Beacon Fire

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a signal fire. Before the days of telegraphy, beacon fires kindled on hills were used to convey important intelligence, such as the approach of an invading army. A bright fire by night or a dense smoke by day could be seen for a long distance. A line of beacons carried news from mountain top to mountain top with great speed. An old act of the Scottish Parliament, 1455, relating to the border beacons, directed that "One bale on fire should be warning of the approach of the English in any manner; two bales blazing beside each other that they are coming indeed; and four bales that they are coming in great force." Similar fire signals were employed, we are told, in ancient Persia, Palestine, and Greece. The Swiss kept watchers on guard to light beacons in case of invading Austrians. Within recent years the Indians of the Rocky Mountain regions used signal fires to convey intelligence of the movements of the United States troops, arranging beforehand a great variety of signals to be given. The lantern hung for Paul Revere in the tower of North Church was a signal of this sort. The lantern carried by the railroad brakes-man may be regarded as a sort of beacon light. It is used to give signals. See Lighthouse 2026 Editor's Note: Beacon chains were the ancient long-distance network — news of the Spanish Armada raced across England by hilltop fire in 1588 — until the telegraph made them obsolete. They survive as ceremony: chains of beacons are still lit across Britain for royal jubilees and remembrance. Tolkien gave the image immortality in the 'lighting of the beacons of Gondor .' (Ed: BR 2026-07-18)