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Admiralty Telegraph.

racters have been fuffered to flip out of the world, without any record being fet up, of what they were, and what they had done. This neglect is to be feelingly deplored.

When we read the labours of literary men, in particlar, we are naturally defirous to know fomething of their manner of life, where they first drew the vital air, and what circumftances of fortune characterized their days. And yet of how few, comparatively fpeaking, can we enjoy this kind of fatisfaction!

On looking over the names of the British authors and artifts, I am really aftonished and grieved at the great number, of whom no other memorial remains than the fimple catalogue of their works.

It were, then, devoutly to be wifhed, that fome inquifitive perfons would take up this defideratum, and endeavour to fill up the numerous chafins in the Biographical Hiftory of Great Britain.

Though many might ftill efcape all difcovery, and be remembered no other wife than as men, who deferved better attention from their cotemporaries, and

[March,

their immediate furvivors, yet the application would be productive of fome fruit with refpect to others. Enquiries made on the fpots where they were born, lived, or were buried, would be attended, we fhould fuppofe, with fome information; and though that fhould be but fcanty, it would be far better than total oblivion. By bringing forward even these scraps of intelligence, additional illustration might be given to characters and to circumftances. Befides, thefe informations might fall in the way of readers, poffeffed of fome knowledge on the fubject, who from the perutal, it is not unlikely, would be induced to contribute alfo their atoms of discovery.

I beg, therefore, Sir, to call the attention of your numerous readers, to the confideration of this interefting and entertaining fubject; and hope, through the channel of your refpectable Publication, that British Biography, in particular, will receive fome additional and valuable materials.

I am,
&c.
London, March 18, 1796.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ADMIRALTY TELEGRAPH.
(With an Engraved Representation of the fame.)

J. W.

will fhew a fucceffion of clouds of fmoke, rifing, at proper intervals, in the air. The obferver notes the number of times that the fmoke rifes without a confiderable interval, fuppofe three times, and he then writes down the number three: after an interval determined on by the parties, the fmoke rises again, we will fuppofe four times; he writes down the number four, and has now the number 34 to communicate by fignals to the next poft. At night this is done by the fucceffive appearance and difappearance of fire, or by the firing of cannon; and at sea, a colour placed on a particlar part of the fhip, may denote a number.

TH HE art of conveying intelligence from one place to another by fignals is of very ancient date, and many of our hills fill retain the name of the beacon-hills, from the fignals, which used to be made upon them. Fire and fmoke were by land the chief things employed; the fire by night, and the finoke by day and within a very few years, fignals made by them were very common amongst the fmugglers on our coafts. In the navy, fignals were, in general, made by the firing of cannon, or the pofition of colours on different parts of the fhip. Sometimes the meaning of a figual is afcertained by the continuance or difappearance of fire and fmoke in a particular In making fignals by numbers, it is place, or by the firing of a certain num. fuppofed, that the perfons at two remote ber of guns, or particular pofition of a places, have a fentence, or word, anfwercolour; and in other cafes the whole art ing to every number which is to be of making fignals is reduced to very eafy denoted by thefe fignals, and in that principies. In the day-time, the fmoke cafe, the laft perfon who receives the on a particular hill may give notice to an fignal has nothing to do but to refer obferver on the next hill, that a com- to his book for the meaning of the fignal munication is to be made; he of course made to him; or in the day-time at fea, will answer it by fmoke, to fhew that he the meaning of colours at different is upon his watch. The fmoke will places, as afcertained by agreement. then difappear on both hills by a cover the number denoted by the fucceffive being placed over the fire, which, being firing of guns, or appearance of smoke taken off and put on again repeatedly, or fire, may, if it is a large number, be

As

1

1796.]

and so on.

