Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1914-12-08

communication with the friends on the other side
Of the enemy
Homing pigeons have been used from time i'm
memorial, and they also used at Santiago.
Today a different condition exists. AS the Ger
were sweeping down on Paris the operator
in Eiffel tower whispered through the very air the
Germans were breathing to convey information to
st. Petersburg Petrograd
The swish of the wireless was unstoppable. The
Spaniards shot down the American signal men on
the entertainments in front of Santiago, but the
rifle bullets from the Germans could not interfere
with the wireless message as it went on its way.
One of the most wonderful developments of the
wireless telegraphy came at the opening of the Eu
ropean war when it became possible to talk all
the way from Berlin to Long island Germany
talked across the British fleet to her ships
sailing the Atlantic and warned them of the
sudden tremor
The only way to stop the wireless to de-
stroy the operator and he was thousands of miles
away. In our last war wires were stretched all
over the fields back of the fighting men. Dis
patchers carried word from colonel to general
where there had not been time to string the
wires.
In THIS war wires, too, have been stretched on
the fields, pigeons still have carried messages
dispatchers have galloped back and FORTH but in
addition to all these messengers of war the fight
ers ali depended more on the inve ltion of Mar
conf the great wireless telegraph
The wireless telegraph has proved its value
right on the field of battle. The man in the front
ranks or the outpost miles from the headquarters
could place himself in instant communication with
his chief. The wireless telegraph made it pos=i
BILE for German soldier fighting his way through
Belgium to talk to a German soldier defending
Alsace 1t made 1t possible for a soldier at Brus
sells to shout news of victory back to Berlin with
out an instant's delay.
It made it possible for the French and British
to keep in communication with each other and
map out new line of defense when the Germans
were hurting their mighty hosts against them.
Marconi had already made himself famous be-
fore the broke out His invention was one
of the greatest boons 10 humanity because it
saved lives aboard ship in time of sea horror. 1t
brought rescue to the distressed and expedited
shipping From an instrument of humanity and
peace 1t sprang to an instrument of and ter
tor.
Like the pigeon dove. the personifcation of
peace, it became instrument of war.
Perhaps next to the wireless stations the most
efficient messengers OF the homng pig
cons. These birds, the wisest OF their kind, are
employed to great advantage in English French,
German, Austrian Italian. Russian and Japanese
armies. Military authorities hold there is no bet
ter means for small detachments to communicate
with their headquarters could they want bet
ter.
On the fields of Europe the flights of the birds
are in most instances so short that they do not
have to stop for rest thus preventing the mes
sageS rom fall1ng INTO the hands oil the enemy
pigeon in its fight scars so high it is almost
invisible to the naked eye, thus it necessitates
the of high power guns to bring it to the
ground. And any man who ever makes such a
shot can wen call II miracle.
The king of England and the emperor of Ger
mary, well as other rulers of European nations
have their own flying kits, and in time Of peace
they enter their birds in races with birds belong
ing to their subjects The crowned heads deera
this royal sport
A bird equipped for flying with a message is
encased in bottlelike tube, the shape of its
body
A spy puts his message in his pocket, proceeds
his mission, quickly writes his discoveries on
small bits Of paper and places them in tube