Antique Heliograph 1880 BS&M Roorke MK3 with Stand, Leather Bag and Accessories

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Antique Helograph 1880 Bengal Sappers and Miners (BS&M) Roorkee MK3 with Stand Leather Bag and Accessories Item Description Wow, what a piece this find is. Recently picked up at an auction, this heliograph (signalling device) dates back to 1880 and was made in Roorkee, India while it was still a part of the British empire. The heliograph would have been made in the year after the Anglo-Zulu wars of 1879. The mirrors are intact in the 3 pieces that came with this piece. The leather bag is in amazingly good shape for something of this age. Center strap is gone, but bag is pretty much intact and still a lining in it. No markings on the leather bag that I can see. The main mirror is 4-9/16" across to the brass lip that comes across it. Then 5-16" across the lip to the side of the brass piece that the mirror is mounted in. The back of the main mirror that screws onto the top of the stand has the following on the back of it "122 S&M Shops, Roorkee, 1880, C.S.A.S.B." There should be a "B" in front of the S&M, for the Bengals Sappers and Miners, but that is pretty much worn off. Not sure if the "122" is like a serial number or stands for something else. Have not been able to figure out what the C.S.A.S.B. stands for. Anyone out there know what those initials stand for, so that I might share that with the eBayer community? The brass that holds the mirror in in this main piece is loose from the brass on the sides about a third away around on the front where the mirror is. The legs and brass ends on the tripod stand still look very good as well. One of the brass ends on one of the legs has "Stand Lamp or Helio A MK III" on it at the top and "PB&S ..." at bottom of that same brass piece. There probably was more where the ... is, but again too worn off to read. There are some cracks in the brass ends on the tripod stand, but appears that the unit is still holding together well. There would have been straps between the legs to secure them when in use, but no longer there. The tripod is a little over 37" tall when legs spread out and set up. Not sure what type of wood the legs are made of. Another eBayer and myself think the tripod stand is newer than the heliograph itself. Might even be as recent as WWII. You be the judge as I am no expert in this great piece of history. The main mirror does screw onto the top of the tripod stand perfectly. Here is a Wikipedia article on what a heliograph was used for; Heliograph From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search This article is about the signalling device. For other uses, see Heliograph (disambiguation) . Fig. 1: Signaling with a Mance heliograph, 1910. A heliograph ( Greek : Ἥλιος helios , meaning "sun", and γραφειν graphein , meaning "write") is a wireless solar telegraph that signals by flashes of sunlight (generally using Morse code ) reflected by a mirror . The flashes are produced by momentarily pivoting the mirror, or by interrupting the beam with a shutter. The heliograph was a simple but effective instrument for instantaneous optical communication over long distances during the late 19th and early 20th century. Its main uses were military, survey and forest protection work. Heliographs were standard issue in the British and Australian armies until the 1960s, and were used by the Pakistani army as late as 1975. [1 ] Contents 1 Description 2 History 3 Heliographs in fiction 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Description Fig. 2: German Heliograph made by R. Fuess in Berlin (on display at the Museum of Communication in Frankfurt). There were many heliograph types. Most heliographs were variants of the British army Mance Mark V version (Fig.1). It used a mirror with a small unsilvered spot in the centre. The sender aligned the heliograph to the target by looking at the reflected target in the mirror and moving his head until the target was hidden by the unsilvered spot. Keeping his head still, he then adjusted the aiming rod so its cross wires bisected the target. [2 ] He then turned up the sighting vane, w... read more

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