The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-04-20
PIGEON posTMgN IN WAR.
Bird Which Carried 100000 Words on
Its Tall Feather.

II is a curious link with long-gone
centuries that the beleaguered people
in Port Arthur have been using car
rier pigeons to keep In touch with the
outside world, just as the good folk
of Modena did not much less than
1000 years ago.
But the most interesting use of pig.
cons in war was undoubtedly when
they did such excellent service during
the siege Of Paris a generation ago.
The pigeons, 1t may be remembered,
were sent out of the doomed city By
balloons--363 of them: of these, 303
were liberated, but only seventy-three
set foot again in Paris. II is amaz-
ing. even in this age of miracles, to
think that single one of these pig
con postmen carried no fewer than
10000 messages, each containing On
an average 20 words. This means q
grand total of 100000 words or tho
equivalent of half dozen fairly long
novels, as the burden of a single bird.
How was II done? Part of the mys-
terry vanshes when we say that the
weight of all these dispatches was
actually less than a gramme, about
one-twenty- eighth of an ounce, and
that they were contained within q
goose quill one and three-Quarter
inches long, which was attached By
a silk thread to one of the birds tail
feathers. The puzzle, however, re-
mains how 1t was possible to get over
threc.quarters of million words with
in this tiny compass.
The secret OF this seemingly inn
possible feat was microscopic pho
Biography The messages were first
printed in ordinary type. and then
reduced by photography several hun
dred times. The photographs were
taken on thin films or pellicles of col
lodion, each OF which, though it was
less than two inches square, could
thus contain $4,000 words. OF these
pellicles a pigeon could easily carry
dozen without interfering with its
comfort or speed, and. as we have
seen, one bird alone conveyed 10000
messages.
But pigeon has carried as much
as three-quarters OF an ounce for a
short distance. This weight would
represent something like 100000 mes
sages, or 100000 Words SO that
under these conditions, il would be
quite possible for a pigeon to carry
small library of l20 volumes GU its
tail.
so impressed were army men gen.
orally with the usefulness of the pig
con as demonstrated in the Franco
German war that 1t was not long be-
fore practically every nation in Eu-
rope had its trained military pigeons:
and today there are more than CO.,
military pigeon stations in Europe.
We were among the last to adopt
this simple and efficient method OF
carrying messages in time of war;
but now we have excellent lofts at
Portsmouth. Dartmouth and else
where, where birds are kept and train
ed in most scientific manner
In the Portsmouth lofts, which are
in the Royal Clarence Victualling
Yard at Gosport, is an Office where the
official og-books are kept with the ut
most detail and precision. There are
stud registers, and report books in
which the doings of every pigeon are
chronicled; one volume is devoted to
a record of times of liberation. anoth-
er to pigeons homing at the loft, and
in another volume the various mes
sages carried by the birds are pasted.
Among these it is interesting to no
tice many that have been sent to the
lofts by members of our royal family
when crossing the channel. The mo-
ment bird enters the loft it is auto
matically shut into a box by the
dropping Of noiseless slide. and an
electric bell summons an attendant
to take the message it has brought.