Flag semaphore

The Winker alphabet ( Semaphore ) is used for visual communication between ships or on land. With the development of voice communications, it lost much more important, however, is used at sea today, especially militarily, since - in contrast to almost all radio traffic - it is difficult to be intercepted. Official means of communication, it is still in the United States Navy and the Marine Self-Defense Forces of Japan will, however, still maintained in other navies.

There exists (defined in the International Code of Signals ) include an international and a German fiddler alphabet.

The individual letters of the Latin alphabet are described in the Winker alphabet by the position in which the fiddler holds two flags. The flags are usually square and either diagonally divided yellow-red ( flag Oscar) or red flags that contain a smaller, centered white square (deprecated).

While individual letters are sent to the semaphore alphabet, flag alphabet is used to transmit coded messages through the use of less colored flags.

International Winker Alphabet

The illustrations show the signals in the international Winker alphabet, as seen by the receiver.

In the gray matter, the flags would overlap by the system. Yellow cells indicate the actual ergonomic hand position.

Numbers are " followed by numbers " by the signal announced and correspond to the first ten letters of the alphabet, Alfa ( = 1) to kilogram (= 0) without Juliett. The number ends with the next signal "break".

Besides the well known fiddler alphabet, there were various precursors, including the Albert J. Myer (also: Meyer) in 1860 during the American Civil War developed Wig- Wag with only a signal flag. The system different flag positions 4: Finish 1, 2 and 3, the letters of the alphabet and numbers 1-0 was assigned to a combination of these positions was based on the frequency in the English language.

Influence and development

One of the most well-known symbols from everyday life, which can be derived from the semaphore alphabet, is Gerald Holtoms peace sign: This originally stood for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament ( Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament ), symbolized by the letter "N" and "D".

Winker Alphabet D

CND symbol

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