Heliograph

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The Sun-Writer

The Heliograph, or sun-writer, is a form of visual telegraph which transmits coded signals by reflecting sunlight from a mirror, in the form of a series of flashes. This flash is created by a “keying” or tilting of a small mirror with a centered translucent viewing lens, mounted upon a tripod and directed toward the receiving location by aligning the viewing lens with the sighting vane. Though the technology dates back to the Native Americans in a primitive form (“As Told by Heliograph”, 213), the most prolific form of the Heliograph was a model invented by Henry C. Mance of the British Army in 1876 for field operation, distinct for it's portability, rifle scope sighting vein and regularized tilting mirror (Journal of the Society of the Arts, 163). The Heliograph can be seen as a remediation of the physical transfer of information over space, such a telegram, into an optical mode of transfer. Developed to increase the range and speed of communication, the advances achieved by the complex and precarious Heliographic system are in fact accompanied by profound limitations.