NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Navy wig wag
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2016 Aug 10, 00:08 -0700
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2016 Aug 10, 00:08 -0700
Wig-wag was invented during the Civil War and uses only one flag on a long staff that is waved to the right and to the left to signal letters in a binary code. It was used by both armies and led to the founding of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Their branch insignia is the signal flag.
Semaphore uses two flags held in various combinations of positions to indicate each letter. Very different systems.
https://signal.army.mil/old/history/00_wig_wag.html
https://www.civilwarsignals.org/lessons/sigmethod/twoelement.html
https://www.civilwarsignals.org/pages/signal/signal.html
gl