heliograph

English

Etymology

From helio- +‎ -graph.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhiː.li.əˌɡɹæf/

Noun

heliograph (plural heliographs)

1. An apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight.
   • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 91:

     It was a lieutenant and a couple of privates of the 8th Hussars, with a stand like a theodolite, which the artilleryman told me was a heliograph.

   • 1919, Rudyard Kipling, “A Code of Morals”, in Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads:

     And Love had made him very sage, as Nature made her fair; / So Cupid and Apollo linked, per heliograph, the pair.

   • 1979, Alasdair Gray, “Five Letters From an Eastern Empire”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 93:

     when we stood up at nightfall we saw, in the sunset, the sparkle of the heliograph above cities, on the far side of the horizon.

2. A heliogram.
3. An instrument for measuring the intensity of sunlight.
4. A device for photographing the sun.
5. (obsolete) A photograph.

Derived terms

• heliographer
• heliographic
• heliography

Verb

heliograph (third-person singular simple present heliographs, present participle heliographing, simple past and past participle heliographed)

1. (transitive) To send a message by heliograph.
   • 1919, Rudyard Kipling, “A Code of Morals”, in Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads:

     With damnatory dot and dash he heliographed his wife / Some interesting details of the General's private life.

2. (intransitive) To send a heliograph.
3. (transitive, dated) To photograph by sunlight.

Further reading

• heliograph on Wikipedia.Wikipedia