The smoke signal is one of the oldest forms of communication which people used to communicate over long distances. It involves covering a fire so that different shapes and sizes of smoke clouds rise into the air.

The North American Indians are probably the most well-known users of smoke signals, often appearing in Hollywood Western films with cowboys. Each North American Indian tribe had their own system of signals. The fire was started using damp grass but another thing that mattered was where it was lit. If the fire was halfway up a hill, it meant everything was OK, but if the fire was on the top of the hill, this meant danger was near.

Smoke signals have been used throughout history in many different countries. In ancient China, soldiers were able to inform people about an attack by smoke signals. The Great Wall of China is a huge wall which stretches the length of the country, and at certain points along the wall there are towers. By signalling from tower to tower, they could send messages as far away as 750km in just a few hours.

Some smoke signals are very simple, like those of the Australian Aborigines. They used smoke signals when they entered land which was not theirs. This was simply to inform others that they were there. A Greek historian called Polybius came up with a more complicated system of alphabetical smoke signals around 150 BC. He invented a system of converting Greek letters into numbers. Messages were signalled by holding sets of torches in pairs.

The Yahgan people who lived on the islands south of South America also used smoke signals. When a whale got stuck on a beach, they needed to tell others that there was a lot of meat there, and it shouldn’t go to waste. So, they used smoke signals to inform people.

The Great Train Robbery

In 1963, a group of criminals stole £2.6 million from a train travelling through Buckinghamshire in England. Most of the money was never recovered and it is considered to be the largest robbery in British history.

The robbery took months to organise. The leader of the group was a man called Bruce Reynolds, but there were 16 more robbers involved. The train they robbed was a Royal Mail train travelling from Edinburgh to London. Fifteen of the robbers were at the robbery. Their plan was first to stop the train, and they managed to do so easily by covering a green traffic light and placing a red light powered by a battery in front if it. At the sight of this, the train driver, Jack Mills, stopped the train.

The robbers’ plan was to then for one of their people to move the train to the place where their van was and load all the money. Ronnie Biggs was the robber responsible for finding someone to drive the train. Unfortunately the man he found, Stan Agate, couldn’t drive that particular kind of train. In the end, they made the original train driver drive the 800m down the track.

The robbers had no problem getting the money from the train to the van and, amazingly, there were no police officers or security guards on board. They cut all the phone lines in the area so none of the train workers could call for help while they were escaping to an old farm 27 miles away. On the way, they were listening carefully to the radio for reports of the crime and once there, they divided the money into 17 equal amounts.

Most of the robbers were arrested within six months of the crime, and because of the size of the robbery, it was a major news story making the robbers well-known all over the country. The most famous robber is probably Ronald “Buster” Edwards because of the 1988 film Buster about his life and involvement in the robbery. Another one of the train robbers who became famous was Ronnie Biggs. He was sent to prison after the robbery, but escaped and went to France. He spent 36 years on the run living in Australia and Brazil. In 2001, he returned to England and was arrested.

A Mexican Adventure                                                                                                                 

by Deborah Stanford

I’ve travelled to several countries so far, but my trip to Mexico last year was the best. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t start very well. When I arrived in Mexico City, I wasn’t feeling well, so I spent the first two days in bed and saw nothing of the city.

However, on the third day nothing could stop me from getting on the plane to Acapulco. I’ve seen people do amazing things, but the cliff divers of La Quebrada were something else! They jumped from a height of 45 metres! I did something exciting too, but less dangerous: I went scuba diving near Acapulco and saw the beautiful statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe under the sea.

During the month I stayed in Mexico, I went surfing in Baja California, swam with dolphins in Puerto Vallarta and climbed Iztaccihuatl, one of Mexico’s most amazing volcanoes. The view from up there was impressive.

I had a lot of fun and I’m definitely going back some time in the future.