heliograph

American  

[hee-lee-uh-graf, -grahf] / ˈhi li əˌgræf, -ˌgrɑf /

noun

1. a device for signaling by means of a movable mirror that reflects beams of light, especially sunlight, to a distance.

2. Astronomy.  photoheliograph.

3. Meteorology.  an instrument for recording the duration and intensity of sunshine.

4. Photography, Printing.  an early type of photoengraving made on a metal plate coated with sensitized asphalt.

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verb (used with or without object)

1. to communicate by heliograph.

heliograph British  

/ -ˌɡræf, ˌhiːlɪˈɒɡrəfə, ˈhiːlɪəʊˌɡrɑːf, ˌhiːlɪəʊˈɡræfɪk /

noun

1. an instrument with mirrors and a shutter used for sending messages in Morse code by reflecting the sun's rays

2. a device used to photograph the sun

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Other Word Forms

• heliographer noun
• heliographic adjective
• heliographical adjective
• heliographically adverb
• heliography noun

Etymology

Origin of heliograph

First recorded in 1815–25; helio- + -graph

Example Sentences

Here they donned rubber boots for collecting forays at low tide, devoured great dishes of spaghetti and watched swordfish “jumping in the afternoon light, flashing like heliographs in the distance.”

From Los Angeles Times

I wondered what the heliographs would look like in ordinary daylight.

From Los Angeles Times

The pioneers of reproductive imagery in the 1830s called their pictures by many names — heliographs, calotypes, daguerreotypes — but the word that stuck was photograph: a “drawing with light.”

From New York Times

Just think of the tectonic shifts it has undergone since the French inventors Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Daguerre were tinkering with heliographs and daguerreotypes.

From New York Times

As the big shells sped across the town to drop within the laager beyond, the enemy's signallers heliographed their direction to the emplacement of Big Ben.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• flare
• lantern
• radar