The Pigeon Post into Paris 1870-1871 by J.D. Hayhurst O.B.E. Prepared in digital format by Mark Hayhurst Copyright ?970 John Hayhurst Cover illustration. PREFACEThe postal history of the siege of Paris has long been a subject of intensive study; much has been written, much remains to be written. The research is mainly directed at the balloon post, occasionally at the boules de Moulins. In modern literature, references to the pigeon post are not rare but tend to include semi-fictional anecdotes or confusions of one feature of the service with another. Such distortions do not do justice to the efforts of those who were involved: the professional administrators and engineers, the pigeon fanciers who accepted the perils of flying by balloon from Paris over the Prussian lines and then of releasing the pigeons within range of the Prussian troops, the photographers with their remarkable technology. At the centenary of the siege of Paris, it is appropriate that there should be a better recognition of their performance. This account is based largely on the earlier literature and owes much to the libraries of the Assembl閑 Nationale and the Aero Club in Paris and to the records of the Post Office in London. Appreciation is most gratefully acknowledged of the advice of Mr. C. A. E. Osman of "The Racing Pigeon" on the handling and capabilities of pigeons. But this book could not have been prepared without the warm co-operation and assistance of the Mus閑 Postal in Paris, and it is sincerely dedicated to that museum, to its Conservateur, Monsieur Georges Rigol, and to his staff. The photographs on the cover and in Figures 1, 4, 5, 7, 12 and 13 are reproduced by permission of the Mus閑 Postal; those in Figures 8 and 9 by permission of the French Army Historical Service, Vincennes; and those in Figures 15 and 16 by courtesy of the Post Office. The photograph in Figure 14 was provided by the Mus閑 Postal; the Notice is privately owned in France and no original is in the Post Office Records. The historical backgroundThe purpose of this study is to describe the pigeon post which was in operation while Paris was besieged during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. Both the siege and the war have been the subjects of a vast literature which is said to exceed that of any other historical event, and to which is referred those who wish to read of the wider scene. In the present and narrower context, it is sufficient to recall that barely six weeks after the outbreak of hostilities, the Emperor Napoleon III and the French Army of Chalons surrendered at Sedan on 2nd September 1870. There were two immediate consequences: the fall of the Second Empire and the swift Prussian advance on Paris. Within days of the proclamation on 4th September of the Third Republic, it became evident to the newly formed Government of National Defence under the presidency of General Trochu that Paris was in dire peril and, on 12th September, a Delegation of the government was established at Tours under Isaac Cr閙ieux, comprising representatives of the ministries in Paris. Among these representatives was Steenackers, Directeur- G閚閞al des T閘間raphes since 4th September, who was to act both in his own right and as agent for Rampont, Directeur-G閚閞al des Postes, who remained in Paris. The double function resulted from the then separation of the Postes and the Telegraphes. Steenackers, born in Belgium in 1831, had become a naturalised French citizen in 1869 and was one of the deputies from the Haute-Marne in the Corps Legislatif, the lower house of the parliament of the Second Empire; he had played a prominent part in the expulsion of the Bonapartists. The authorities gave much thought to the maintenance of communications between Tours and Paris should the latter be besieged and a telegraph cable was hastily procured from England and secretly laid along the bed of the Seine between Paris and Rouen. As a further precaution, Steenackers took with him to Tours a number of carrier-pigeons. By 20th September, the Prussians had encircled Paris and had cut the normal channels of communications. Thereafter, the government of France and the conduct of the war fell increasingly to the Delegation, reinforced by the arrival of Gambetta, Minister of War and of the Interior, who had left Paris by the balloon Armand Barb鑣 on 7th October. A rivalry between the Government and the Delegation grew steadily, with Favre, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris, seeking an accommodation with the Prussians and with Gambetta striving to organise their military defeat. This rivalry extended to the Postes and the T閘間raphes. Rampont had been nominated to his post on 12th September, some days after the appointment of Steenackers who had little time for him; he never named him as the addressee of any of his messages, directing them instead to Mercadier, his own subordinate as Directeur des T閘間raphes in Paris, or, if he was aiming at higher levels, either to Favre or to Picard, Minister of Finance, or even to Trochu himself. On 14th October, Gambetta told the Government in Paris "Service des postes d閟organis?et tr鑣-mal fait; plaintes criantes. Celui de la t閘間raphe privee