How does pigeon mail work? Carrier pigeons: spies, soldiers and photo reporters Relatives of the Dodo bird.
Mine... And we’ll clip your wings..." muttered the haberdasher Bonacieux angrily, scribbling a denunciation against D'Artagnan. However, the use of pigeons in the role postmen began long before the era of the French musketeers...
The pigeon, of course, is not a two-legged courier - you cannot send it to any address. But this bird returns to its home nest with manic persistence, covering very long distances - up to 300 km. And individual, well-trained carrier pigeons are able to find their homeland at a distance of more than a thousand kilometers!
Add to this the absence of obstacles and a respectable speed (on average 60-70 km/h), and it becomes clear that in certain situations, when it was especially difficult, pigeons became simply irreplaceable.
"Symbol of peace" in war
Broadcast mail messages pigeons were especially popular during sieges of cities, when a rare daredevil managed to overcome the ring of enemy encirclement.
Pigeons were also sent by the Roman Decimus Brutus during Antony's siege of Mutina (43 BC), and by the Dutch, besieged by the Spanish, in the cities of Haarlem and Leiden (1570s).
But the first, seriously organized and regular, arose in 1870-71 during the Franco-Prussian War, when the Germans captured Paris. The besieged townspeople first sent messages using balloons. However, the balloons were uncontrollable - it was possible to send them outside the city, but you definitely couldn’t send them back to Paris.
It was then that the idea came to involve carrier pigeons. They were put in cages and sent on balloons through a chain of enemy troops, so that they would then return with reply messages. Although only 57 out of 363 pigeons returned the first time, the undertaking was worth it.
A pigeon is not a horse, so pigeon letters were written on very thin tissue paper and placed in a bag that was attached to the back, tail or paw of the bird. Then they came up with a more economical way...
People brought letters to a special "pigeon" post office. There, the texts were typed in small typographic font, laid out like a newspaper sheet, and then photographed with great reduction. As a result, many messages fit on a thin microfilm, which was placed in a capsule and attached to pigeons. At the place of receipt, the films were projected onto a screen, and special officials rewrote the texts of the messages.
Now one pigeon at a time could deliver information with a capacity of 70 thousand words and bring 35 thousand francs to the state treasury from grateful mail clients.
They say that the Germans even tried to fight feathered postmen with the help of hawks, but without much success.
There were also pigeons on the fields of the two world wars. They were especially actively used during the First World War. There were even entire companies pigeon mail, and for greater mobility mobile dovecotes were used. Accordingly, the pigeons, which were accustomed to one dovecote, were transported to another, with which they were going to maintain contact. Remembering that war is war, the same dispatch was sent with three birds at once for reliability.
Of course, wired and radio communications gradually replaced messenger pigeons, but the birds continued to be used into World War II. Soviet researchers calculated that in the period 1941-45. About 15 thousand “pigeongrams” were sent.
The most distinguished birds military postmen often rewarded. Thus, the Cher Ami pigeon was awarded the French Croix de Guerre in 1918, and the Commando and GI Joe pigeons were awarded the British Dickin Medal in 1945. The luckiest pigeon was number "888", which was given the rank of colonel in the British Army, and after death it was buried with honors.
In 2005, they even made a cartoon called “Feathered Special Forces” about pigeons who took part in the Second World War.
Doves and Rothschilds
Important advantages pigeon mail there was secrecy and, most importantly, timeliness of information. Even the ancient Greeks sent out doves with lists of the names of the winners of the Olympic Games.
But the most striking example is the story of the famous Rothschild financial empire. According to legend, it was thanks to carrier pigeon, Nathan Rothschild was the first in Britain to learn about the victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. This allowed him to conduct a successful operation with French securities and earn a fabulous fortune.
The dove turned out to be a good helper for reporters as well. Until radio was invented, editors received information about sailing regattas with the help of pigeons, which were previously placed in dovecotes on yachts.
However, Reuters reporters also practiced this method of transmitting urgent information in 1962, so that correspondents would not waste time standing in traffic jams.
It did not always serve legitimate and plausible purposes. Thus, during the time of Napoleon, when there was a customs war between England and France, pigeons often helped smugglers carry precious stones from the island to the continent. Even now, in areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, these birds are used as... drug couriers delivering heroin.
