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Information about Beacon

This page discusses beacons, fires designed to attract attention. See also radio beacon. For other uses of the word, see Beacon (disambiguation).
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A Scandinavian beacon being lit.
Beacons are aids to navigation devices. Intentionally conspicuous, beacons help guide navigators to their destinations. Beacon types include radar reflectors, radio beacons, and sonic or visual signals. Visual beacons range from small, single-pile structures to large lighthouses or light stations and are located on land or in water. Lighted beacons are called lights; unlighted beacons are called daybeacons.

More classically, beacons are fires lit on hills or high places, used either as lighthouses for navigation at sea, or for signalling over land that enemy troops are approaching, and alerting the defense. In the latter iteration, beacons are an ancient form of optical telegraphy, and were always parts of a relay league.

Systems of this kind have existed for centuries over much of the world. Indeed, in Scandinavia many hill forts were parts of beacon networks to warn against invading pillagers.

In Wales, the Brecon Beacons were named for beacons used to warn of approaching English raiders.

In England, the most famous examples are the beacons used in Elizabethan England to warn of the approaching Spanish Armada. Many hills in England are named Beacon Hill after these beacons.

Beacons have often been abused by pirates. A fire at a wrong position was used to direct a ship against cliffs or beaches, so the cargo could be looted after the ship sank or ran aground.

In The Lord of the Rings, a series of seven beacons are used as a signaling device between Gondor and Rohan. [1] In the , Gandalf has Pippin light the beacon closest to Minas Tirith. The series is then lit, thereby notifying Rohan's King Théoden that Gondor needs aid in the battle against Sauron.

See also

Electric beacons are a kind of beacon used with direction finding equipment to find ones relative bearing to a known location (the beacon).

The term electric beacon includes radio, infrared and sonar beacons.
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  • A beacon is traditionally a fire lit on a hill to attract attention, for example as a warning.
  • The word is also used now to refer to Radio beacons.
  • An Aerodrome beacon is a lighting device which indicates the location of a civilian airport.

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Navigation is the process of planning, recording, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.[1] The word navigate is derived from the Latin roots navis meaning "ship" and agere meaning "to move" or "to direct.
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Electric beacons are a kind of beacon used with direction finding equipment to find ones relative bearing to a known location (the beacon).

The term electric beacon includes radio, infrared and sonar beacons.
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lighthouse is a tower building or framework sending out light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire. Lighthouses are used to mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, safe entries to harbors and can also assist in aerial navigation.
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semaphore or optical telegraph is an apparatus for conveying information by means of visual signals, with towers with pivoting blades or paddles, shutters, in a matrix, or hand-held flags etc.
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A relay league is a chain of message forwarding stations in a system of optical telegraphs, radio telegraph stations, or riding couriers.

An interesting description of these early 19th century methods and its evolution into the electrical telegraph networks of the mid and
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Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centred on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
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A hill fort is a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for military advantage. The fortification usually follows the contours of the hill, consisting of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, and external
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Motto
Cymru am byth   (Welsh)
"Wales forever"
Anthem
"Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau"
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Brecon Beacons (Welsh: Bannau Brycheiniog) is a mountain range located in the south-east of Wales. It forms the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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Elizabethan Era
1558–1603
Preceded by Tudor period
Followed by Jacobean era
Monarch Queen Elizabeth I
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Spanish Armada or Great Armada (Old Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, meaning "Great and Most Fortunate Navy", also known as the Armada Invencible
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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Beacon Hill is a name shared by many hills, suburbs, villages and other places around the world. Many are so called because they were historically the site of a warning beacon. Others are named after other places of the same name.
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Piracy is a robbery committed at sea, or sometimes on the shore, by an agent without a commission from a sovereign nation. Seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue (with estimated worldwide losses of US $13 to $16 billion per year [1] ),
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cliff or bluff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are categorized as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers.
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beach, or strand, is a geological landform consisting of loose rock particles - such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, cobble - or even shell fragments, along the shoreline of a body of water.
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The Lord of the Rings

Cover design for the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings
Author J. R. R. Tolkien
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher Allen & Unwin
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Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. It was a Dúnedain kingdom founded by Isildur and Anárion, the sons of Elendil, after the Downfall of Númenor. Its sister kingdom was Arnor in the north, which was founded by Elendil himself.
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Rohan (from Sindarin Rochand), is a fictional realm in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy era of Middle-earth. It is also referred to as Riddermark or The Mark. (The Mark is believed to have been the Mercian name for the Anglian Kingdom of Mercia.
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In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Gandalf is a central character in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, where he appears as a fairly archetypal wizard, taking a key role in the latter book's War of the Ring.
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Peregrin Took (TA 2990–FA 70), better known to his friends as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's universe of Middle-earth, a Hobbit, and one of Frodo Baggins's youngest but dearest friends.
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Minas Tirith (IPA: ['minæs 'tɪɹiθ]), originally named Minas Anor, is a heavily fortified city in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, which was the capital of Gondor in the second half of the Third Age.
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Théoden is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings. He first appears in The Two Towers and remains an important character in The Return of the King.
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Sauron (IPA: /'sɑurɔn/, Quenya: "Abhorred") is the title character and the primary antagonist of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R.
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An aerodrome beacon is a beacon installed at an airport or aerodrome to indicate its location to aircraft pilots at night.

An aerodrome beacon is mounted on top of a towering structure, often a control tower, above other buildings of the airport.
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distress radiobeacons, also collectively known as distress beacons, emergency beacons, or simply, beacons, are tracking transmitters which aid in the detection and location of boats, aircraft, and/or persons in distress.
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City of Beacon

Seal
Nickname: Tree City
Location in the state of New York
Coordinates:
Country United States
State New York
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