Multitool.org Forum
Tool Talk => Swiss Army Knights Forum => Topic started by: marduk on January 06, 2013, 08:44:08 PM
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Recent mention was made of the fish hook in the Vic Survival Kit. This reminded me of the the signaling mirror found in both the large Survival Kit (1.8812) & the smaller SOS Kit (1.8810). Actually, its a simplified form of heliograph, the giveaway is the hole in the mirror for sighting. The heliograph was used on a large scale by the US army during the Plains Indian Wars in the latter half of the l9th century by the Signal Corps. It was about a 3 or so foot high tripod w/a mirror & shutter on another tripod & made a distinct clicking noises between the mirror & shutter (used to block the mirror for distinguishing between dots & dashes) as it transmitted messages using a modified form of the Morse Code.
I'm attaching the English & German of Vic's instructions on how to use the mirror as a heliograph.
Although no longer politically correct to refer to the "Indian Wars," I remember the US Army issued a medal and a ribbon (brown) that old timers wore w/their salad dressings.
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Thanks for the instructions, I can't remember if I've seen them before.
I disagree with classifying the device though as a heliograph, it is simply a small signal mirror. A proper signal mirror has a sighting mechanism, such as the hole in the center. Of course there is some relationship between the heliograph and the general signal mirror.
I uploaded a cleaner version of the instructions to the wiki (http://www.sakwiki.com/show_image.php?id=2597).
:salute:
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I should have mentioned in my description of the signal mirror that Vic offers a two-sided mirror as an option, 4.0508.41, in order to more accurately aim the light on the target. The standard one-sided mirror that comes w/the kit has a rather dull reverse.
PS: A special thanks to ICFT for providing a much cleaner copy of the instructions & for including it in Wiki.
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"Signal mirror: Hold one hand out in front of you and sight the target of your signal (airplane, ship, mountaintop) through a gap in your fingers; in your other hand hold the knife a couple inches in front of your sighting eye and, looking just past the edge of the blade, shine a reflection of the sun’s rays on your first hand, then flash this light back and forth across the gap in your fingers to the target. The heliograph as a communications device dates back to the Greeks of the time of Plato, circa 4oo BC, and was still in use even after Hertz and Marconi’s 1890s transmission of information by radio waves: by signalmen in isolated mountain regions during The War to End All Wars, by the U.S. and Canadian Forest Services into the 1940s, by the Australian and British armies into the 1960s, and by the mountain tribal Afghan resistance during the Soviet war of the 1980s."
p 151 The SAK Owner's Manual