Joke:
“And they personally asked you to deliver it,” said the carrier pigeon and shit on the head of the recipient of the letter.”
Communication without borders
There have been cases when homing pigeons turned out to be the only way to deliver messages. For example, on long sea voyages. The ancient Egyptians also took with them carrier pigeons during sea voyages, and then it became a common practice among other sailors.
It was the dove that brought the latest news from the Swedish Arctic explorer Solomon Andre. In 1897, together with two companions, Andre took off in a hot air balloon from Spitsbergen, wanting to reach the North Pole. Soon an encouraging pigeon message arrived - they say, everything is fine - and after that there was neither a rumor nor a breath of the expedition for 33 years... Until the remains of the brave polar explorers were found on one of the northern islands.
Speaking of islands...
In the second half of the 19th century, when airmail It wasn’t there yet, and the ships were moving slowly, the islanders remembered the pigeons. In particular, a similar thought occurred to a man named Fricker, a resident of Great Barbier Island. Dissatisfied with the fact that mail boat ran between the island and the New Zealand port of Auckland only once a week, he decided in 1898 to establish a regular pigeon mail.
As a result, letters began to be delivered daily. The fastest pigeon with the telling nickname Velocity could cover the distance between Great Barbier and New Zealand (90 km) in just 50 minutes. The idea was so successful that they even published special forms and triangular stamps - first postage stamps For pigeongram.
Joke:
“You know, I had a homing pigeon, but it died on duty...
- Like this? Shot?
- Not really! They knocked me down at the post office when they were putting the stamp...”
So it can still be useful in critical circumstances. For example, today in remote and inaccessible areas of England, pigeons are used for blood samples in hospitals for analysis.
Many people consider pigeon mail to be an outdated fashion. In vain. The unique instinct of pigeons, scientifically called “homing,” made these birds indispensable for humans back in ancient times, and lightweight memory cards turned them into the most effective postmen.
Origins
Domestic pigeons descended from the wild rock (rock) pigeon, which still lives in southern Europe, North Africa and South Asia, nesting on rocks and high steep banks. One of the most ancient messages about pigeon mail can be found in the Old Testament. Noah releases a dove from the ark and awaits its return. And the dove actually returns with an olive branch in its beak - a sign that the earth has again become habitable.
Pigeon mail was known in Ancient China, Greece, and Egypt. The Roman historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder described how the commandant of the besieged Mutina, Decius Brutus, in 43 BC managed to notify the consul Hirtius about the attack on the city, and he arrived in time with troops to the rescue. During the Gallic War, Caesar exchanged messages with his supporters in Rome using carrier pigeons.
Price information
As we see, a special impetus for the development of pigeon mail was given by military actions that have been ongoing on earth since ancient times. War is a time when the fate of cities, armies, and even entire nations depends on accurate and timely information. The Egyptian Sultan Nur ad-Din paid 1000 denarii for a pair of good carrier pigeons. He is also considered the creator of the first official postal service - a network of “pigeon towers” throughout Syria and Egypt. The Sultan's efforts bore fruit: the news of the sudden capture of the port of Damietta by the army of the French king Louis the Saint in 1249 was transmitted to the Egyptian Sultan Najm ad-Din also with the help of pigeons. This allowed the Muslims to quickly counterattack and defeat the crusader king.
But pigeons helped not only win wars. The famous businessman Nathan Rothschild owes his enormous fortune to pigeons. During the Napoleonic Wars, he sent his agents after the French army, whom he supplied with trained carrier pigeons. While Napoleon was gaining victories, English securities fell sharply in price. But after the defeat of Napoleonic army at Waterloo, the value of these securities increased sharply. Thanks to pigeon mail, Rothschild found out about this before other merchants and bought the papers at a low price.
Pigeon postal lines
No mail can be official without its main attribute - a postage stamp. The birthplace of the first pigeon post stamp is considered to be Great Barrier Island off the coast of New Zealand. Communication with the islands was difficult; it was still impossible to carry a telegraph there; radio communications did not exist at that time. Only birds remained, and in 1890 the idea arose of using pigeons for communication. The birds coped with the task so effectively that in 1896 official and regular postal lines opened between Auckland - New Zealand's largest city - and the Barrier Reef islands.
