Smoke signal

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For other uses, see Smoke signal (disambiguation).
Native Americans on a painting by Frederic Remington
Native Americans on a painting by Frederic Remington

A smoke signal is a form of visual communication used over a long distance, developed in the North American Indians.

By covering a fire with a blanket and quickly removing it, a puff of smoke can be generated. With some training, the sizes, shapes, and timing of these puffs can be controlled. Puffs may be observed from a long distance, and are apparent to anyone in visual range. With this in mind, signaling stations were often created to maximize the viewable distance. Examples of signaling stations include stone bowls used by Native Americans and the towers of the Great Wall of China.

There is no standardized code for smoke signals; the signals are often of a predetermined pattern discerned by sender and receiver.[citation needed] Because of this, smoke signals tend to convey only simple messages, and are a limited form of communication.

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[edit] Examples

[edit] Yámana

Yámanas used fire to send messages by smoke signals, for instance if a whale drifted ashore.[1] The large amount of meat required notification of many people, so that it would not decay.[2] They might also have used smoke signals on other occasions, thus it is possible that Magellan saw such fires (which inspired him to name the landscape Tierra del Fuego) but he may have seen the smoke or lights of natural phenomena.[3]

[edit] Noon Gun

[edit] Australian Aborigines

Australian Aborigines would send up smoke to notify others of their presence, particularly when entering lands which were not their own. However, these were not complex signals; smoke simply told others where you were located. [4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Gusinde 1966:137–139, 186
  2. ^ Itsz 1979:109
  3. ^ The Patagonian Canoe. Extracts from the following book. E. Lucas Bridges: Uttermost Part of the Earth. Indians of Tierra del Fuego. 1949, reprinted by Dover Publications, Inc (New York, 1988).
  4. ^ Myers, 1986: 100

[edit] References

  • Gusinde, Martin (1966). Nordwind—Südwind. Mythen und Märchen der Feuerlandindianer (in German). Kassel: E. Röth. 
  • Itsz, Rudolf (1979). "A kihunyt tüzek földje", Napköve. Néprajzi elbeszélések (in Hungarian). Budapest: Móra Könyvkiadó, 93–112.  Translation of the original: Итс, Р.Ф. (1974). Камень солнца (in Russian). Ленинград: Издательство «Детская Литература».  Title means: “Stone of sun”; chapter means: “The land of burnt-out fires”.
  • Myers, Fred (1986). Pintupi Country, Pintupi Self. USA: Smithsonian Institution.