et militaire admirable; necessit?depuis longtemps pr関ue de r閡nir dans la main ferme de Steenackers les deux administrations. Nous avons nomm?Steenackers directeur-g閚閞al des lignes et des postes. Avisez Rampont devenu impuissant et pr関enez Picard afin que Steenackers ait tout pouvoir necessaire." In his new appointment, which dated from 12th October (although Gambetta's report did not reach Paris until 18th November), Steenackers promulgated regulations independently of Rampont who was left to issue parallel ones subsequently. If Rampont took any initiative, Steenackers contained its effects within his own jurisdiction when he so wished; in other cases he just flatly countermanded Rampont's orders. In the meantime, throughout October and November, the Prussian armies extended their areas of operations, capturing Orleans and threatening Tours, so that on 10th December the Delegation moved to Bordeaux where it remained until just after the armistice of 28th January 1871, concluded by Favre to the great chagrin of Gambetta who resigned on 6th February. In the general election of 8th February Steenackers failed to obtain a seat in the new Assembl閑 Nationale and on 20th February he resigned his post of Directeur-G閚閞al des T閘間raphes (and des Postes, if he was in fact still that). His rival Rampont, remained Directeur-G閚閞al des Postes until August 1873. Communication between besieged Paris and the rest of FranceAs had been expected, the normal channels of communication into and out of Paris were interrupted during the four-and-a-half months of the siege, and, indeed, it was not until the middle of February 1871 that the Prussians relaxed their control of the postal and telegraph services. With the encirclement of the city on 18th September, the last overhead telegraph wires were cut on the morning of 19th September, and the secret telegraph cable in the bed of the Seine was located and cut on 27th September. Although a number of postmen succeeded in passing through the Prussian lines in the earliest days of the siege, others were captured and shot, and there is no proof of any post, certainly after October, reaching Paris from the outside, apart from private letters carried by unofficial individuals. Five sheepdogs experienced in driving cattle into Paris were flown out by balloon with the intention of their returning carrying mail; after release they were never again seen. Equally a failure was the use of zinc balls (the boules de Moulins) filled with letters and floated down the Seine; not one of these balls was recovered during the siege. As was later said "Pas qu'une souris p鹴 franchir les lignes prussiennes sans 阾re vue." The Prussians did permit authorised emissaries from Tours and Bordeaux to pass into Paris during peace negotiations but they were forbidden to bring in private letters. Foreign legations continued to receive and send out diplomatic bags but always under strict Prussian supervision, although the American Embassy, with Washburne as Minister, was permitted to use sealed bags. Millions of letters were carried outwards from Paris by balloon but free balloons could not offer a reliable means of inwards communication since they were at the mercy of the wind and could not be directed to a pre-determined destination. The only balloon which made even a start of a return flight to Paris was the Jean Bart 1 which left Rouen on 7th November but, after a first hop which took it 20 km towards Paris, the wind changed and further attempts were abandoned. During January 1871, a fleet of free balloons was being assembled at Lille but the armistice prevented it being put into operation. Self-propelled dirigible balloons were then in their infancy and whilst, on 9th January, the Duquesne, fitted with two propellers, left Paris bound for Besancon and Switzerland, it got only as far as Reims. For an assured communication into Paris, the only successful method was by the time-honoured carrier-pigeon, and thousands of messages, official and private, were thus taken into the besieged city. The organisation of the pigeon serviceThe honour of being the first advocate of the pigeon service has several claimants. La Perre de Roo wrote to Napoleon III's Minister of War Count Palikao on 2nd September 1870 suggesting that all pigeons then in Paris should be sent away to be ready to bring messages back into Paris, and that pigeons should be brought into Paris from the North of France to be ready to carry messages out of Paris. Palikao fell with the Second Empire and no government action emerged from this proposal but about 1000 pigeons were privately transferred to Paris from the area around Lille, Tourcoing, and Roubaix. The Parisian pigeon-fanciers' club L'Esp閞ance approached the new government but its president, Cassiers, met only derision from an officier on Trochu's staff. Its secretary, Derouard, later said that its treasurer, Traclet, was the one who really succeeded in attracting serious official interest but the more influential Parisian lawyer S間alas had already reached the higher levels of the administration. At the end of August he had had a sympathetic hearing from de Vougy, Directeur des T閘間raphes until 4th September, who