Not all of us would know alot about these. Heliographs communication was used by a mirror with a small sighting hole in the center. The sender would look through this hole. It limited to use only in sunlight. The first recorded Heliograph was in 405 BC. When the Ancient Greeks used polished sheilds to signal in battle. The heliograph signals were very effective in the 1800s and were always used during wars. The signals though weren't accurate enough, because the sky has to be clear in order to see the signal. The flash of the signal could be seen nearly 30 miles away with a naked eye. The record is 183 miles.
I never knew that communication with mirrors was ever used on a large scale, such as in a war. This just shows yet another example of human ingenuity, using nature to overcome technological hurdles. Don't have a radio, no problem, just polish up some glass and reflect some signals using the sun's light in some form of recognizable code. I am constantly amazed at how smart people in ancient times were. Modern military radios probably don't even have a range of 183 miles...that heliograph is simply incredible.
ReplyDeleteThe heliograph was probably one of the more simple yet efficient forms of communication that was used all the through the 1900's. I would have to say that it worked very well except when weather conditions like rain prevented it from being used. Since the heliograph was mainly used during war to send signals across large distances in which timely communication was extremely important it is of no surprise to me that we no longer use this; as technology evolved and gave us as a society more efficient ways of communicating.
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