Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/259

 10 s. XL MAK. 13, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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have thought it so. I can, however, offer no other solution.

There is a small slip of the pen in T. R.'s note. ' Amos Barton ' was not published in The Corrihill in 1857, as the first number of that magazine did not appear till Decem- ber, 1859. If I may trust to a somewhat rusty memory, the story first saw the light in Blackwood, in which also another candidate for H the future Sir Edward Hamley originally published, I think, his very popular novel ' Lady Lee's Widowhood.'

If in order, I might inquire, in connexion with another Roundabout Paper, What was the joke that Thackeray once heard from the late Thomas Hood ?

W. F. PBIDEAUX.

Grand Hotel, Locarno.

SEMAPHORE SIGNALLING (10 S. xi. 168). W. C. J. questions the possibility of a state- ment made by me in ' Highways and By- ways in Surrey ' as to the rapidity of sema- phore signalling. I ought, perhaps, to have given my authority for the statement. It is to be found in a note appended by Pitt Cobbett to the passage quoted by me in ' Highways and Byways ' from ' Rural Rides.' The note is on p. 361, vol. i. of the edition in two volumes published by Reeves & Turner in 1885. I quote from the note :

" Semaphores consisted of towers, built at intervals of from five to ten miles on elevated positions. On the top of the tower was the semaphore apparatus, at first consisting of wooden arms, as signals, which opened and closed. The hour of one, by Greenwich tune, was always communicated to Portsmouth when the ball fell at Greenwich, and this was so quickly done by the semaphores, that the sign from Greenwich to Portsmouth and back again to Greenwich, only occupied three-fourths of a minute."

The distance is 85 miles. If there were a dozen semaphores, that would give each nearly two seconds to send on the signal which would be quick work, but not im- possible. ERIC PARKER.

The subjoined extract from the ' Liverpool Pictorial Handbook,' published about 1845, will show that the semaphore signals were passed as quickly as is stated in ' Highways and Byways in Surrey ' :

" At this Lighthouse [Bidston, Liverpool] the Telegraph is worked which communicates with Liverpool, Eastward and nine other stations, to Holyhead, Westward. It was erected in 1827.

" The Telegraph used in this establishment has six arms or indicators, capable of representing numbers to almost any extent ; these arms are set in motion by a very ingenious contrivance. The machine has a number of sheaves of different sizes ; to these a rope or haulyard, attached to

each arm, is fixed, and by one revolution of a which the whole six arms are at once set in motion, and each arrives at its destination at the same instant, whether representing an angle of elevation, an angle of depression, or a horizontal line. The line from station to station is about 72 miles, and the average distance between each station about 8 \ miles.

" The rapidity with which signals pass is almost inconceivable. Every day at one o'clock a signal is made to regulate the timepieces at the different stations and to ask the question at Holyhead ' if there is anything to report.' This signal is made exactly as the clock strikes one, and the answer ' yes ' or ' no ' is frequently received within half a minute ; the shortest time on record is 18 seconds, a distance there and back of 144 miles."

Of course the whole system was dependent upon the state of the atmosphere, and I suppose, in case o* fog, could scarcely be worked at all. A. H. ARKLE.

A message sent from London to Ports- mouth in a few seconds, by means of the semaphore surmounting Wallingford House in Whitehall, must, I think, have been impossible. In ' Old and New London ' we are told that

during the great war against Napoleon, and for several years subsequently, a message could be sent by this ' telegraph,' on fine days and in clear weather, to Portsmouth and to one or two other stations, hi an hour, or even in less tune." Vol. iii. p. 383.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

The use of semaphores was introduced into England from France by Lord George Murray in 1795. One of the first lines to be established was between London and Ports- mouth. The several stations comprising this route were as follows : Square tower at the end of High Street, Portsmouth, commanding a view of the harbour, Solent, and Spithead (the semaphore on this tower was erected some time after the remainder) ; Sox thsea Beach, jlose to where the Clarence Pier now stands ; Portsdown Hill ; Comp- ton Down ; Beacon, Holder, Haste, Bannide, Pearly, Chately, and Cooper's Hills ; Kings- ton ; Putney ; Chelsea ; and the Ad- miralty. The first message occupied twenty minutes, but as the operators became more expert in signalling, a brief message was dispatched and an answer received in less than a minute.

The late Rev. G. "NT. Godwin (The Hamp- shire Antiquary and Naturalist, vol. i. p. 93) stated that Greenwich time was sent to Portsmouth daily in 45 seconds, and that there were in all 67 signals, representing letters, figures, and phrases. The last message along that line was sent on 31 Dec., 1847. F. K. P.