had agreed that a pigeon loft should be installed at the Central Telegraph Office at 103, rue de Grenelle. When Steenackers came into office, he expressed his approval with what was being done, saying that he would have suggested it himself. The loft was erected, but it could only have served as a staging post for pigeons being taken out of Paris and not one to which they would return since there would have been no opportunity to train pigeons to operate from it. The first pigeons to leave Paris went with S間alas who accompanied Steenackers to Tours on 10th September, and the collection of pigeons began in Paris. On 15th September, an official message from Paris to Tours reported "la famille S間alas augmente" showing that in official circles S間alas was being credited as the originator of the service. The recruitment and organisation of the pigeons were entrusted to L'Esp閞ance. There was in Paris a limited number of homing pigeons; at that time, pigeon racing attracted far less interest there than in the northern areas of France which were adjacent to Belgium, the real home of pigeon racing. There were a few enthusiasts who had well trained birds but the majority of the birds that were recruited had not had a complete training. Each racing pigeon would have carried, imprinted on its wing, its owner's name and a serial number and this identification was used in the official register. The principal supplier of pigeons was Cassiers himself; of the 52 pigeons from his loft at 92, boulevard Montparnasse, only 2 survived the war. On 18th September, Cassiers, Derouard, and Traclet arrived at the Gare Montparnasse with 108 pigeons which they loaded on to a train but the stationmaster refused to let them depart without Gambetta's authority, suspecting that they might be spies. They had to unload the pigeons and, by the time they had received the correct papers, the last train had gone and the Prussians had cut the railway lines out of Paris. Van Roosebeke, the vice-president of L'Esp閞ance, suggested that pigeons should go out with the balloons and three were carried in the Ville de Florence on 25th September. The officers of L'Esp閞ance now demonstrated their personal courage. Traclet left in the Louis Blanc with 8 pigeons, Van Roosebeke in the Washington with 25, both on 12th October, to be followed on 27th October by Cassiers with 23 or 24 in the Vauban. Derouard remained in Paris to continue the recruitment of pigeons (Fig 1) and to organise their reception on their return to the city. Thomas, a member of L'Esp閞ance left in the G閚閞al Uhrich with 34 pigeons on 1 8th November escaping the fate of his fellow-member Nob閏ourt who had just been captured with the Daguerre. After being interrogated at the Prussian headquarters at Versailles, he was sent to Glatz in Silesia, where he spent five months in captivity. Fig 1. Derouard's authority to recruit pigeons. During the course of the siege, pigeons were regularly taken out of Paris by balloon. Initially, the pigeons carried by a balloon were released as soon as the balloon landed so that Paris could be apprised of its safe passage above the Prussian lines. This was on Rampont's instructions but Steenackers issued a counter-order, arguing that the pigeons would serve a better purpose by carrying official messages from the Delegation and soon a regular service was in operation, based first at Tours and later, when the Delegation had moved to Bordeaux, at Poitiers. The pigeons were taken to their base after their arrival from Paris and when they had preened themselves, been fed and rested, they were ready for the return journey. Tours lies some 200 km from Paris and Poitiers some 300 km (distances as the crow - or pigeon - flies); to reduce the flight distance the pigeons were taken by train as far forward towards Paris as was safe from Prussian intervention. Before release, they were loaded with their despatches. The first despatch was dated 27th September and reached Paris on 1st October, but it was only from 16th October, when an official control was introduced, that a complete record was kept by Blay, a cousin of Steenackers, charged with the task of launching the pigeons on their return flight. At the launching he was assisted by one or more of the officers of L'Esp閞ance who had come out of Paris by balloon. The party wore uniform, partly to permit an easier movement in the French military areas and partly to establish their belligerent status should they be captured by the Prussians. Blay's records show that between 16th October 1870 and 3rd February 1871 he released pigeons on 47 occasions. The map (Fig 2) shows the places from which the pigeons were released; the places became increasingly distant from Paris as the Prussians advanced during December 1870 and January 1871. Only after the armistice could he go forward to Ormes near Orleans for a final launching of a series including many when the Prussians were only narrowly evaded. Fig 2. Map showing where pigeons were released. Blay reported the release of 248 pigeons whereas, according to Steenackers, 302 were released. The various statements of the numbers of pigeons employed by the service are not consistent. Steenackers