“The harmless pigeon still has its use in war as a bearer of dispatches despite the great development of modern means of communication,” The New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial told its readers 100 years ago. “When it is impossible to depend upon the telephone between the front trenches and the rear through wires being cut or broken, a carrier pigeon service becomes extremely valuable.” The photograph showed a pigeon mail carrier leaving a British trench.
“The method of sending a message is to enclose it in a small aluminum tube about one inch long and half an inch in diameter and then fasten the tube to the pigeon’s leg. Now that the United States Army is learning all the latest devices used in modern warfare, the Signal Corps is being trained in the use of carrier pigeons. Three thousand birds have already been called into service at Philadelphia.” (The article did not say whether they had volunteered or been drafted.)
“An occasional hindrance to pigeon-carrier communication is that civilians, unaware that the birds are on active service, shoot them.”
“America Calls — Enlist Today. A photograph of U.S. signal officers wigwagging the above message from the dome of Capitol at Washington at the opening of the recruiting week for the regular Army.” The officers, slightly more than specks, can be discerned at the base of the cupola.
“Here we see why the Red Cross needs all the help it can get. These wounded men, who happen to belong to the British Army, have just been brought in from the firing line by stretcher-bearers, and are waiting for ambulances to take them to base hospitals.” The Times reported that the American Red Cross had just succeeded in raising $114 million (about $2.1 billion today) during a seven-day campaign — or $14 million ($263 million) more than its stated goal.
A motorboat “armed with machine gun and manned by yachtsmen cooperating with the police in harbor patrol work” was photographed off Stamford, Conn. The threat to America did not necessarily come from abroad, The Times said darkly in an accompanying article about domestic defense measures. “In a population so varied in racial origin, traditions and sympathies, including a small element which is influenced by subversive ideas, there must inevitably be some danger of disturbance.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)