page_title: Heliograph
hierarchical_section_title: Heliograph
caption_attribution_description: English: heliograph - Signaling with heliograph near Monument 92. Alaska - Canada border. International Boundary Commission
context_page_description: A heliograph is a wireless telegraph that signals by flashes of sunlight reflected by a mirror. The flashes are produced by momentarily pivoting the mirror, or by interrupting the beam with a shutter. The heliograph was a simple but effective instrument for instantaneous optical communication over long distances during the late 19th and early 20th century. Its main uses were military, survey and forest protection work. Heliographs were standard issue in the British and Australian armies until the 1960s, and were used by the Pakistani army as late as 1975.
context_section_description: A heliograph (helios (Greek: ἥλιος), meaning "sun", and graphein (γράφειν), meaning "write") is a wireless telegraph that signals by flashes of sunlight (generally using Morse code) reflected by a mirror. The flashes are produced by momentarily pivoting the mirror, or by interrupting the beam with a shutter. The heliograph was a simple but effective instrument for instantaneous optical communication over long distances during the late 19th and early 20th century. Its main uses were military, survey and forest protection work. Heliographs were standard issue in the British and Australian armies until the 1960s, and were used by the Pakistani army as late as 1975.
caption: Fig. 1: Signaling with a Mance heliograph, 1910
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