"Homing"
What makes pigeons fly home, despite all the obstacles? In the scientific literature, this ability is called “homing” - the instinct to return home. Even today, scientists cannot fully explain the mechanism that allows pigeons to accurately determine the direction of flight, find the right one from many cities, identify one from thousands of similar houses, and find exactly their own from hundreds of windows. The pigeon's brain is developed to such an extent that it can be called a natural computer.
This computer is capable of processing and storing huge amounts of information. Pigeons collect it using all their senses. Most of the volume of its skull is occupied by the eyes. They are designed in such a way that they remember only the necessary information, cutting off everything unnecessary. Pigeons have very sharp eyesight combined with excellent memory. This allows them to formulate a route based on visual impressions.
In addition, nature has endowed pigeons with a special “inner magnet”. It is located at the base of the beak and is called the “magnetic receptor system.” With its help, a newly hatched chick determines and remembers the level of magnetic intensity near its nest. And he will never forget this information.
In addition to the magnetic “navigator,” the pigeon also has an infrasonic “sensor” that allows it to detect vibrations below 10 hertz! In this way, pigeons learn about impending storms, weather changes and wind direction. Modern researchers also suggest that pigeons are able to detect odors (although most birds have a rather weak sense of smell).
And finally, over many years of living side by side with humans, birds have learned to use his roads. Since ancient Roman times, homing pigeons in Italy have flown from Rome north and back along the Via Aurelia, the old coastal route that connected the Eternal City with Gaul (present-day France) in 241 BC. Italian scientists have discovered that modern birds also follow this route. The ancient road became a landmark for thousands of generations of carrier pigeons. How they pass this information on to their descendants remains a mystery.
Training
But you should not expect that, as soon as the pigeon takes wing, it will obediently deliver your messages. Sometimes training takes quite a lot of time. And of course, among the pigeons there are those who are more responsible and capable of postal work, and there are also lazy ones - just like with people!
As soon as the chicks begin to fly confidently enough, that is, around the third week of their life, they are released into free flight, accompanied by an experienced leader. This will ensure that they return home. From the many chicks flying around the nest, an experienced pigeon keeper must choose several of the smartest ones, those who best navigate the terrain. He will train them further, individually.
The selected pigeons begin to be gradually taken away from the house and released. In the first year, pigeons are not trained at distances greater than 320 kilometers. For the first flights you also need good weather. In order not to discourage the birds from returning, the pigeon keeper must catch them very carefully. And finally, it’s always more pleasant to return to where you are expected. Therefore, it is important for carrier pigeons to choose a spouse. Otherwise, they can find a mate elsewhere and abandon their native nest. But pigeons “mate,” as pigeon keepers say, that is, they find a partner, once and for life! These are truly marriages made in heaven.
Pigeon mail today
These days there are many reliable and fast means of communication: the Internet, mobile networks, telephone lines, airmail, after all. Is there still a place for the carrier pigeon in our lives now?
For many people, pigeon mail is a tradition that they want and do not see the need to part with. One of these traditions has existed since ancient times. The ancient Greeks announced the victories of the Olympians by sending carrier pigeons to large cities. In 1996, following the ancient example of the Greeks, Slovakia sent out its “pigeongrams” in honor of the Olympics held in Atlanta. They were equipped with commemorative stamps. In the homeland of pigeon mail, New Zealand, pigeon flights are held annually along a well-trodden route between Auckland and the Barrier Reef islands.
In addition, there are sporting competitions, the so-called “Olympics” of pigeons. The sporting homing pigeon is a bundle of muscles encased in a perfect, streamlined body. He differs from his usual gray brother, like a professional athlete from an ordinary fan. Every year the International Pigeon Post Union holds special competitions for birds.
Faster, cheaper, more efficient
But all this does not mean that pigeon mail has lost its practical purpose. In some conditions, pigeons can be much more reliable than a telephone cable, which can be cut. For example, in the 20th century, during the First and Second World Wars, they were successfully used by both the military and journalists. Pigeons were especially effective over short distances, for transmitting urgent news or dispatches.
