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Subject: Dead Media Working Note 04.6
Dead medium: the pigeon post
Source: The Early History of Data Networks by Gerard J.
Holzmann and Bjorn Pehrson, IEEE Computer Society Press,
1995
TK 5115 H67 1994
ISBN 0-8186-6782-6
copies can be ordered from: cs.books_AT_computer.org
IEEE Computer Society press Los Alamitos CA
(book # 6782-04) $35
Phone 714-821-8380 FAX 714-821-4010
(((Gerard Holzmann is from the Computing Science Research
Center at AT&T Bell Labs. Bjorn Pehrson is with the
Department of TeleInformatics at the Royal Institute of
Technology in Sweden. This book is obviously a labor of
love involving years of tireless efforts in the archives,
and it's hard to imagine a better book being written about
the history and the technical details of optical
telegraphy. Truly a must-have item for any serious dead
media researcher; the book is worth the price for the
meticulous bibliography alone. As a bonus, the entire
first chapter is about long-distance media that are even
older and dead than optical telegraphy -- including pigeon
post.)))
(page 6)
"It is said that the outcomes of the Olympic Games in
ancient Greece, around 776 BC, were sent by pigeons. But
even in those days this must have been old news. As noted
in a book by David Woods (((A history of tactical
communications techniques, New York, Arno Press, reprint
1974))):
'...in the days of the Pharaohs the Egyptians
announced the arrival of important visitors by releasing
pigeons from incoming ships. This may have been common as
early as 2900 BC.'
"The writer Harry Neal noted another ingenious use of
pigeons from a few centuries later. He stated that King
Sargon of Akkad, who lived ca. 2350 BC in Mesopotamia, had
each of his messengers carry a homing pigeon. If the
messenger was attacked en route, he released the pigeon.
The return of the pigeon to the palace was taken as a
warning that the original message had been 'lost,' and
that a new messenger should be sent, presumably by another
route.
"Homing pigeons were also used by the Romans, around
the fourth century AD. In 1641, John Wilkins referred to
it as follows ((("Mercury, or the secret and swift
messenger, showing how a Man may with Privacy and Speed
communicate his thoughts to a Friend" 1641, republished in
Foundations in Semiotics Vol 6 1984)))
'Lypsius relates out of Varro, that it was usual for
the Roman magistrates when they went unto the theatre, or
other such public meetings, whence they could not return
at pleasure, to carry a pigeon with them; that if any
unexpected business should happen, they might thereby give
warning to their friends or families at home.'
"The system was still in use some eight centuries
later. Woods reports that in the twelfth century Genghis
Khan (1167-1227) used a pigeon relay system to communicate
messages across Asia and much of Europe. (...)
"Another seven centuries later, in 1918, the British
Air Force kept over 20,000 homing pigeons, handled by 380
pigeoneers. The system was organized by Colonel A. H.
Osman. Woods quotes him as follows:
'A small balloon was constructed with a metal
[release-] band worked by clockwork. To this band was
attached a small basket containing a single pigeon with a
message holder on its leg, and to each basket was attached
a small parachute. The balloons were liberated in
favourable conditions of wind and at intervals
automatically released from the special ring a single
basket with a bird. These were dropped into Belgian and
French territory when occupied by the Germans, and in
French and Flemish a request was made to the finder to
supply intelligence information that was needed, at the
same time giving the finder hopefulness and cheer as to
the ultimate success of the allies' cause and promising
reward for the information supplied.
"Woods adds a sobering note:
'The Germans tried to stop this activity by replacing
captured pigeons with their own birds, and then arresting
and shooting anyone foolish enough to sign his name and
address to the note.'
"With this much history, it is not surprising that
pigeons were still used in 1981 by a group of engineers at
a Lockheed plant in Sunnyvale, California, to transmit
negatives of drawings to a test station 40 km away. As
Jon Bentley described it: (((More Programming Pearls,
Confessions of a Coder, Addison-Wesley 1988)))
The pigeon took just half the time and less than one
percent of the dollar amount of the car (the birds worked,
literally, for pigeon feed). Over a 16-month period the
pigeons transmitted hundreds of rolls of film and lost
only two."
Dead Media | 0.01-02.0 | 02.1-04.0 | 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 | 08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |