The forerunners of lighthouses proper were beacon fires kindled on hilltops, the earliest references to which are contained in the Iliad and the Odyssey (c. 8th century bce).
They were used to send military communications: beacon (fires or lanterns) during the night or smoke signals in the daytime; other methods such as raising banners, beating clappers, or firing guns were also used.
The Welsh heavyweight Tommy Farr's campaigning in America led him to a performance so fine and durable against the great Joe Louis that it provoked the building of beacon fires of celebration.
Many of these are in the same places where beacon fires were lit to guide the 1920s mail flights that pioneered commercial aviation.America's air-traffic system will face a rise in the number of flights from 45,000 a day now to 61,000 by 2016, says the Air Transport Association.
Like a tide-race, the waves of human mediocrity are rising to the heavens and will engulf this refuge… Lord, take pity on the Christian who doubts … who puts out to sea alone, in the night, beneath a firmament no longer lit by the consoling beacon fires of the ancient hope!" It is this ancient hope – the need for religion, which is one of Submission's driving fascinations.
Painswick Beacon has been used as the location for beacon fires in years gone by, including the Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilees in 1977 and 2002, Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887, and King George V's Coronation in 1911.
Defence works were established to the east of the Yanmen Pass, with a line of fortifications and beacon fires stretching from Pingcheng County (present-day Datong) through the valley of the Sanggan River to Dai County, Shanxi.
Police said they believe Leckie's remains were burned several times – something that could have occurred in the day's following the girl's disappearance, when her mother allegedly claimed she was lighting "beacon fires" for the teen.
Its debut season saw audiences given the keys to a mysteriously empty cottage in Snowdonia, for a show without actors called The Weather Factory, bussed up to a Brecon Beacons firing range for a version of Aeschylus's The Persians, and invited to prowl around Cardiff in taxis for an out-and-about piece called The Soul Exchange.
Along its length were 800 strong points, sentry posts, beacon-fire towers, and assorted defences.
