This photograph is from an album created by Lt Thomas Gerald George Fahey who served in the Australian Light Horse in the Middle East during World War 1. This album belongs to Tom Robinson, who has kindly allowed us to upload these to our site.

Please contact us if you are the subject of the image, or know the subject of the image, and have cultural or other reservations about the image being displayed on this website and would like to discuss this with us.

This photograph, like many of the thousands of photos on our site, was scanned by a volunteer. When we have sufficient funds in the Vera Deacon Regional History Fund, we are able to give these wonderful people some paid employment. If you would care to make a tax-deductible donation to this fund, please see http://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/benefactors/new for more information and a link to the donation form.

If you have any information about this photograph, please contact us.

signal mirror: The heliographs are the two tripod-mounted instruments in the right foreground. A heliograph (or, familiarly, "helio", as in the caption here) provides long-range line-of-sight communication by reflected sunlight from their top-mounted 5" circular mirrors. The message is carried by Morse Code produced by intermittently tilting the mirror using a telegraph key-like arrangement behind the mirror. A good general overview of heliographs is at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliograph , especially if one follows the links there. Heliographs were heavily used by the Australian Light Horse in the Middle East in WWI. Hammond's history of the 11th Light Horse Regiment mentions a time at the Battle of Bir el Aweidia when at least five heliograph stations were in action. ( alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1... ) Fifteen other photos of heliographs in use in WWI by Australian Forces (though none as detailed as this one) can be seen at the Australian War Memorial . The Australian Light Horse Studies Center has over 200 references to heliographs (frequently called "helio", as in this inscription), which can be found using this string in the Google search box: "helio*" site:http://alh-research.tripod.com DETAILED DISCUSSION: ( To see the details discussed below, it will be a great help to open the high resolution version of this photo in another window using this link: www.flickr.com/photos/uon/7161006790/sizes/o/in/photostream/ ) The left heliograph is set up in the "duplex" or double-mirror configuration used when the sun was on the opposite side of the heliograph from the station being signaled to. The operator is adjusting the "signaling mirror" at the apex of the tripod so that the "shadow spot" cast by the unsilvered spot at the center of the signaling mirror casts a shadow on the sighting mark at the center of the "duplex" (outboard) mirror. You can see what that looks like at 0:31 onwards at this YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=paEyVKJNIYs The cap dangling from the tripod by a chain covered the male screw threads on top of the tripod during transport, when the assembly atop the tripod was stowed in the leather carrying case visible in front, and to the viewer's left of, the duplex heliograph. The tripod was carried using an attached canvas sling, visible on the tripod leg at the viewer's front right. The case and stowed tripod can be seen at the top of this web page: www.prc68.com/I/MkVHeliograph.shtml (that web page has photos of many of the individual heliograph parts, many of which lead to higher resolution photographs if clicked upon). The signaler at the viewer's right, one the other hand, has his heliograph set up in single-mirror mode, with the jointed aiming rod in the socket used to hold the duplex mirror in the first setup. This setup was used if the sun was on the same side of the signal mirror as the station being signaled to at the commencement of signaling. UON Library, University of Newcastle, Australia: Many thanks for this information, signal mirror! signal mirror: I just noticed that the Australian War Memorial (AWM) has a copy of this image (AWM ID# A02383), and a lot of background information on it. Here's the link to the AWM record: This image at the Australian War Memorial The Permalink is: www.awm.gov.au/collection/A02383 The AWM record says this image was taken on May 23, 1917, and the two men with heliographs are from the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade, contacting columns during a short stop. The man in the pith helmet (second from left) is General C Cox. The helio operator at far right is Sapper Woods of the 1st Signal Troop, and the other heliographer is Sapper Dinning.