"Semaphore" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... back to the office in grim silence, and took turns in watching with a glass the arms of the semaphore, three miles below, at the narrow opening of the bay. Clay smiled nervously at himself, with a sudden sinking at the heart, and with a hot blush of pleasure, as he thought of how often he had looked at its great arms ...
— Soldiers of Fortune • Richard Harding Davis
... to Crew, the stern arm of the semaphore never made the train pause even for an instant. There was always a clear track. It was great to see, far in the distance, a goods train whooping smokily for the north of England on one of the four tracks. The overtaking of such a train was a thing of magnificent nothing for the long-strided ...
— Men, Women, and Boats • Stephen Crane
... Jimmy with loaded questions and stopped when Jimmy stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the invention of canned food, the adoption of the metric system, and the development of the semaphore telegraph. This stopped all proceedings until Jimmy himself found the references in the Britannica. That little feat of research-reference impressed the visiting superintendent. Jimmy Holden ...
— The Fourth R • George Oliver Smith
... was working among the rocks, I would suddenly descry her on the banks of the Falaise like a semaphore signal. She passionately gazed at the vast sea, glittering in the sunlight, and the boundless sky empurpled with fire. Sometimes I would distinguish her at the bottom of a valley, walking quickly, with ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant
... meaning of "telegraph" is used here, as any system of communication over distance, such as signal fires, semaphore, etc. ...
— The Life of General Francis Marion • Mason Locke Weems
... down the aisle of the car. He glanced at the tablet and pencil as I would look at his lantern, put my right hand into a cordial compress that abode with my fingers for ten minutes after he went away, and seating himself easily on the arm of the seat, put the semaphore all ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VII. (of X.) • Various
... semaphore, sir; I see it quite distinctly." And he was not mistaken; it had been a telegraph in motion that ...
— Off on a Comet • Jules Verne
... same station in August 1869 a nest of young Mynas was reared above the hinge of the semaphore signal at the railway-station. One or other arm of the signal must have risen and fallen every time a train passed, but the motion neither alarmed the birds nor ...
— The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 • Allan O. Hume
... that ye know a thing thoroughly," the captain reminded them. "Fer instance, there is yer signallin'. Ye should be able to make each letter without thinkin' how it is to be made. And I want yez to practise up the Morse system, as well as the Semaphore. It'll come in mighty handy at night, when ye can't use the flags. Yez kin never ...
— Rod of the Lone Patrol • H. A. Cody
... invention of the electric telegraph before the date of this poem, see Sir Francis Ronalds, F. R. S., and his Works in connection with Electric Telegraphy in 1816, by J. Sime, 1893. But the "Telegraph" to which Byron refers was, probably, the semaphore (from London to Portsmouth), which, according to [Sir] John Barrow, the Secretary of the Admiralty, rendered "telegraphs of any kind now wholly ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... upon the ledge; cautiously did he advance each foot, until he was more than leg-deep, and wildly, like an insane semaphore, did he wave his arms, as well as the heavy rod, in his frantic efforts not to lose his balance! At last he planted his feet, with a cheer of ...
— The Crew of the Water Wagtail • R.M. Ballantyne
... had nothing to do but stand at the open door of his car and gaze at what scenery the darkness disclosed. Now that he was beginning to comprehend their use, he was deeply interested in the bright red, green, and white lights of the semaphore signals that guarded every switch and siding. He knew that at night a white light displayed from the top of a post, or swung across the track in the form of a lantern, meant safety, a red light meant danger, and a green light meant caution. If it had been daytime he would have seen thin ...
— Cab and Caboose - The Story of a Railroad Boy • Kirk Munroe
... that the ship had spotted him, Cal could signal alone. He lay down on the ground, himself, to move his arms in semaphore positions. But even as he lay back, he became conscious that he, too, could hardly care less. With a detached interest that amounted to amusement at such childish, primitive things, he watched his arms spell out one ...
— Eight Keys to Eden • Mark Irvin Clifton
... was no wickedness abroad; it was coming fairly heavy in big flakes, but lying quiet as apple-blossoms. Toward four o'clock I left the office for the roundhouse, and got just about half-way across the yard when the wind veered like a scared semaphore. I had left the depot in a snow-storm; I reached the roundhouse in ...
— The Daughter of a Magnate • Frank H. Spearman
... expounded and practically demonstrated, together with that of the torpedo, the mine, mine laying and sweeping, and the peculiarities of various explosives. Rifle and revolver practice was encouraged, and morse and semaphore signalling formed part of ...
— Submarine Warfare of To-day • Charles W. Domville-Fife
... mile along the level two Arabs were rhythmically swinging water up from a cutting by means of a shallow vessel with ropes attached to the side. The flash of it caught the eye, and there was a patch of vivid emerald where the water fell. To the north it was possible to make out the arms of a semaphore lying idle. There was no sound in the place. The river itself flowed silently. Only the occasional deep drone of a hornet or the note of a mosquito came to the ear. The sun seemed to be drawing the land together, sucking up ...
— In Mesopotamia • Martin Swayne
... valuable, that it is extraordinary that they were not adopted. Signalling, for example, whether by heliograph or by flag-waving, would have made an immense difference in the Napoleonic campaigns. The principle of the semaphore was well known, and Belgium, with its numerous windmills, would seem to be furnished with natural semaphores. Yet in the four days during which the campaign of Waterloo was fought, the whole scheme of military operations on both sides was again and again imperilled, ...
— Through the Magic Door • Arthur Conan Doyle
... to the flagmen at railway crossings the approach of trains, so as to give them time to stop all crossing of the tracks. On railway lines provided with electro-semaphores there may be used for this purpose those small apparatus that have been styled semaphore repeaters. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882 • Various
... trimmed with white braid, and wore white cotton gloves and shiny badges. They really did have power invested in them by the committee to preserve order and keep the crowds moving. At one point they were allowed to stand with a semaphore and hold up the crowd, not allowing anyone to pass who could not show a certain number of tags from the various booths. This tag system was to insure that all would play fair, for there was so much fun ...
— School, Church, and Home Games • George O. Draper
... sittin' in a forked bough, an' watchin' me through his glass." Placing the telescope gently on the ground, Jake turned himself into a human semaphore, and gesticulated frantically with his arms. "That ought to fetch 'im," and he again placed his eye to the telescope. "Yes, he sees. He's wavin' his 'at. Good old Ben. It's better than a play. Comic opera ain't in it with this sort o' game. He's fair rampin' with joy 'cause I ...
— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace |
