EOTO 1 Reaction Post

                              "Carrier Pigeons" 

Over centuries, human communication has been transformed by technological advancements that as we now use them daily, we take for granted. I became aware of several historical technologies through my peers, such as message relays carried out by carrier pigeons from 3100 BC to WWI. 

               Medium.com
Carrier Pigeons 

In my mind, carrier pigeons were mainly used in medieval times as a way for peasants and royals to send messages. However, these birds were first used in Ancient Egypt with enough importance that they were depicted in the ancient hieroglyphs. 

Many Egyptians used the carrier pigeons to communicate important information such as the election of a new pharaoh. In Ancient Greece, carrier pigeons were used to relay messages about the heroes of the Olympic Games to the villagers. 

Homing and Carrier pigeons are the two main types of pigeons used for various messaging purposes. Carrier pigeons were mostly bred for their appearance rather than agility in the early millennia. Modern homing pigeons are known as "racing pigeons," as they are the fastest and quickest of the flight messengers. 

As you can imagine, the journey for the pigeons was extremely dangerous as they had to avoid many natural predators. The pigeons even got lost in flight or injured, which caused a message to be delayed or arrive later than scheduled. 

                     Space Museum
Cher Ami

Carrier pigeons were used in WWI to transfer short messages to the frontlines. In 1918, Cher Ami, a famous pigeon, helped two hundred American soldiers message the American forces for help because a miscommunication error trapped them under German machinery.  

Cher Ami was so devoted to his mission of delivering this urgent message from trapped soldiers, that he continued to fly by German militia. Even though he lost an eye and one of his legs, this heroically brave little bird flew twenty-five miles to complete his mission of relaying the message from the trapped soldiers to the United States military. For this courageous act, Cher Ami was honored with being awarded "Croix de Guerre" by the French military generals. 

The use of pigeons throughout history was an effective transportation system for communication used by ancient civilizations to the more modern times of both World Wars. When comparing the carrier pigeons to my presentation radio topic, the carrier pigeons had a distinct advantage over the radio, since the pigeons did not require electricity to deliver messages between American forces on the frontlines.