heliograph
Americannoun
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a device for signaling by means of a movable mirror that reflects beams of light, especially sunlight, to a distance.
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Astronomy. photoheliograph.
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Meteorology. an instrument for recording the duration and intensity of sunshine.
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Photography, Printing. an early type of photoengraving made on a metal plate coated with sensitized asphalt.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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an instrument with mirrors and a shutter used for sending messages in Morse code by reflecting the sun's rays
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a device used to photograph the sun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of heliograph
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Many of the instruments used in early operations of the United States Army Signal Corps were adaptations of equipment used by the Plains Indians, particularly that of the heliograph.
From SAT Tests
In the flash of heliograph signals in the North Sea haze and the speaking of great naval guns, the world has lately read a certain statement about the British Empire.
From Time Magazine Archive
The heliograph, too, was invariably set up, by which messages in cases of emergency could be despatched.
From Perils in the Transvaal and Zululand by H.C. Adams
Skeat's case the Boers took, besides his heliograph, a pair of presentation field glasses, which he subsequently recovered in the successful raid of Christmas Eve in another part of the country.
From Two Years on Trek Being Some Account of the Royal Sussex Regiment in South Africa by Louis Eug?ne du Moulin
Lewis had put his question as to the strange habits of the common moth to Merritt with the deliberate intent of closing the debate on death by heliograph.
From The Terror A Mystery by Arthur Machen
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
