3 ms·
Light on or off is a clear signal over a much longer distance than a light moving only a few feet. A simple candle can be seen a very long distance on a dark ni
by rtkwe 7y ago
Light on or off is a clear signal over a much longer distance than a light moving only a few feet. A simple candle can be seen a very long distance on a dark night but just moving it back and forth gets lost. There were no means of visual magnification available which is what makes semaphore possible over usable distances.
- ncmncm 7y agoSo, instead of waving the torch in the open you wave it next to a wall so it appears to go on and off. Same question.
- nkrisc 7y agoI thought the same as well. Clearly the ancient Greeks weren't morons so there's probably a reason they did it the way they did. Thinking about it more, their system is probably much easier for a novice to use, or some random soldier grabbed for signal duty. There's no need to count and keep track of torch waves. The synchronization protocol seems pretty simple and the process afterwards is equally simple. Hell, your soldier doesn't even need to know how to count, if that was even a problem for the Greeks.
- rtkwe 7y agoNow we need a wall on this random hilltop we're signaling from too. Fundamentally, a simpler signal is easier to decode and this only relies on sending two signals start and stop to encode many signals.