Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-03-15


warriors of the Scotch highlands, re-
allied the Importance Of signal fires in
wartime and made use of code OF
fire flashes; but it was not until 1872
that Col. Colby, of the British royal
engineers, devised a more adequate
system for transmitting messages by
sun flashes. His method of doing this
was by mailing certain number or
pieces of bright tin on poles and ex-
posing them to the suns rays. Some
time later this was improved on by
the adoption of plain mirror. In 1888
an English officer at Gibraltar used an
ordinary lookingglass to reflect flashes
across the strait to Tangier, thereby
carrying on a long-distance converse
ton with other English officers in At
RIGA.
This mirror system was experiment
ed with and improved upon until the
year 1878, when the United States gov
eminent purchased the latest models
and began the instruction of special
signal corps in photography. The mill
tary value of such sun writing was
we'll known when, in 1886, Gen. Miles
began his Indian campaign against
Geronimo. II the truth were only
known, it was the Photograph more
than anything else that led to the
rounding up and capture OF the IA
nous blood drinking red man. One
can imagine the surprise of the lndi-
ans when they found that they could
not move without the fact being
known to the Americans and the
movement mysteriously anticipated.
Signal parties, in fact, were flashing
hourly information from mountain
peak to mountain peak, and the In
dian warriors headquarters were al
ways known at Miles camp. Through
the use of the heliograph Geronimo
was kept away from water by rapidly
stationed and mobile bands of troops
and was finally really parched into
submission.
The English army had already been
making use of the heliograph in AZ
ghanistan, and during the Boer war
of twenty years ago made effective
use of the Nance photographic appa-
ratus The great service this means
of communication has been to the diff
ferent British commanders besieged
by the Beers in the present South At
rican war is very we'll known.
The field photographic apparatus, as
used today, consists Of a sole leather
pouch containing a sun mirror and a
station mirror, small screen or shut
ter, a sighting rod and two small tri-
pod stands for the mirrors. The entire
apparatus does not weigh over ten
pounds and can easily be carried over
the arm When 1t Is desired to send
a message the sun mirror is placed on
one end of thin rod three feet in
length with the station mirror at the
other end, the bar being held by the
tripod. When the sun Is in front of
the operator-that Is to say, in front
of a plane through his position and
at right angles to the lines joining
the stations-the sun mirror is re-
quired for dispatching. But with the
sun in the rear OF this plane both mir
rors must be used to produce satisfac-
tory results.
When the sun mirror only is used,
the light flash is sent directly to the
receiving station, the mirror having
a small hole in its center like the hole
in the globe sight of rifle for the
purpose of aiming and adjusting the
ray. The station mirror has a small
disk at the center, and when the two
mirrors are used they must be so ad-
justed that the shadow from the center
of the sun mirror shall be reflected
against the small disc on the face of
the station mirror. In making signals
long and short sun flashes take the
place of the dots and dashes of the
magnetic sounder, the same call be-
ing generally used for both instru-
ments. When the air Is clear, signals
may be taken by the naked eye at a
distance of 100 miles, and by an ex-
pert at the rate Of fifteen words a
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