885 
Communication by Signals. 
8on who displays first lias a right to begin the communi- 
cation, and to prevent confusion, it is to be displayed at 
the commencement of every signal. 
If by any accident your attention should be called off, 
and you did not comprehend the whole of a signal, by 
holding the handkerchief as in fig. G, you may demand 
a repetition. This signal is called the repeat. Fig. D, 
shows the following signals, by twisting the handker- 
chief regularly round one of the arms, and holding it in 
one of the positions marked 1, 2, 8, 4 , viz. No. 1, affir- 
mative ; No. 2, negative 5 No. 8, interrogative ; No. % 
to annul. 
Sir — I acknowledge the receipt of your letter respect 
ing my homograph, and beg leave to express the high 
sense I entertain of its having been noticed by so distin- 
guishedran institution as that of the Society of Arts, &c. 
I am positively the first inventor of it, and I put it in ex- 
ecution at the commencement of this war, on board his 
majesty’s ship Defiance, commanded by P. C. Durham, 
who did me the honour to express his approbation of it, 
and promised to bring it to the notice of his royal high- 
ness the duke of York ; but having the honour of getting 
a fractured leg in the battle of Trafalgar, I was prevent- 
ed from getting attention to my homograph. 
I have frequently conversed in this manner with my 
messmates at Spithead, from the green ramparts at Ports- 
mouth, and from Plymouth Sound to the Hoe, which is 
still a greater distance. The conversation may be car- 
ried on at the distance of four miles by a common teles- 
cope. 
The various uses to which the homograph may be ap- 
plied at any moment, without expense, will not fail to at- 
tract the notice of persons of discernment. In active mi- 
litary service it will be found very important. It will be 
Vol. 1. 8 c 
