Now we communicate with each other, just click to send it, which is very convenient.
In ancient times, communications were underdeveloped, and people used carrier pigeon to deliver messages.
is because pigeons, especially the "homecoming" pigeons, have a strong sense of direction. Although they cannot accurately remember or find the path, they have the innate ability to always fly home.
Therefore, in order to pass information from one place to another, pigeons must understand the ins and outs of their home.
has been fully utilized by training them and starting what you can call "pigeon mail".
The emergence of the idea of flying pigeons
The idea of pigeons transmitting information from one place to another began about 5000 years ago. Although the initial delivery of letters was done through human messengers and horses, they have many shortcomings.
First of all, trusting your message to someone for delivery.
The most important thing is that there is always the possibility of interference in the form of accidents, delays, privacy leaks or enemy attacks.
In contrast, pigeons have the least shortcomings. They provide fast delivery and are also very reliable. They can also easily skip traffic, disasters, and attacks that humans cannot avoid.
The first well-organized pigeon mail was sent during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71.
What is interesting is that they initially chose to deliver the message through balloons-they can be easily sent out of the city, but because they can't control it, it ultimately fails.
Considering that the pigeons have a strong sense of direction, they are locked in a cage and tied to a balloon. The results are amazing. 57 out of 363 pigeons came home and it was a success!
Later, more homing pigeons were used during the war, which also earned them the title of "battle pigeon". The use of pigeon mail is most prominent in the political, diplomatic and military fields.
But how does the pigeon do it?
Pigeons have an excellent sense of direction, and after hours of hunting and foraging, they always find their way home, and they quickly accepted Training to convey information. It turns out that this is indeed a huge success, sometimes even too good to be true.
Careful training means gradually removing the pigeon from the nest and then letting it fly home. This gives them time to become more familiar with their surroundings and help them recognize their own path. Follow the procedure until they are ready to fly the entire distance on their own.
Because of its excellent navigation skills, the possibility of pigeons getting lost is very small.
small roll parchment or paper information is placed in a small tube and tied to the back or paw of the pigeon. Then they were released from a place that was not their home and used their instinct to fly home.
The biggest problem here is the one-way travel of birds (on land),Then they can fly home with the news. But this problem is solved by feeding the pigeons in one place and letting them transmit information to another place.
In this way, they can easily fly back and forth between two locations.
Over the years, many theories have been proposed to explain what makes pigeons the master of direction. Here are the four most common explanations:
- The position of the sun: The pigeon depends on the direction of the sun to determine its direction.
- Compass and map system: It is said that pigeons have a built-in mechanism similar to a compass that can help them choose the right direction.
- magnetic field: pigeons can be well connected with earth magnetic field and use it to move to places.
- infrasound: Since pigeons can only return to their original home, the theory is that they listen to low-frequency sounds until they can finally recognize the signature sounds of their home.
Pigeon Post Office
To make the most of this idea,The Pigeon Post Office was introduced. Here, they used small printed fonts and photographed them in a reduced size suitable for microfilm. Then put it into the capsule and stick it on the back of the pigeon.
At the receiving location, the microfilm was projected on the screen and the officials copied the text. This facility enables each pigeon to carry information worth 70,000 words.
The pigeon is really smart, and it is called the mouse in the sky. They were not used until the telegraph appeared in the 19th century.
However, the pigeons still have not lost their navigation ability. This explains why the pigeon family and their nests on my roof always come back a few days after I drive them away.
If there is no internet, would we still use pigeons?
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