Posted by Ed Kiser on January 01, 2003 at 04:00:22 from 205.188.209.46 user Kisered.
"South cone," he said. "When they hoist that in harbour it
means a storm from the south."
This is from Chapter 5, Winter Holiday.
This seems to suggest that there is some sort of OFFICIAL system of signalling wherein at least the CONE is used.
Here in Winter Holiday, they used the combination of the square/diamond, along with the north or south cone triangle. By various combinations of hanging these singly or together, one above the other, they were able to generate an assortment of signals that had some pre-agreed meaning.
This quoted line suggests that these signals are used elsewhere, thus indicating that their method of signaling from observatory to Mars is not a scheme that they invented, but one that is used elsewhere and just adapted with their own meanings for their own use.
My question is, are these two shapes (or just one of them) actually used for OFFICIAL purposes of signalling?
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P68 Chapter 5:
Nancy gave Dick and Dorothea their first lesson in flag-flapping and
showed them how to make a short flap for a dot and a long sweep
from side to side for a dash.
From the above quote it is not really clear just how these two signals are made.
The D's are being taught the skill of signalling by using a single flag.
This method of distinguishing the DOT from the DASH seems to be a bit different from that which I learned in the Boy Scouts, where we learned that swinging the flag to one side was a dot, and swinging it to the other side was a dash. One swing down in front was end of character, two down swings was an end of word.
Anybody have any official training in the art of signalling via one flag? Maybe you could shed some light on this discrepancy.
Ed Kiser, South Florida