Survival Heliographs: When the sun is behind you.

        A few weeks ago a friend showed me a military heliograph he had. If I recall correctly it was part glass and like so much milspec equipment was surprisingly heavy. In my emergency kit I have an item that serves the same purpose. It was made from a polished stainless steel door finger plate. Unbreakable and a fraction of the weight and price of the military item.

        “You know how to use the sighting hole?” I asked. I explained that as you aimed the device by looking through the hole it would cast a spot of sunlight onto your face. The heliograph was mirrored on both sides so you could see the reflection of this spot of light in the near side. You then adjusted the mirror till the spot of sunlight moved back to the aiming hole. This gives you the optimum angle for directing sunlight in the aimed direction. 

        Another technique is simply to hold your hand up between you and your intended target. Some survival heliographs have a little stick you can aim at, but your finger or hand works fine. Angle the mirror until the sunlight shines on your hand, then drop your hand out of the way. This technique can be used with mirrors that lack an aiming hole or items that are only reflective on one side.

        One of the disadvantages of heliographs is that you cannot use them to signal in a direction where the sun is behind you. Or can you?

        I did some research. One of the interesting things about heliographs is that they only came into widespread use as a communication device in the 19^th century. There are some earlier accounts of signalling with light flashes from reflective objects but the true potential of this technique was not exploited. This is interesting since there is no real technological barrier that would have prevented messaging heliographs being invented centuries earlier. The Elizabethans, Tudors or Romans could easily have invented heliograph messaging. Some events in history might have been very different if such a rapid communication system had been available!

        Let us look at the setup of the British Mance heliograph. When the sun was before the signaller the signalling mirror was set up facing it. The operator looked into the mirror and moved it until he could see the reflection of his intended message destination.  He then erected a sight so that it was in line with the destination and its reflection in the mirror. Alternately the operator stood behind the mirror and looked through the hole in its centre, adjusting the sight until it was in line with the target. The mirror was then adjusted so that it cast its light on the sight. The centre of the Mance mirror was unglazed so it created a dark “shadow spot”. Positioning this shadow spot on the sight gave better alignment.

        If the sun was not in the same direction as the message destination the signal mirror was still set up so that it faced the sun. The sight was replaced with a second mirror, termed the “duplex” mirror. In some designs the duplex mirror might be on its own tripod, or might be a second single mirror heliograph.

        The duplex mirror was set so that there was a reflection of the intended target. Alternately the hold in the centre could be used to aim it at the target. The signalling mirror was then adjusted so it cast its light onto the duplex. The Mance manual suggests gumming a piece of paper onto the duplex to facilitate correctly placing the shadow spot. Any non-reflective object could be placed before the duplex with the same effect.

        By using a pair of reflectors heliograph positions could exchange information in both directions, even if the sun was behind one.

        Many survival manuals will tell you about signalling with heliographs. I have never seen on address what to do it the sun is behind you.

        There are various ways you can use this technique. “Mirror” in this context means anything that is reflective. A CD, a piece of foil, a mess tin, a polished knife blade, a piece of glass, a watch face, compass face or the screen or polished back of a phone. The reflector of your flashlight should not be overlooked!

        If your vehicle has broken down use your windscreen as a duplex reflector and a rear view mirror to direct the sunlight on to it.

        If you have a comrade have him hold a reflective object. Point your hand at his reflector and use your heliograph to cast sunlight onto it. Drop your hand out the way. Your comrade using the light cast on his own hand by his reflector to ensure it that it is aimed in the intended direction.

        If you are on your own, improvise by mounting the duplex on any natural or self-constructed suitable object.

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WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction.

I have been known to grumble that mosquitoes are a creature I would not be too worried about if they appeared on the endangered species list. Mosquitoes and gnats are more than just a pest. They spread diseases such as dengue fever, filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, malaria, West Nile virus, and yellow fever.

Understandably I have high hopes that this invention becomes widespread.

The comment about power supply is rather daft. This technology could easily be combined with solar power. Mosquitoes are a problem in urban areas too. I recall the unpleasant sight of a whole ferry bulkhead covered in mosquitoes in Venice. Hopefully mosquito lasers will become a common item of street furniture in tropical towns and cities. They would be a welcome feature of hotel rooms and bedrooms. And if they could also be programmed to zap ugly buzzing house flies too, so much the better!

 

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Chalk and Ziplocks.

Recently I have been encouraging my girlfriend to put together a small medical kit for her use. In a previous blog I mentioned that I came across a first aid pouch in the local 99p store. I would have paid that for just the pouch but it also came with a number of medical items. Not enough to constitute a full medical kit, but a useful start. I looked on line for something similar for my lady and came across a pouch that claimed to hold 23 medical items. The contents include 15 plasters of three different sizes and even a small set of scissors. Not a full medical kit, but a good starting point. I presented this to her with a handful of additional alcohol wipes and the suggestion that she add some painkillers.

At the same time I presented her with a bundle of ziplock bags. Many of the contents of this pouch are loose and would be vulnerable to water. Hence, ziplock bags.

A stock of such bags is recommended since many items of your travelling or emergency kit will need their additional protection. It is also a good idea to include some spare bags in your kit. Suppose, for an example, that you need to change location and need to leave a message for anyone that might come looking for you. A piece of paper from your notebook will not last long in the rain and the ink will run. A spare bag will solve this problem.

Of course, wet ink is not a problem if your kit includes a pencil. In similar vein I will pass on a tip that I encountered decades ago but that I do not often see repeated. This is to include some chalk in your kit. Chalk can be used to leave messages, mark locations and indicate routes. Ideally have a piece of light chalk and also a darker colour for contrast when writing on lighter surfaces.

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Pipe Firing Ports.

Being a Friday, today's post will be a little more abstract.

A friend of mine recently showed me a book of photos from the First World War. One image in particular caught my interest. Unfortunately it is not practical to scan the image. Instead I have found another photo showing the same points of interest. From the uniforms it is from the same time period and may even be the same trench section. Here is the photo.

 

 

What I find interesting is how firing ports have been created by simply burying a pipe in the rampart. Further along you can see that a rectangular firing slot has been created using planks, probably from shipping boxes.

In most trenches troops fire over the parapet or cut crenels to fire through. Some trenches do use firing slots but constructed in a parapet of sandbags. The approach seen in this photo is much simpler. There are no sandbags to reveal the exact position of the trench. No heads have to be raised above the parapet. There are no crenels that are obvious targets for suppressive fire. The outer ends of the pipes and slots are probably hard to discern.

A pipe would only provide a narrow field of fire but this is not a problem if they are arranged for mutually supporting interlocking fields of fire. At Iwo Jima may of the highly effective Japanese positions were constructed with a narrow field of fire. The only way they could be engaged was to attack head on, which put you within the firearc of many other positions.

One wonders what sort of sight picture firing down a pipe provides. Certainly light glinting off the sights would not be a problem!

Modern troops still use earthworks and I wonder how few use techniques as simple but effective as those shown above? If you have a hide from which you hunt sharp-eyed game the buried pipe(s) idea might be worth considering.

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