a light, when the
other stopped the outflow and
read the words inscribed at the
water level upon the correspond
ing gauge.
Hannibal erected watch towers
in Africa and SPAN to signal from;
and whenever the Romans ex-
tended their conquests into Gaul,
Spain, or elsewhere, they made use
OF similar signalling devices. A
representation OF one oi their tele-
graph towers is engraved on Ira"
Ian's Column. These towers, the
ruins of which are still to be seen
in various parts Of France, very
likely suggested the idea of aerial
telegraphy to the brothers Chappe
and other inventors of the eigh-
teenth century. But for the abb
sence Of fieldglasses, the Romans
might, and not improbably would,
have developed the same (sema-
phore) system as thar of their
modern successors.
Polybius perfected an alphabet
cal method Of camp signals, sup
posed to have originated by Cleox-
enes. The letters OF the alphabet
were divided into FIVE or six sec
tons, with columns corresponding
to each. The number OF the letter
at a given moment signalled from
each column was indicated by the
number Of torches held up. Julius
Africanus describes a somewhat
similar system in which the letters
were divided into three sections