CARRIER PIGEONS IN WAR

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 32, 6 August 1927, Page 20

CARRIER PIGEONS IN WAR

USED DURING SIEGE 03? PARIS.

The practice of sending messages by homing pigeons was common long before the birth of Christ. The Persians and the Chinese used this method to transmit the news of important events to far distant towns, and the Ancient Greeks conveyed the names of Olympic winners to their various cities'by the same means. Perhaps the most extensive use of the pigeon post was made by the French Postal authorities during the Siege of Paris in 1870-71 (says the Newcastle "Weekly Chronicle"). Beset on all sides by tho Germans, it was decided that a regular service with the outside world, and espeically with England, should be established by means of carrier pigeons. Private letters as well as dispatches were accepted under tho following conditions:—lnformation relating to the war was prohibited; the number of words was limited to 20; and the letters were delivered open. Fivepence a word, with a registration fee of sixpence, was charged. The Germans employed trained falcons to interrupt the service. Each dispatch was, therefore, repeated until it was acknowledged by balloon post. The contents of the letter or dispatch wore first printed in ordinary typo, and then micro-photographed on to collodion, a

very flue film made by dissolving guncotton, in a mixture of alcohol and other. Each film measured less than 2in by lin, and on to this small surface was transferred the contents of 10 folio pages of type, the equivalent of 60,000 alphabetic letters. The weight of 17 such films was about one gramme, the limit set for tho strength of the bird. Thus one pigeon could carry in his flight over 50,000 dispatches. On receipt, the films were flattened out, and thrown by means of magic lantern on to a screen. The contents were then copied out by clerksf and dispatched to their various destinations. The success attained led, after the conclusion of the war, to the extensive training of pigeons for military purposes, and until the invention of the electric telegraph the farrier x"geons were utilised by business men, newspapers, and private individuals. That even the invention of wireless telegraphy has not altogether done away with the system is proved by the fact that in the lato European War homing pigeons were used from the front line trenches when Other mcaus af enmjMmnimtJnn had failed.