Volume 18 , Issue 6

1887 Carrier Pigeons In War

This is what The People's Press, out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, dated 29 September 1887, Thursday, page 4, had to report on concerning "Carrier Pigeons In War."

Found on Newspapers.com

Steps had been taken in nearly all European countries to establish military communication by means of carrier pigeons in time of war. England, France, Germany, Belgium and Italy had definitely organized military carrier pigeon services, and some had subsidized the private training establishments with the right to use the pigeons in war.

This method of communicating originated in China, or, at least in the east, and it was most likely in use by the ancient Arabians. William of Orange and Napoleon I. used these messengers during their wars; but the greatest service was that rendered in 1870, between Paris and Tours.

During the siege of Paris 150,000 official dispatches and about 1,000,000 private communications, representing a money value of about $38,000, were conveyed by these pigeons. In this case the messages were reduced by microscopic photography so that a tiny piece of silk paper, one and three-quarter inches long by one and one-quarter inches wide, could contain 3,500 messages of twenty words each, or 70,000 words.

The total dispatch thus arranged weighed at most less than one-quarter of an ounce, and was secured by a light thread to the tail-feathers of the pigeon. Upon arrival the dispatch was removed, enlarged by photography and deciphered.
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