Smoke Signal

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A smoke signal is a form of optical communication used over a long distance, developed both in the Americas and in China. By covering a fire with a blanket and quickly removing it, a vapor of smoke can be generated. With some training, the sizes, shapes, and timing of these puffs can be controlled. Puffs may be observed from long distance, apparent to anyone within its visual range. With this in mind, signaling stations were often created to maximize the viewable distance. Stone bowls used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas and the towers of the Great Wall of China are examples of signaling stations.

There is no standardized code for smoke signals; the signals are often of a predetermined pattern discerned by sender and receiver. Because of this, smoke signals tend to only convey simple messages, and are a limited form of communication.

Examples Yámana Yaghans used fire to send messages by smoke signals, for instance if a whale drifted ashore.Gusinde 1966:137–139, 186 The large amount of meat required notification of many people, so that it would not decay.Itsz 1979:109 They might also have used smoke signals on other occasions, thus it is possible that Magellan saw such fires (which inspired him to name the landscape Tierra del Fuego) but maybe he saw the smokes or lights of natural phenomena. The Patagonian Canoe. Extracts from the following book. E. Lucas Bridges: Uttermost Part of the Earth. Indians of Tierra del Fuego. 1949, reprinted by Dover Publications, Inc (New York, 1988).

Noon Gun

Noon Gun#Time signalling time signalling used to set marine chronometers in Table Bay.

Notes

References

Translation of the original: Title means: “Stone of sun”; chapter means: “The land of burnt-out fires”.