the.com/semaphore
talking with your arms before texting taught us thumbs could do the same
means A system of communication that sends messages visually, using flags, arms, or mechanical arms held in particular positions to represent letters and signals.
from From the Greek 'sēma' (sign, signal) and 'phoros' (bearing, carrying) — literally a 'sign-bearer.' The word was coined in the early 19th century in French ('sémaphore') for the tall mechanical signaling towers built across the countryside, whose swinging arms relayed messages from hilltop to hilltop long before the electric telegraph. The same 'sēma' lives on in 'semantics' and 'semiotics,' the studies of meaning and signs.
- flag system
- two flags, eight positions, one alphabet in the air
- navy roots
- ships once gossiped across oceans by waving
- computing twist
- now a tool keeping rogue programs from colliding
- peace symbol
- derived from semaphore for letters N and D
- range limit
- useless the moment fog or nightfall arrives
maritime flag semaphore — signaling system used by naval ships worldwide using two flags held in specific positions to represent letters