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Title (Dublin Core)
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The Pigeon Spy and His Work in War
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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The Pigeon Spy and His Work in War. How a German apothecary filled Prescriptions by carrier Pigeons and how his son invented a camera whereby pigeons could make photographs for the German army
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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ONE of the strangest phenomena
of the war has been the revival
during its course of methods and
implements used in the warfares of me-
dieval times and even of antiquity. We
hear of slings and catapults for firing
explosive bombs a short distance, of ar-
rows shot from aeroplanes, of helmets,
breastplates, and shields for the protec-
tion of the soldiers. Now, last of all,
comes word that pigeons, the carriers of
intelligence in times of stress in remote
times, are used as photographers of the
positions of the enemy. It is a strange
medley, the air-ship, the last and most
daring invention of man’s brain, rising
in the early dawn to search out and pho-
tograph the foe’s movements, and the
graceful pigeon, so frequently mentioned
in the stories of early days, soaring, per-
haps at the same moment, to act as an
aerial scout.
But modern ingenuity has added some-
thing to the older roles of the carrier
pigeon—and has turned him into a pho-
tographer. The only authenticated re-
ports of this use have heen found in
accounts of a German invention. some
of the pigeons having been brought down
behind the allied lines. Whether the
Allies have tried the same means of get-
ting photographs of German entrench-
ments and troops is a matter of con-
jecture.
The story of this development of the
pigeon’s work goes back to 1840, and the
enterprise of a German apothecary of
Cronberg named Neubronner.
He gave the doctors of the surround-
ing country pigeons by which they could
send him prescriptions needed in haste,
In this way the medicine was ready by
the time the messenger with the other
copy of the prescription arrived. In
urgent cases the apothecary, himself,
sent a messenger with the preparation,
This ingenious sales’ service was carried
on for a long while.
The apothecary’s son, Dr. Jules Neu-
bronner, like his father, also had pigeons
which he used to convey orders between
his house and the sanatorium of Falken-
stein, or to carry small doses of medi-
cine, for which he had telephoned to his
apothecary, One of his pigeons, a few
years ago, stayed away for a month, and
this led the doctor to devise a plan by
which he could tell where his pigeons
went when they were let loose. To this
end he used a small, light photographic
apparatus which could take views during
a flight of about sixty-five feet a minute.
The apparatus is arranged to fit the
breast of a pigeon to which it is held
by elastic bands that pass over the back.
The shutter opens automatically at pre- |
arranged intervals and the roll of film,
which moves in unison with the shutter,
can take thirty photographs one and a |
half inches square. This allows an al:
most continuous registry of the principal
points of view during a flight of six
miles. One of the engravings shows
a view taken in fight by’ the pigeon
photographer. The general staff of the
German army heard of Dr. Neubron- |
ner’s ingenious device and investigated
its adaptability for topographic recon-
naissance, The method was evidently
found satisfactory, for since the present
ar broke out ‘many pigeon photogra.
phers have been found back of the Allied
lines either killed or stunned by the ex-
plosion of shells and firing of machine
guns.
The history of carrier pigeons in war
goes back to the carliest times. Pliny
tells us that Decimus Brutus, one of the
assassins of Cacsar, used pigeons, when
besieged by Antony at what is now Mo-
dena, to communicate with the Consul
Hirtius who was coming to his aid. The
crusaders are known to have used them
at the siege of Masar near Aleppo, and
the medieval Sultan Noureddin of
Egypt is said to have established a pig-
con-post with relays of pigeons. Among
the noted instances of their use in mod-
ern times is the story that the London
Rothschild knew of the defeat of Napo-
leon at Waterloo, by means of carrier-
pigeons, ahead of the English govern-
ment, to his great financial benefit on the
Exchange. Dut then, this is only one
of a dozen stories of the origin of the
Rothschild fortune,
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Julius Neubronner (inventor)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1916-01
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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30-31
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Filippo Valle
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 88, n. 1, 1916