In peaceful life, pigeons will also outperform even airmail. At the end of the 20th century, an experiment was conducted in the Baltic states: who will deliver a letter to the recipient faster - an airplane, land mail or a pigeon? To the surprise of the researchers, the pigeon was the first to complete the task, ahead of all modern means of communication. Currently, pigeon post has been preserved in Switzerland and Cuba, but pigeons are used for practical purposes in other countries. In Holland, pigeons still save lives to this day - they deliver test tubes of donated blood to hospitals. It turned out to be faster and cheaper than delivery by car. In Belgium, pigeons carry secret information on special chips - tiny in size, but capable of containing the entire text of the Bible!
The emergence of modern information carriers will not shorten, but, on the contrary, extend the life of pigeon mail. Chips and memory cards weigh much less than previous notes, and contain much more information. Transmitting it over the Internet is not always safe, but a pigeon can quickly deliver it to the recipient. You can always rely on him, unlike a courier: he is not subject to so-called “human factors”, he will not be bribed by competitors. The main thing is to feed it properly, and you will have at your disposal your own little supercomputer, created by nature and polished by man.
Pigeons have a bad reputation today. Many people perceive them as stupid birds that shit on the streets and spread diseases. Some call them "winged rats." Although there is no basis for such an attitude, especially since pigeons are incredibly smart creatures.
Ordinary city pigeons are well oriented in space and will always find their way home. Firstly, pigeons remember landscape features along their path; secondly, they remember smells; thirdly, they have a “built-in compass” with which they navigate by the Sun. If one of these features malfunctions, the bird cannot find its way home. Banal artificial street lighting can prevent the pigeon from returning home.
Researchers at Oxford University equipped the birds with a GPS navigation system to track their flight paths. During their journey, the two pigeons had the choice of returning home individually or as a pair. The birds found a compromise and chose something in between - they set off along a common route, close to their individual routes leading home. The fact is that pigeons are capable of obeying and following the leader, but if the pigeons’ routes are completely different or directed in different directions, then compromise is not possible. It should be noted that pigeons in a flock cover the route much more efficiently than alone.
Researchers came across another interesting fact several years ago when they realized that pigeons could distinguish human faces. During the experiment, two researchers, approximately the same in build and type, treated the pigeons differently: one was kind, and the other chased them around the cage during feeding. After a certain time, the researchers stopped appearing in front of the pigeons, but when they appeared again, the birds recognized them and began to avoid the one who had behaved aggressively in the past, despite the fact that he stood still.
Among the little-known facts about pigeons, the ability of birds to remember certain information for a long time should be highlighted. Another experiment, conducted at the Mediterranean Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, aimed to measure the memory properties of pigeons in comparison with baboons. Pigeons and baboons were often shown a picture and a color, and the animals were required to remember the associations. The pigeons were able to remember from 800 to 1200 associations. Although they lost to the baboons in the competition, this is a good result.
Recently, research has shown that pigeons know abstract mathematics. They tend to calculate their behavior, which was previously considered the prerogative of only primates. During the experiment, three pigeons were shown three sets of objects on a screen. One set had one item, the second had two, and the third had three. All objects differed in color, shape and size. Pigeons were trained to peck on a screen, first a set with one object, then two, and later three. When they did what they were asked to do without error, the pigeons were shown sets containing from one to nine items, respectively. As a result, the pigeons were able to distinguish sets with one, two and three objects, although they were not taught that there could be more than three objects. This experiment showed that pigeons are able to understand the nature of numbers and that cause-and-effect relationships are not alien to them.
Many facts about the role of pigeons in human history are missing from textbooks. But everyone is well aware that people have been using pigeon mail since time immemorial. Therefore, during the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, the city's defenders used this talent of pigeons to transmit messages, which was faster than the telegraph. For obvious reasons, less than 10% of birds survived the hostilities of the First World War. Many of the survivors were awarded Mary Deakin medals for their invaluable services.
4. Pigeons tend to behave superstitiously
In 1947, Skinner published the results of an experiment in which pigeons with low weights were placed in a cage. They were fed regularly at regular intervals. Over time, 6 out of 8 pigeons showed interesting behavior. One of the birds regularly repeated the same movement - sticking its head into the corner of the cage, the other continuously moved around the cage in a circle. The fact is that the birds decided that they were fed only because of their strange behavior.