said 363 pigeons were brought safely out of Paris by balloon, of which 61 either were used by the aircrews to announce their landing or died or were unfit for a return flight to Paris, but, the Mangin brothers accounted for 407 pigeons leaving Paris by balloon. Taking the Mangins' total and deducting those lost to the service by balloons falling into Prussian hands or landing where it would be quite impracticable to transport the pigeons thence to Tours or Poitiers the number supplied in this way to Steenackers could not have exceeded 300. Thus, when Steenackers referred to 363 pigeons he must have been including those brought by land before 18th September. It is probable, therefore, that Steenackers had a total of 363 pigeons available from the beginning to the end of the siege and that he used 302. Subtracting the 248 pigeons that Blay released, there must have been 54 released between 27th September and 15th October, a figure which seems plausible since Blay released 51 between 16th October and the end of the month. During November he released 83 and in December 49, most in the first part of the month. The weather was then deteriorating rapidly and, although 65 were subsequently released, 28 of them were launched in an extravagant fashion after the armistice. The severity of the weather can be judged by the fact that, of the last 61 pigeons released, only 3 ever reached Paris. Savelon has deduced the monthly statistics as:

Date	Released	Arrived
September & October 1870	105	22
November 1870	83	19
December 1870	49	12
January 1871	43	3
February 1871	22	3

The weather was not the only hazard facing the pigeons: there were their natural enemies the hawks and there were countrymen with their shotguns seeking food for their families. It is often said that the noise of cannonfire disturbed the pigeon's homing sense but this is false; what did happen was that the best pigeons would have been the first to be used and as time passed the birds would have been less trained and so less likely to return safely to Paris. It was therefore no mean achievement that, on 59 occasions, they did succeed in getting back to their lofts. Their achievement was commemorated in the monument by Bartholdi and Rubin at the Porte des Ternes in Paris which was unveiled on 28th January 1906 and melted down by the Germans in 1944; around the central representation of a balloon were four pedestals each bearing a pair of bronze pigeons. An earlier tribute was paid by the striking of medals (Fig 3) including the set listed in Table I. Table II tabulates the numbers of pigeons carried out of Paris by the balloons, those released by Blay, the arrival dates given by this set of medals, the arrival dates as collated by Savelon (who has commented that his dates may be varied by up to two days), and the arrival dates in an official report. The incompleteness of the evidence is very apparent; moreover, the release and arrival dates of any particular pigeon can rarely be correlated with confidence. Whilst two pigeons made their 150 km journey in some two hours (a performance to be expected in good weather of a trained pigeon), one that arrived on 6th February 1871 had been released on 18th November 1870. Some of the pigeons became seasoned travellers, both Cassiers and Van Roosebeke claiming that two of their pigeons had made three or four journeys each, and Derouard claiming that one of his had made six journeys. One of Cassiers' pigeons was, since it had been carried with Gambetta in the Armand Barb鑣, given the name Gambetta after reaching Paris with news of that successful flight. In the Mus閑 Postal is a preserved pigeon; it too had belonged to Cassiers and had made at least two journeys. On its wing can be seen the postmark of Orleans, 23rd November 1870. Its photograph is on the cover of this book. Fig 3. Medals commemorating arrivals of pigeons in Paris. The service was formally terminated on 1st February 1871 by Steenackers "en raison des conventions qui r閠ablissent les communications par lettres ouvertes transitant par Versailles pendant la dur閑 de l'armistice." In fact, the last pigeons were released on 1st and 3rd February. If, on 59 occasions, pigeons did bring despatches into Paris and if several made repeated journeys then the successful operations must have been performed by about 50 birds only. These 50 pigeons served France well; they carried official despatches of great importance as well as an estimated 95,000 private messages which went far to keep up the morale of the besieged Parisians. The public regarded them with affection, purchasing the commemorative medals and later subscribing to the monument that has just been described. The French government was less emotional. During 1871, those whose pigeons had been acquired sought recompense at the rate of 100 francs per pigeon. Rampont finally agreed a total sum of 36,000 francs. The pigeons that were still alive were now official property and were sold at the Depot du Mobilier de l'Etat. Their value as racing pigeons was reflected by the average price of only 1 franc 50 centimes, but two pigeons, reported to have made three journeys, were purchased by an enthusiast for 26 francs. At this