Pyrotelegraph
A pyrotelegraph , also toposcope or toposcope (location scout), rarely also fire pointer , is a historical device for determining the exact location of a fire in the dark from a fixed observation point in order to be able to initiate fire extinguishing measures more quickly. The device consists of a telescope which is rotatably mounted on a (horizontal) wind rose (see compass rose ). It is combined with a vertical protractor . It is therefore not a device for the transmission of information in the usual sense, as the name " Telegraph " would suggest.
Such a toposcope was used by the Türmer on St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna from 1836.
literature
- About the dispute over authorship: Voigt, Friedrich Wilhelm: Das Toposcop or the so-called pyrotelegraph: a few words about its invention, improvement and use, but especially about the dispute between Mr. Fricke and Dr. Pansner - Leipzig 1803.
- Pansner's description of the device: Pansner, Johann Heinrich Lorenz: Der Pyrotelegraph . - Jena 1801.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Hebenstreit: The stranger in Vienna, and the Viennese in the home. As complete an information book as possible for travelers to Vienna and during their stay in the residence; also exact display of everything that is worth seeing and remarkable for foreigners and locals in Vienna, 4th enlarged and thoroughly improved edition, Carl Ambruster Verlag, Vienna 1840, p. 45 online