3. Relatives of the Dodo bird
DNA analysis of pigeons has shown similarities with the extinct dodo bird. A relative of the modern pigeon is the colorful Nicobar pigeon, which lives in southeast Asia and the Nicobar Islands. Before this scientific discovery, it was difficult to determine which family the extinct dodo bird belonged to, since it was characterized by unique external physical features.
2. Pigeons can come in different colors
It seems to many that pigeons are mostly medium-sized, dark gray in color and live on city streets. Most of them, yes, but that's just one type. Pigeons live all over the world, and many of them look very beautiful. For example, there are fruit pigeons that surprise with their bright green, red and yellow hues.
1. Pigeons are several thousand years old
Pigeons can be called human companions. The first documentary mention of them appeared more than 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. In Egypt, the remains of pigeons were found in ancient human burials. There have been cases in history when people treated pigeons as sacred birds. They were worshiped, they were exalted. Despite the fact that some species of pigeons have disappeared and become rare, they have coexisted with people for thousands of years.
Not every pigeon can become a carrier pigeon. Although there is no specific breed of such pigeons, breeders diligently monitor the pedigree of the birds, proper nutrition, careful care and, of course, regular training, which begins as soon as the pigeon has full plumage, that is, about six weeks old. For the first month and a half, the bird is taught to fly around its native dovecote, and only then they begin to gradually take it away from the nest at some distance (during the first year - about 50-75 km) and teach it to return. In the second year of training, the winged postman is able to fly several hundred kilometers, in any weather and at different times of the year.
"Specifications"
Of the 20 years of their life, carrier pigeons spend an average of about 15 years in service. The speeds they are capable of and the distances they travel are amazing. These birds fly on average at an altitude of 100-150 meters (depending on the weather) at a speed of 50-70 km per hour, traveling hundreds and sometimes thousands of kilometers. On themselves they are able to carry loads equal to a third of their own weight, namely about 80-90 grams.
Winged photojournalists
At the beginning of the 20th century, German pharmacist Julius Neubronner invented pigeon aerial photography. One day, when the pigeon he sent to deliver medicine returned after a very long time and was well-fed, the pharmacist came up with the idea of tracking the bird, attaching a small camera to it that would automatically take pictures at certain intervals. As a result, Neubronner learned that his pigeon was in the care of the chef of a German restaurant. This is how the pharmacist became the inventor of pigeon photography.
Is the pigeon connection alive?
Most pigeon mail services were disbanded after World War II, but in some countries they have survived and are still in operation. In India, for example, they use winged mail on election days to quickly deliver information to hard-to-reach areas. In Switzerland, birds help deliver emergency messages. In the English city of Plymouth, pigeons ferry blood samples from hospitals to research laboratories. In New Zealand, the birthplace of pigeon mail, “Stamp Week” is held annually, during which participants (postage stamp collectors) use the services of winged postmen.
Why do they always come back?
Scientists have concluded that pigeons, like many other birds or animals, have a natural desire to return home, to their native nest or dovecote. This is due to animal instincts: the desire for their mate (male - female, female - male), as well as “parental” instinct - the desire to feed and protect their chicks.
How birds find their way home
It is still not known exactly how pigeons navigate in space and find their way home in absolutely any conditions. A lot of research was carried out: birds were taken to places completely unfamiliar to them, thousands of kilometers away, they tried to confuse them, confuse them, and even circled them along the way on a kind of carousel and put them to sleep - they invariably returned to their native nest. As a result, there are several versions of how birds manage to get on the right path. There is a hypothesis that they determine the desired direction by the position of the sun and the location of the stars. Another opinion says that infrasound helps birds navigate - sound vibrations with a frequency of less than 10 Hz (that is, inaudible to a person who recognizes a frequency in the range of 16 Hz), which propagate in the atmosphere over long distances. The third version assumes that pigeons have an internal “compass”, which allows them to perceive the magnetic lines of force of the Earth and, with their help, find the right path.
Soldier pigeons and spy pigeons
During the First World War, pigeon mail was widely used by all warring countries. In some of them it was also used on warships. Particularly distinguished birds were awarded orders and medals for their military merits.
