the.com/messenger pigeon
a feathered fax machine that outran armies and saved lives before WiFi existed
means A homing pigeon trained to carry written messages, released far from home so its instinct to return delivers the note to a fixed loft.
from "Messenger" comes through Old French "messagier," from "message" — ultimately the Latin "mittere," to send. "Pigeon" also traveled through Old French "pijon," a young dove, from the Late Latin "pipio," a chirping nestling — an imitation of the peeping sound. The phrase simply yokes the sender's word to the bird, and humans had spotted the homing pigeon's uncanny navigational gift for thousands of years: the ancient world used them to flash news of Olympic victors and military movements, and they were still flying dispatches through the smoke of 20th-century battlefields.
- war hero
- One pigeon, Cher Ami, won a French medal
- speed
- Flies home at 60 mph for hundreds of miles
- magnetic sense
- Navigates using Earth's magnetic field and smell
- stock tips
- Reuters built its empire on pigeon-borne news
- loyalty
- Always flies home, never to the destination
cher ami — wwi pigeon delivered message with coordinates despite being shot, saving 194 soldiers in october 1918
the carrier pigeon service — indian postal system used pigeons to deliver mail in mumbai until 2010