About Heliograph Signalling
A heliograph is a mirror that talks. Mance built the first one in 1869 on survey duty at Karachi: a five-inch silvered glass, an unsilvered centre spot, U-arms with tangent and elevation screws, a shutter key, a leather case, a wooden tripod. Seven pounds of issued kit.
Everything here comes from that. Khaki ground because the uniform and the hillside were the same dust. One yellow that is either on or off. Straight rules because the beam spreads about fifty feet per mile and goes where it is aimed or nowhere at all.
- Origin
- British India and the North-West Frontier — Karachi, the frontier passes, Tirah
- Era
- 1869 invented; adopted by the Government of India 1875; in service through the early 20th century
- Key figures
- Henry Christopher Mance · Justus von Liebig
- Movements
- Victorian military signalling · Great Trigonometrical Survey · optical telegraphy
Heliograph Signalling design spec
Colors
Typography
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