Homing pigeon No. 888 was promoted to the rank of colonel. After his death, he was interred with all the honors due to the funeral of high-ranking military personnel.
The pigeon Cher Ami (from the French "Cher Ami" - Dear Friend) during the Battle of Verdun during the First World War helped rescue the "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Division, which was surrounded: a few hours after he delivered a message about it battalion (with a wound in the chest, bloodshot eyes and a shot off paw), 194 people were saved. The bird received a gold medal from the American Homing Pigeon Society and the French Croix de Guerre.
A British pigeon named Commando, as part of the National Pigeon Service, worked for British intelligence agents behind the front lines: he made three missions into Nazi-occupied France with vital intelligence information, for which, at the end of the war, he was awarded the Mary Dickin Medal (the highest British military award for animals).
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. During the siege of Paris (for four months), the French, with the help of pigeons, managed to transmit about 150 thousand of both military and civilian private messages. Opponents tried to fight the winged spies: they fired at them and even sent tame hawks and falcons to hunt them.
During the Great Patriotic War in the occupied territories, the German command considered all pigeons as potential “spies”: they were confiscated from the local population and destroyed.
Record-breaking pigeons
In 2013, a Chinese billionaire acquired a Dutch pigeon with outstanding abilities: the bird covered a distance of 2,700 km (slightly less than the journey from Moscow to Paris) in just 18 days.
. French Prince Friedrich Charles in 1871 he gave his mother a dove, which in 1875, having escaped freedom, returned to his dovecote in Paris.
In 2010, an experiment was conducted in England, as a result of which carrier pigeons delivered flash cards over a distance of 193 km faster than Internet users downloaded a 300 MB video (at a speed of less than 2 Mbit/s): the birds completed the task in 1 hour 15 minutes, and the video at this point was loaded at 24%.
There are known cases of pigeons flying from Rome to Brussels over an air distance of 1100 km across the Alps.
Some birds are capable of reaching speeds of up to 100 km/h (for comparison: the speed of a fast passenger train ranges from 50 to 90 km/h).
During the Civil War, the guards, retreating from Sevastopol, took several carrier pigeons to a foreign land. The birds released into the wild gradually returned to Crimea one after another, having traveled more than 2,000 kilometers by air.
Pigeon mail today seems hopelessly outdated. But this is only at first glance. An experiment that took place in 1996 in the Baltic states showed that pigeons can still deliver correspondence much faster than ground and air mail. Therefore, this type of communication is still used in Switzerland, Cuba and a number of other countries.
Home!
The mechanism that helps pigeons find the right city, building, and even window is not fully understood. For now, scientists call it the instinct of returning home - homing. And the pigeon brain itself is a natural computer. As a joke, of course. But, as you know, there is some truth in every joke: the brain of this small bird is unusually developed, because pigeons not only know how to collect information through the senses, but are also able to process and store it - in quite large volumes.
The eyes play a major role in collecting information.
Somehow, pigeons are able to filter out everything unnecessary and remember only what can be useful to them. Therefore, visual impressions are the most important in a bird navigator.
In addition, pigeons navigate by the sun, however, this mechanism does not work at night: lit lanterns throw the bird off course...
Some researchers believe that pigeons, unlike other birds, capture odors, thanks to which their brain develops a “map of aromas” - both domestic and those brought by the wind. Being far from their habitat, they simply “sniff” the air and thus determine in which direction to fly.
However, an experiment conducted by a group of German scientists in 2011 showed that smells are still not a sufficient guide for pigeons. Many birds taken to mountainous areas often stopped on their way back, as if seeking additional information. Moreover, those experimental subjects whose right nostril was previously closed by the researchers had difficulty returning. The fact is that it is there that pigeons have a “magnetic receptor” system, which allows even tiny chicks to remember the level of magnetic intensity of the Earth near their nest. Moreover, this information is stored in the bird’s head forever.
In 2013, scientists were able to find out that the pigeon’s ear perceives infrasound arising from the movement of the earth’s crust. At the same time, each place for a bird sounds differently. At this sound she flies towards the house.