Admiralty Telegraph.

liable to mistake, a learned profeffor in Germany propofed to fhorten the numbers employed, by using the quaternary inftead of the decennary arithmetic. Thus, according to his fyftem, the units were placed as in common arithmetic; a figure in the next place to the left hand was inftead of a ten, or a multiple of ten, four, or a multiple of four, denoted by the figure; in the third place, the figure denoted a multiple of 4 or 16, Thus, to write down 95, he placed his figures thus, 1133, the three in the place of units denoted three; the next three denoted 3 X 4, or 12; the next figure 1, denoted 4 or 16; the next figure 1, denoted 4 or 64; confequently 1133, in the quaternary arithmetic, was equivalent to 95 in the common arithmetic. The advantage gained by thus changing the figures, is this; in making the fignal 95, there must be fourteen firings or appearances of fmoke, which, in the other mode, is done by eight firings, confequently time is gain ed in the firings, and there is lefs danger of miscounting fo fmall a number, as three; and, in this arithmetic, a greater number never appears.

Thefe numbers may alfo reprefent the letters of the alphabet, and thus words may be made, or the words of a dictionary may be numbered; and thus fentences may be communicated, from one perfon to another, by this mode of making fignals.

There is an inconvenience attending the making of fignals by numbers. The meaning of every number must be previ oufly agreed on; and unless in the cafe of a dictionary, which has never been practifed, if any thing new occurs, it cannot be communicated by the fignals. To remedy this inconvenience, the French made ufe of a new mode, the invention of which they afcribe to themfelves, but their pretenfions to the merit of the difcovery, may be juftly called in question. By means of fome upright poles and cross-bars, they had different figures for every letter in the alphabet, and others to mark abbreviations or words. Thefe were placed at proper ftations, and in the day-time were feen through telescopes, and the pofition of the bars at one place, was repeated through all the ftations with wonderful celerity.

The advantages derived from this mode of communicating intelligence, was, like most other things, firft laughed at, and then adopted, in England. Upon the admiralty, is erected a frame, not

133

like the poles and bars of the French, but with fix moveable octagonal frames, by the change in the pofition of which, any letter may be made, and in certain pofitions a variety of things may be fignified, according to the will of the perfons at the two extreme pofts, employed in making the fignals. Thus one frame being in an horizontal pofition, and the others fhut, or in a perpendicular fituation, may denote the letter a; two frames only being in an horizontal pofition, may give the letter b; three in the fame manner, the letter c, and fo on. As there may be made as many changes with thefe frames, as with the fame number of bells, the letters of the alphabet may be made with cafe, and a fufficient number of fignals may be formed for extraordinary purposes.

The annexed plate reprefents one of thefe fignal-frames. The octagons marked, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, all move on an axis, are raifed perpendicular, as 2, 3, 4, 5, and returned to their original station as 1, 6, by means of the ropes A fixed at the ends of the cross-bars B, which are attached to the extremities of the axles C, on which the octagons move; to each cross-bar, there are attached two ropes ; one at each extremity at one end to raise the octagon perpendicular, and at the other to return it: thefe ropes pafs through the roof of the house into the room D, where perfons are ftationed continually to watch and work the machine. Similar frames are erected on a chain of pofts, from London to Deal; and it is faid, that administration by means of thefe fignal-pofts, obtained very early intelligence of the failing of the Dutch fleet, and by the fame mode conveyed its orders to the admiral in the Downs. That this may be done, we cannot doubt, in clear weather; but if there is a mift or fog in the heavens, there is an end to the obfervations, and it does not appear that they have any plan for repeating the fignals at night. Mr. Northmore has, indeed, propofed a plan, which feems to be as eafy in its conftruction and management, as by the prefent frames. He propofes to have Argand's lamps, placed in a proper manner, and by fimilar changes in their pofition, letters and other fignals may be denoted. But, probably, before any attempt is made to bring night-fignals into ufe, the admiralty will wish to be expert in the management, and convinced of the ufe, of the fignal-frames upon their prefent construction.

ORIGINAL

( 134 )

ORIGINAL POETRY.