Pigeon mail seems hopelessly outdated today. But this is only at first glance. An experiment in 1996 in the Baltics showed that pigeons can still deliver mail much faster than land 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 a window is not fully understood. So far, scientists call it the homecoming instinct - homing. And the pigeon brain itself is a natural computer. As a joke, of course. But, as you know, every joke has a grain of truth: 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 fairly large volumes.
Eyes play a major role in gathering information.
Somehow, pigeons are able to weed out everything unnecessary and remember only what may be useful to them. Therefore, visual impressions are the most important in the bird navigator.
In addition, the pigeons are guided by the sun, however, this mechanism does not work at night: lighted lanterns knock the bird down …
Some researchers believe that pigeons, unlike other birds, catch odors, due to which a "map of aromas" is formed in their brains - both domestic and those brought by the wind. Being far from their habitat, they simply "smell" the air and thus determine in which direction to fly.
Promotional video:
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 the highlands, often stopped on their way back, as if seeking additional information. Moreover, those experimental subjects for whom the researchers had previously closed their right nostril experienced difficulties with the return. The fact is that it is there that pigeons have a "magnetic-receptor" system that allows even tiny chicks to remember the level of the Earth's magnetic intensity near their nest. Moreover, this information is stored in the bird's head forever.
In 2013, scientists managed to find out that the ear of a pigeon perceives infrasound arising from the movement of the earth's crust. Moreover, each place for a bird sounds different. At this sound, she flies to the house.
It is no less surprising that pigeons, living next to people since ancient times, have learned to “use” their roads! In 241 BC. between Rome and Gaul there was a coastal route along which the pigeon mail also followed. So, modern pigeons continue to fly along the same route, although there is no road there for a long time. Therefore, information about airways is passed on from generation to generation in pigeons. But how exactly, it has not yet been possible to find out.
Letters from the past
How to send letters with pigeons, they knew even 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 informed the consul of Girtius by means of pigeon mail. And he promptly 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. So, in 1249, carrier pigeons helped the Egyptian sultan Hyp ad-Din in time to deliver the news to Sultan Najm ad-Din that the port of Damietta was captured by the French. The sultans joined forces and liberated the territory. Later, Hyp 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 by means of pigeon mail. These were messages filmed with a strong reduction. Each pigeon carried up to 20 such messages. Of course, the Germans knew about this. First, they fired at the feathered postmen, and then began to set the 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 off predators with their nasty sound.
In 1815, carrier pigeons did good service to Jacob and Nathan Rothschild. When Napoleon returned to power, the stock markets were in turmoil. They waited for the end of the Battle of Waterloo. In the French army, the Rothschilds had their own agents who had carrier pigeons. While Napoleon was on the way to victory, the British stock fell in value, and after the French were defeated, their value rose sharply. Pigeon mail delivered timely reports of the battle to the Rothschilds. Thanks to this, they learned about the outcome of the battle earlier than others and bought the shares at the lowest price. And on that they have amassed a solid capital.
Russian experience
According to written sources, the ancestor of pigeon mail in Russia in 1854 was Prince Golitsyn, who thus established communication between his Moscow house and the estate located 90 miles from him. However, it cannot be argued that no one had thought of this before. Most likely, some kind of personal correspondence had been transmitted with the pigeons for a long time, which had to be kept secret.
Another Russian who used pigeons to deliver mail was the staff captain, parade-de-camp of the Pechersk Fortress Arendt in 1873. He began to train post birds and managed to achieve amazing results: pigeons could stay in the air for 12 hours in a row and "accelerate" to 100 km / h. Arendt's successes in 1891 became the impetus for the creation of a pigeon line between Moscow and St. Petersburg, and later in other directions. But there is no limit to perfection. A new record was soon set. Trained birds of pigeon breeder Domashkev managed to overcome more than 500 km in 6 hours at a speed of 86 km / h.
In 1890, the Russian Society of Pigeon Sports appeared in Russia. It published its own magazine and regularly held pigeon competitions for flight range. After the revolution, business declined and began to revive only after 1925. And in 1929, the pigeons were drafted into government service. Then the order "On the adoption of the pigeon communication system into the armament of the country" was approved, within the framework of which guidelines for the combat training of military pigeon breeding units were developed.
Winged report
XX century in the history of mankind turned out to be the most bloody. One after the other, two wars swept the world. And work was found on both pigeons. So, in the First World War, birds were first used for espionage purposes. Small cameras were attached to the pigeons' necks and sent "on a mission": to shoot enemy units. Pigeon mail also worked. There is a known case when a bird delivered an important message to the addressee on time and thereby saved an army unit of the British from death. As a token of gratitude, the pigeon was awarded the rank of colonel in the British army. In this rank, he went through the entire war, 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 the addressees. True, in the USSR, pigeons belonging to the civilian population were equated with an illegal means of communication, and therefore were subject to destruction. Failure to comply with this order was punishable by martial law … And on both sides! After all, the Germans who found themselves in the occupied territories were afraid that Soviet citizens would keep in touch with the partisans with the help of pigeons.
Fast and reliable
Today, letters with doves continue to be sent in Switzerland, Cuba and in remote areas of India. And in Holland they are entrusted with the delivery of donated blood to hospitals. It's much faster this way, because birds don't depend on traffic jams, and it's cheaper - they don't need gasoline. In Belgium, pigeons are used to deliver microchips containing a large amount of classified information, which is not always safe to transmit over the Internet. In addition, in this case, the human factor is completely excluded. The winged courier will not be bribed by competitors.
But still, alas, we have to admit: in the modern world, pigeon mail is used mainly for advertising and propaganda purposes. Despite all its advantages.
Journal: Steps of the Oracle # 12. Author: Galina Belysheva