Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-07-28
Scifm tifc.
o
EEsw Paris Communicated with
tIfe World during the seige.
The Wonders OF Art.

n. Y. Worlds review of "A new FrencI
work on the late war in Europe.
| When the surface of the earth be
came impossible Paris tried her bur
rows. On the 10th of January, 1871
the DirectOr-General of the Post Offic
signed an agreement with five person
who undertook to quit Paris and re
turn to it through the subterranear
quarries on the left bank of the Seine
These persons were forced to abandon
their attempt, as were also several in
dependent adventures. One of tn,
latter miserably perished by suffoca
ton in huge mass of mud which haC
settled in the CatacOmbs.
| That something of the failure of tn,
official attemps to keep open lanC
| communication ought to be attributed
to the stupefactiOn engendered by
officialism may perhaps he inferred
! from the fact that larger proportion
OF private than of public messengers
| succeeded in getting back and forth
one such messenger, named Barthe
! made two successful Journeys out and
home, taking and bringing many
thousands of letters. The artifices
used by these messengers were as man.
fold, as dark, and as peculiar as the
tricks of the "heathen Chinee."
Dispatches were carried in canes.
in knifehandles, in the shanks of keys.
in penny pieces holIOwed out, in
watch-chain charms, in coat buttons.
IN sleeve buttOns, i'm boot sOles. in
neckties, in little silver sheaths which
the bearer in seme cases swallowed.
and In other cases inserted in incis-
ions made in his own skin. One, su-
premely ingenious, carried his des-
patches in three hollow teeth which
he had filled with them! OF course
such refinement as this could only be
attained in an age of photography
The extent to which the art of photo
graphy was pressed into the service is
one of the most striking features of
this scientific fight of Paris for light
and air.
NJ. Boissay himself, NJ. Lacoin, and
NJ. Cadloni were the authors of the
plan by which Photographic cores
pOndence was made accessible to the
public. They were ably seconded at
Tours by NJ. Steenackers. NJ. Bar
esaaud, NJ. d'Almeida, and others. NJ.
Steenackers conceived the happy no
ton of causing all letters and despatch
es to be printed before they were pho
tOgraphed, thus securing clearness and
economizing space to such an extent
that it became possible to send 2i0 dis
patches of fifteen words each on a
piece of paper three centimetres wide
and four long. These dispatches were
sent at the rate of half frame or about
10 cents word. The government al
so sent pOst-Otfice orders in this way
up to 800 francs for charge of three
francs per order over and above the
usual charge of per cent.
These dispatches were eventually
printed, at the suggestion of NJ. DIAL
media, on thin plates of collodion
much lighter than paper. In this way
it became possible to send a much
greater number 10y the pigeon express
es-Of which we will presently say q
word. The art of microscopic reduc-
ton was also called in and worked
wonders. By printing the dispatches
in three columns no fewer than forty
eight pages, containing 800 telegrams
of fifteen words each, were eventually
got upon a sheet of collodiOn twenty
centimetres squarei AT Paris these
dispatches were read with a photo
electric microscope, and so TRANSCRIPT
eG. The enlarged image of the photo
graph was at first projected in dark
chamber by a ray of electric light up
on a white board, from which it was
read off and copied. Afterwards,
with the help of the cclectric light en-
Iarged photographs of the microscopic
photographs We're made on glass at
first, but finally on paper. These were
easily read, copied, and sent to their
destinations. In this way the pigeons
brought to Paris dispatches sent all
the way from COnstantinOple. The
total of their dispatches, exclusive of
official dispatches. was more than one
hundred thousand. NJ. BOissay puts
it down at 100,0S3. One single pigeon
was known to bring 500 pages, of Off
cial dispatches and Il, 200 private des-
patches! How did Paris get these
pigeons which did her more real ser
vice thad all her eagles of the empire? !?
Carrier-pigeOns, like q navy, are not
to be created suddenly. They have to
be trained in a very particular manner,
and accustomed by degrees to fly back
to their homes, first from distance,
of ten or twenty miles, then from a
greater distance, and so on, till at last
they will find their way safely over a
space of 100 or 200 miles. A few days
before the siege of Paris the Prefect of
of the Department of the North and
the President of the Chamber of Com
merce of Lille had the foresight to
send to Paris, where they were put in
the Jardin deS PJdntes, 1000 pigeons
II xx-ifl Ia
100 from Laval. These were all racing
pigeons, accustomed to fly back from
Paris to the provinces on wagers.
More than 400 of them carried valu-
BILE dispatches safely to the north and
east.
At Paris the pigeon fanciers were
less numerous, but not less patriotic.
Some twenty dove-cotes of the Societe
ColombOphile Parisienne supplied 369
pigeons to the service of the State, and
the president of the society, himself Ol
Flemish blood, NJ. Van Roosbeck, did
not hesitate to go out of Paris with
some of his pigeons in n balloon on
the 10th of October to superintend the
pigeon posts i'm the provinces. OF the
369 pigeons of Pals, siXty-five alone
returned bringing their cOllOdiOn
leaves with them. Eight more got
back, but without their dispatches.
The Germans sent back three more
which they had captured, bearing fab
ricated dispatches in place of the
French originals.
The pigeons bothered the Germans
so much that they imported trained
falcons from SaxOny to catch them.
1t is curious to see the sports of the
middle ages and and the science OF
modern times thus mingled and con-
founded together in the terrible melee
of war waged with all the applian-
! ces of modern intelligence and with
all the unscrupulOusness of medieval
ferocity,
The pigeons carried their despatch-
es i'm goOsequiIls fastened under theiI
tails. When each pigeon reached Its
doye-cote in Paris its owner, always
ON the lookout'with a post-offlce car.
rier. took the bird to the General Post.
office; thence they went all together
to the Governor of Paris, thence the
| private dispatches were sent 20 the
,tafaorsrh office where the reDlies N