In our museum you can find a World War II US Navy Signal lamp, also called an Aldis lamp, which is a visual signaling device for communication, typically using morse code. Basically, its a focused lamp with shutters that produces pulses of light!
It is named after its inventor Authur C W Aldis and the pulses are achieved by opening and closing shutters mounted in front of the lamp, either via a manually-operated pressure switch or, in later versions, automatically. The lamps were usually equipped with some form of optical sight, and were most commonly used on naval vessels (like the one in our museum!) and in airport control towers, using color signals for stop or clearance to airplanes waiting to take off or land.
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