period, there were about 25 francs to the ?sterling, i.e. one franc was worth just under 5p. The very last pigeon to complete its return to Paris must, if La Perre de Roo can be believed, have been one from Niepce captured in November 1870 by the Prussians and which was presented to Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, the commander of the Second Army. He sent it home to his mother Princess Charles of Prussia who placed it in the royal pigeon cote. Two years later, tired of its Prussian lodging, it escaped and flew back to Paris. The photographic reproduction of messagesThe first pigeons each carried a single despatch which was tightly rolled and tied with a thread, and then attached to a tail feather of the pigeon, care being taken to avoid old feathers which the bird might lose when in moult. From 19th October, the despatch was protected by being inserted in the quill of a goose or crow, and it was the quill which was then attached to the tail feather. Although a pigeon could have carried more, the maximum weight it was asked to carry was about 1 gm, and, as the service developed, the aim was to get the greatest possible number of messages inside this weight. Initially, the messages were written out by hand in small characters on very thin paper, a traditional but laborious method which had the danger of the messages being distorted and incorrectly read. A great step forward was taken in early October from the idea of Barreswil (or Barreswill) a chemist of Tours who had been the co-author in 1854 with Davanne of "La chimie photographique". He proposed the application of photographic methods with prints of a much reduced size and of which an unlimited number of copies could be taken. His death in late November robbed him of the satisfaction of seeing his proposals accepted and extensively applied. There was already at Tours an official organisation under Godeaux, chef du service de correspondences extraordinaires, who as an ex-proteg?of Napoleon III was soon displaced by Feillet, a friend of Steenackers and normally a history teacher, who had found himself in the provinces cut off from Paris by the siege. Within this group, the officer directly charged with the pigeon service was de Lafollye, Inspecteur des lignes t閘間raphiques in the department of Indre et Loire, an amateur photographer himself, and assisted by Blaise, a professional photographer of Tours. The messages were written, still by hand, but in big characters on large sheets of card which were pinned side by side and photographically reduced. The prints were on photographic paper and varied in size, but with one side not significantly exceeding 40 mm to permit insertion in the quill; there were minor differences depending on the way in which a particular print was trimmed. A further improvement occurred when Blaise succeeded in printing messages on both sides of the photographic paper, thereby doubling the potential content of each quill or tube; the first despatch so produced appearing about 8th November followed by those up to 18th December. Blaise was responsible for the first 13 of these double-sided prints but the last 4 were produced by Terpereau at Bordeaux after the Delegation had moved there. Yet another improvement was the introduction of letter-press as a partial replacement of manuscript. Blaise had inserted in his earlier photographs extracts from the Moniteur, printed by the Mame company at Tours, which served as the official newspaper of the Delegation. It was noticeable how much clearer in the reduced size letter-press was, compared with manuscript, and, when, later, the service was opened to the public, it was intended that all private messages should be in letter-press. The full-scale message was printed on one side only of paper for its eventual photography but, at the same time, copies were made for record purposes, being printed on both sides of the paper; a set of these records is in the Mus閑 Postal. The service flourished and the demands of the public nearly overwhelmed it by the quantity of messages that were handed in for transmission. De Lafollye was extremely proud of its success and foresaw further triumphs. He was unaware that in Paris the Government was negotiating for a competitive - and better - system. At the Exposition Universelle of 1867 in Paris, a photographer, Dagron, had demonstrated a remarkable standard of microphotography which he had described in "Traite de Photographie Microscopique" published in Paris in 1864. He now proposed to Rampont that his process should be applied to pigeon messages and a contract was concluded on 11th November. By the terms of this contract, Dagron was to receive 15 francs for every 1000 characters he photographed; not only was he to be paid so generously but a clause signed by Picard himself declared "M. Dagron a le titre de chef de service des correspondences postales photomicroscopiques. Il rel鑦e directement du Directeur G閚閞al des Postes." It must be remembered that at this time microphotographs produced by Blaise and of a good standard were already reaching Paris but Rampont could not miss an opportunity of challenging Steenackers. Dagron was instructed to operate at