heliograph

plural heliographs

1. An apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight.

   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.

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

   2 more examples

   Now Jones had left his new-wed bride to keep his house in order, / And hied away to the Hurrum Hills above the Afghan border, / To sit on a rock with a heliograph; but ere he left he taught / His wife the working of the Code that sets the miles at naught. / And Love had made him very sage, as Nature made her fair; / So Cupid and Apollo linked, per heliograph, the pair.

   1886, Rudyard Kipling, “[Departmental Ditties] A Code of Morals”, in Departmental Ditties […], New York, N.Y.: M. F. Mansfield & A. Wessels, published 1899, →OCLC

   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.

   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

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

present singular third person heliographs · participle present heliographing · participle past heliographed · past heliographed

1. transitiveTo send a message by heliograph.

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

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

2. intransitiveTo send a heliograph.
3. datedtransitiveTo photograph by sunlight.
4. figurativelyTo message or indicate as though by heliograph.

   'Oh yes, you're Mr Bryce. Cabana Number One, right down on the beach. Mr Leiter's been expecting you since lunchtime. And...?' She heliographed with her pince-nez towards Solitaire. 'Mrs Bryce,' said Bond.

   1954, Ian Fleming, “The Everglades”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 125