The Pigeon Spy and His Work in War 



How a German apothe- 

 cary filled Prescriptions by 

 carrier Pigeons and how 



his son invented a camera where- 

 by pigeons could make photo- 

 graphs for the German army 



ONE of the strangest phenomena 

 of the war has been the revival 

 during its course of methods and 

 implements used in the warfares of me- 

 dieval times and even of antiquity. We 

 hear of slings and catapults for firing 

 explosive bombs a short distance, of ar- 

 rows shot from aeroplanes, of helmets, 

 breastplates, and shields for the protec- 

 tion of the soldiers. Now. last of all, 

 comes word that pigeons, the carriers of 

 intelligence in times of stress in remote 

 times, are used as photographers of the 

 positions of the enemy. It is a stfange 

 medley, the air-ship, the last and most 

 daring invention of man's brain, rising 

 in the early dawn to search out and pho- 

 tograph the foe's movements, and the 

 graceful pigeon, so frequently mentioned 

 in the stories of early days, soaring, per- 

 haps at the same moment, to act as an 

 aerial scout. 



But modern ingenuity has added some- 

 thing to the older roles of the carrier 

 pigeon — and has turned him into a pho- 

 tographer. The only authenticated re- 

 ports of this use have been found in 

 accounts of a German invention, some 

 of the pigeons having been brought down 

 behind the allied lines. Whether the 

 Allies have tried the same means of get- 

 ting photographs of German entrench- 



ments and troops is a matter of con- 

 jecture. 



The story of this development of the 

 pigeon's work goes back to 1840, and the 

 enterprise of a German apothecary of 

 Cronberg named Neubronner. 



He gave the doctors of the surround- 

 ing country pigeons by which they could 

 send him prescriptions needed in haste. 

 In this way the medicine was ready by 

 the time the messenger with the other 

 copy of the prescription arrived. In 

 urgent cases the apothecary, himself, 

 sent a messenger with the preparation. 

 This ingenious sales' service was carried 

 on for a long while. 



The apothecary's son. Dr. Jules Neu- 

 bronner, like his father, also had pigeons 

 which he used to convey orders between 

 his house and the sanatorium of Falken- 

 stein, or to carry small doses of medi- 

 cine, for which he had telephoned to his 

 apothecary. One of his pigeons, a few 

 years ago, stayed away for a month, and 

 this led the doctor to devise a plan by 

 which he could tell where his pigeons 

 went when they were let loose. To this 

 end he used a small, light photographic 

 apparatus which could take views during 

 a flight of about sixty-five feet a minute. 

 The apparatus is arranged to fit the 

 breast of a pigeon to which it is held 



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