Posted by Jock on March 07, 2012 at 04:05:33 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: What should we assume? posted by Roger Wardale on March 07, 2012 at 01:41:08:
I absolutely agree. AR was interested in such details himself and the books of the SA series contain numerous drawings and textual explanations as to how things worked.
As to the use of the word 'flashing', it is (regardless of any current colloquial meaning) a technical term which was used in AR's time, and is still used, to describe the behaviour of intermittent lights on buoys and lighthouses (cf. 'occulting') and would have naturally occurred to AR as the word that fitted best in the circumstances.