The Carrier Pigeon

The piece of technology I chose was the carrier pigeon. The carrier pigeon, although it may not seem like it, was arguably one of the most important technologies ever to exist purely in terms of a way to communicate safely. In the early days of the world one of the biggest issues was communication with people who were not near you. Although we do not know who for sure, somebody thought to train pigeons to deliver notes and return back after they delivered the note. It was a safe and genius way for people to get word to others that were not near them in a quick and effective way of transport. 

As you can see on the picture above the idea was to write a note and tie it on the leg of the pigeon so it would not affect the pigeon's ability to fly. The next step was to train it to fly to certain places and then come back. The pigeon would fly to its destination and let somebody untie the note from its leg. Then if the person receiving the message wanted they could write a note and attach it to the leg of the pigeon so they could respond to the person who originally wrote the note. 

Generals in war realized that carrier pigeons were a genius way to transport messages from camp to camp during a war because nobody could intercept them. The only way that somebody was intercepting one of those messages was either if the pigeon randomly died and fell or they would have to shoot it out of the air. It was a great way for people in power during wars to send strategy plans without the fear of the enemy intercepting them. Sometimes countries would have people deliver messages on foot but if they were captured then the note would never get to the intended receiver and the enemy would now know your plan.

While researching this the only disadvantages I could find was that maybe the note could get wet due to rain or horrible weather conditions and also if the pigeon were shot down or randomly died then anybody could simply walk up to it and remove the note from its leg and read it.

The carrier pigeon did not have any actual negative effects in terms of how it was done. It was safe and very easy to do. Almost anybody could train a pigeon to do it and millions of people were using this technology. But like all good things, the carrier pigeon came to an end. Technology evolved and it was left in the past due to such inventions like the newspaper and eventually telephone. Overall for one of the first ways humans would communicate from far apart it did its job and served its purpose.

Although I am sure some people may be using carrier pigeons to this day they basically went extinct. People started hunting them and would shoot them out of the sky as they flew by so eventually it became a risk sending a message on a carrier pigeon. As time went on less and less people used them and eventually it became a way of the past in terms of communication.

 

Sources 

“The Incredible Carrier Pigeons of the First World War.” Imperial War Museums, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-incredible-carrier-pigeons-of-the-first-world-war. 

Smithsonian Institution. “The Passenger Pigeon.” Smithsonian Institution, https://www.si.edu/spotlight/passenger-pigeon.

Blume, Mary, and International Herald Tribune. “The Hallowed History of the Carrier Pigeon.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/30/style/the-hallowed-history-of-the-carrier-pigeon.html.