Dead
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| 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 |
08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |
Subject: Dead Media Working Note 04.3
Dead medium: the pigeon post
Source: The Pigeon Post into Paris 1870-1871
by John Douglas Hayhurst
Published by the author at 65, Ford Bridge Road, Ashford
Middlesex
1970
(((We return to Hayhurst's tale of the pigeon post during
the seige of Paris in the Franco-Prussian war -- bruces)))
page 13
"The service was formally terminated on 1st February
1871 (...) The successful operations must have been
performed by about 50 birds only. These 50 pigeons served
France well; they carried official despatches of great
importance as well as an estimated 95,000 private messages
which went far to keep up the morale of the besieged
Parisians. (...)
"The very last pigeon to complete its return to Paris
must, if La Perre de Roo can be believed, have been one
from *Niepce* captured in in November 1870 by the
Prussians and which was presented to Prince Frederick
Charles of Prussia, the commander of the Second Army. He
sent it home to his mother Princess Charles of Prussia who
placed it on the royal pigeon cote. Two years later,
tired of its Prussian lodging, it escaped and flew back to
Paris.
"The photographic reproduction of messages
"The first pigeons each carried a single despatch
which was tightly rolled and tied with a thread, and then
attached to a tail feather of the pigeon, care being taken
to avoid old feathers which the bird might lose when in
molt. From 19th October, the despatch was protected by
being inserted in the quill of a goose or crow, and it was
the quill which was attached to the tail feather.
Although a pigeon could have carried more, the maximum
weight it was asked to carry was about 1 gm, and, as the
service developed, the aim was to get the greatest
possible number of messages inside this weight.
Initially, the messages were written out by hand in small
characters on very thin paper(...)
"A great step forward was taken in early October from
the idea of Barreswil (or Barreswill) a chemist of Tours
who had been the co-author in 1854 with Davanne of *La
chimie photographique.* He proposed the application of
photographic methods with prints of a much reduced size
and of which an unlimited number of copies could be taken.
His death in late November robbed him of the satisfaction
of seeing his proposal accepted and extensively applied.
(...)
"The messages were written, still by hand, but in
big characters on large sheets of card which were pinned
side by side and photographically reduced. (...) A
further improvement occurred when Blaise succeeded in
printing messages on both sides of the photographic paper.
"Yet another improvement was the introduction of
letter-press as a partial replacement of manuscript."
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 |