It is no less surprising that pigeons, which have lived next to people since ancient times, have learned to “use” their roads! In 241 BC. There was a coastal route between Rome and Gaul, along which pigeon mail followed. So, modern pigeons continue to fly along the same route, although there has been no road there for a long time. Therefore, information about air routes is passed on from generation to generation by pigeons. But it has not yet been possible to find out exactly how.
Letters from the past
They knew how to send letters back in the countries of the Ancient World. In the notes of Pliny the Elder you can find information about how in 43 BC. the city of Mutina was besieged and its commandant Brutus notified the consul Hirtius about it via pigeon mail. And he quickly sent help to the besieged.
Most often, “winged dispatches” fluttered in wartime, when the fate of entire nations depended on the speed of mail delivery. Thus, in 1249, carrier pigeons helped the Egyptian Sultan Nur ad-Din deliver the news to Sultan Najm ad-Din in time that the port of Damietta had been captured by the French. The sultans joined forces and liberated the territory. Later Nur ad-Din organized a network of pigeon towers throughout the country. Then trained birds cost fabulous money - a thousand denarii per pair.
In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, communication between besieged Paris and the city of Tours was carried out through pigeon mail. These were messages, greatly reduced, captured on film. Each pigeon carried up to 20 such messages. Of course, the Germans knew about this. At first they fired at the feathered postmen, and then they began to set falcons on them. But the resourceful French came up with the idea of attaching whistles to the tails of pigeons, which during the flight scared away predators with their nasty sound.
In 1815, carrier pigeons served Jacob and Nathan Rothschild well. When Napoleon returned to power, the stock exchanges were in turmoil. We were waiting to see how the Battle of Waterloo would end. In the French army, the Rothschilds had their own agents who had carrier pigeons. While Napoleon was on his way to victory, British shares fell in price, and after the French were defeated, their value increased sharply. Pigeon mail promptly delivered reports on the progress of the battle to the Rothschilds. Thanks to this, they learned about the outcome of the battle before others and bought shares at the lowest price. And from this they made a substantial capital.
Russian experience
According to written sources, the founder of pigeon mail in Russia in 1854 was Prince Golitsyn, who thus established communication between his Moscow home and his estate, located 90 miles away. However, it is impossible to say that no one has thought of this before. Most likely, some kind of personal correspondence had long been transmitted with the pigeons, which needed to be kept secret.
Another Russian who used pigeons to deliver mail was in 1873 the staff captain, adjutant of the Pechersk fortress Arendt. He began training homing birds and managed to achieve amazing results: pigeons could stay in the air for 12 hours at a time and “accelerate” up to 100 km/h. Arendt's successes in 1891 became the impetus for the creation of a pigeon communication line between Moscow and St. Petersburg, and later in other directions. But there is no limit to perfection. Soon a new record was set. The trained birds of pigeon breeder Domashkev were able to cover more than 500 km at a speed of 86 km/h in 6 hours.
In 1890, the “Russian Society of Pigeon Sports” appeared in Russia. It published its own magazine and regularly held pigeon flight distance competitions. After the revolution, business began to decline and began to revive only after 1925. And in 1929, pigeons were called up for public service. Then the order “On the adoption of the pigeon communication system into the country’s arsenal” was approved, within the framework of which manuals for combat training of military pigeon breeding units were developed.
Winged report
The 20th century in human history turned out to be the bloodiest. One after another, two wars swept across the world. And both pigeons found work. Thus, during the First World War, birds were first used for espionage purposes. Small cameras were attached to the pigeons’ necks and they were sent “on a mission”: to film enemy units. There was also a pigeon post service. There is a known case when a bird delivered an important message to the addressee on time and thereby saved a British army unit from death. As a token of gratitude, the pigeon was awarded the rank of colonel in the British Army. He went through the entire war in this rank, and when his time came, he was interred with all the honors due to a colonel.
During World War II, carrier pigeons delivered about 15 thousand letters, 98% of which reached their recipients. True, in the USSR, pigeons that belonged to the civilian population were equated to an illegal means of communication, and therefore were subject to destruction. Failure to comply with this order was punishable under the laws of war... And on both sides! After all, the Germans who found themselves in the occupied territories were afraid that Soviet citizens would maintain contact with the partisans using pigeons.