beacons

[franksolich]

I just got done reading a book about England during the Dark Ages.

By the way, there exists startling similarities between Ethelred the Unready ("unready" in this sense meaning "uncounseled") and Pa Kettle in the White House; in fact, one can predict Pa Kettle's foreign policy strategy by reading of Ethelred's.

Anyway.

There is much mention of military communications during this period (say, circa 500-1066 A.D.), which was facilitated by lighting beacons.  Apparently it took a rider on a fast horse four days to get from the North of England to London, but with the use of beacons, messages could be carried that same distance within half a day.

However, the book is vague about exactly what "beacons" were; it gives the impression they were a series of free-standing bonfires located every so far apart, but that can't quite be it.

Whatever they were, was there some sort of "code," perhaps? 

It had to be something different from Native American smoke signals.

Whether by day or by night, I can't see where such was effective communication, unless it was the general "we're in trouble, send help" sort of message.  It doesn't seem to me long detailed messages, or even short detailed messages, could've been done this way.

Anybody have any idea?

Whatever it was, it worked--but what was it, and how did it work?

[franksolich]

This cross-posted at

http://www.freerepublic.c...s/f-vetscor/2327146/posts

in case anyone wishes to read reader comments from over there, too, if any comments gotten.

[Mr Snuggle Bunny]

J R R Tolkien was a big middle ages buff.

Perhaps the inspiration for the lighting of the beacons in Return of the King.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Such things normally have a pre-arrnaged meaning, much like "One of by land, two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore shall be."  Absent the advanced arrangement of meaning, those lanterns would have meant nothing.

There are several means of conveying more complex messages than lighting a single fire, such as having two (an elementary binary system), or being able to use a single fire and occlude the light periodically with a screen, or add a substance to alter the color of the flame.

In Napoleonic times, I believe, there was a system of telegraph towers across France to convey vital news; "Telegraph" did not mean an electrified Morse code system, which did not yet exist, it meant a system of semaphore towers relaying complex messages with two moving arms similar to the way sailors still do (and it is the origin of the two signal flags which are the branch insignia of the Army's Signal Corps).  Especially in the Indian Wars, the Army used the heliograph (Flashing light signals from mirrors, using sunlight) which was well-suited to the bright sun of the Southwest and with a much-greater visual range than semaphore flags.

Aethelred is known as 'The Unready' due to a quirk of language.  In the proto-English spoken by the Saxons, "Rede" had to do with speech or counsel, like and related to "Raada" in Norse (Like Harald Hardraada).  The actual Saxon moniker was something like Aethelred Unrede, meaning "...Ill-advised," it became mutated into "...Unready" by modern English-speakers.