lii 



their advance on Mukden had half a mil- 

 lion of men with a front extending 

 about 100 miles. The whole of those 

 500,0'00 men must have operated on a cou- 

 cerbed plan; every section of that army 

 had to be at the right place at the right 

 time, and then do the right thing, to 

 which end a system of telegraphing and 

 army signalling must have been brought 

 into requisition with great elticiency. The 

 telegraph stood head and shoulders above 

 ever^-thing where it could be used. it 

 was largely called into requisition along 

 the lines of communication. iiut tele- 

 graplis and telephones needed to be guard- 

 ed, which took a lot of men. Wireless 

 telegraphy could not, at present, be ueed 

 by the ai-my in the field, because it re- 

 quired too much apparatus, and was, 

 therefoi-e, cumbersome. The Moree let- 

 tering system was adopted in all army 

 signalling, excepting in the semaphore 

 ejistem. He then demonstrated the 

 Morse flag signalling, in which smaller 

 flags are used for short distances, and 

 larger on.es for longer distancs. There 

 are also two coloune used, white for use 

 on a dark ground, and blue for a light 

 ground. The message is spelled out by 

 a system of waving the flag (long and 

 short waves and combinations) on the 

 Morse alphabet plan. Diagrams were 

 shown of the Morse dot and dash letter- 

 ing, short waves of the flag representing 

 dots, and long sweeping waves, dashes. 

 In tolerably clear weather signalling ca,n 

 bo carried on in this way over a distance 

 of seven miles with the aid of telescopes. 

 The semaphore flag signalling, which Ho- 

 bart people daily observed in use between 

 the warships and the shore uuring the 

 stay of the Australian squadron in the 

 harbour. This system differs from the 

 Morse one, in that each letter has a 

 separate and distinct symbol by the use 

 of two flags at once. It is a simpler, 

 therefore more easily learnt, and a more 

 rapid means of signalling messages; but 

 it is only practical over short distances 

 up to 800 to 1,000 yards, and it is very 

 readily forgotten, the angles having to be 



so accurate. The heliograph system was 

 next explained, and the instrument ex- 

 hibited, its working being made clear and 

 extremely interesting. This signaJling 

 arrangement is carried on by mirrors on 

 a tripod, reflecting the light of the sun 

 in a series of flashes, on the Morse alpha- 

 bet principle. By these means meseages 

 can be sent over distances up to 70 

 miles, provided, at the latter range, the 

 apparatus -can be mounted high enough 

 to compensate for the "dip'^ in the 

 earth's circumference. The atmosphere 

 is a little bit dull for this instrument 

 in Tasmania. In India it may be work- 

 ed with much better results. The sig- 

 nalling lamp, for night use, was shown 

 at work on the Morse flashes principle> 

 and is good for seven miles, according to 

 the state of the atmosphere. This lamp 

 is a recent invention of a very smart 

 British army officer named Begbie. An- 

 other more powerful lamp, but not so 

 portable, Major Hayter explained, was. 

 the limelight lamp. It required more 

 ar^naratus, but it was very powerful. 

 With this it is possible to signal over 

 15 miles in the night time. 



A signalling party belonging to Capt. 

 A. C. Par kerb's Engineer Corps gave a 

 demonstration in the working of a ter- 

 minal signalling station in the field. 



His Excellency expressed his pleasure 

 to notice that the scientific side of army 

 training was being so well developed 

 among the Commonwealth forces. 



Capt. Dormer, A.D.C., said Major 

 Hayter and the Master Gunner had 

 given them very interesting and 

 correct demonslirations m army sig- 

 nalling. Such signalling had now 

 become of immense importance with 

 armies operating on such a wide front. 

 In the South Afrtc^an war it proved ex- 

 tnemeJy useful. (Applause.; 



The meeting then terminated with votes 

 of thanks to the readers of papere and ta 

 Major HAyt«r and hie party. 