Clermont Ferrand, thereby underlining his independence of any organisation at Tours. Arrangements were made for him to leave Paris by balloon, accompanied by two colleagues, Fernique and Poisot, the latter being his son-in-law. For making the journey by balloon, Dagron was to receive 25,000 francs (to be paid by the Delegation at Tours) and Fernique 15,000 francs (to be paid before he left Paris). in the event of their deaths during the journey, their widows would each have an annual pension of 3,000 francs for life. They departed on 12th November in the appropriately named balloons Niepce and Daguerre, but the latter, with the equipment and pigeons in it, was shot down, fell within the Prussian lines and was lost. The Niepce was also shot down and landed in Prussian-held territory, but Dagron and his companions just escaped capture, losing still more of their equipment and becoming separated. It was Fernique who first reached Tours on 18th November; on his arrival he reported to Gambetta who sent him to Steenackers. Steenackers refused to recognise the authority coming from Rampont and told Fernique to keep away from the pigeon service with the threat of a court-martial and being shot if he disobeyed. On 21st November, Dagron reached Tours, the provincial authorities having been ordered to send him there and not to allow him to go to Clermont Ferrand. He too saw Gambetta and Steenackers and it took eight days to work out a compromise. Dagron and his companions were to serve under de Lafollye, using Dagron's superior technique, if it were found to be practical, and the financial conditions of his contract were to be reviewed. Shorn of his equipment and finding unsatisfactory replacements at Tours, Dagron failed to achieve what he had promised by way of what de Lafollye described as images "prenant le nom du point", in other words: microdots. Dagron had sought to reproduce a page of the Moniteur in 1 sq mm; to do so required laboratory equipment and processes and these were unobtainable at Tours. He therefore lowered his sights and settled for the level of microphotography which was subsequently used. By 4th December he was able to offer results to Steenackers who praised but was not fully satisfied. Dagron finally attained success on 11th December, but by that time, the Delegation was moving to Bordeaux, where, on 15th December, he was able to start work in earnest. Thereafter, all the despatches were on microfilm, with a reduction of rather more than 40 diameters, a performance that even today evokes admiration and yet he was achieving it a century ago. These later microfilms weighed about 0.05 gm and a pigeon would carry up to 20 of them. All his products were ordered by (Fig 4) and subject to the inspection of de Lafollye, who, whilst paying tribute to their excellence, continued to object to the fee Dagron was demanding. A new contract was negotiated in which the original 15 francs per 1000 characters was recognised as equivalent to 180 francs per page of letter-press, which was retrospectively reduced to 150 francs payable for work done in December, to 90 francs for work to be done in the first half of January, and to 60 francs for work done thereafter. Even so, it was calculated that Dagron received a total payment of 52,000 francs of which one-tenth went to Fernique. This was much more than would have cost a service such as was being provided by Blaise, but, whilst Blaise contained a page of letter-press in about 37 by 23 mm, Dagron put the same information in about 11 by 6 mm, a better than three-fold improvement in lineal measure. Fig 4. Order by De Lafollye on Dagron for microfilms. The carriage of despatchesThe pigeons carried two kinds of despatch: official and private, both of which are later described in detail. As has already been mentioned, the service was put into operation for the transmission of information from the Delegation to Paris and was opened to the public in early November. The private despatches were sent only when an official despatch was being sent, since the latter would have absolute priority. However, the introduction of the Dagron microfilms eased any problems there might have been in claims for transport since their volumetric requirements were very small. For example: one tube sent during January contained 21 microfilms, of which 6 were official despatches and 15 were private, whilst a later tube contained 16 private despatches and 2 official ones. In order to improve the chances of the despatches successfully reaching Paris, the same despatch was sent by several pigeons, one official despatch was repeated 35 times and the later private despatches were repeated on average 22 times. The records show that from 7th January to the end, 61 tubes were sent off, containing 246 official and 671 private despatches. The practice was to send off the despatches not only by pigeons of the same release but also of successive releases until Paris signalled the arrival of those despatches. When the pigeon reached its particular loft in Paris, its arrival was announced by a bell in the trap in the loft. Immediately, a watchman relieved it of its tube which was taken to the Central Telegraph Office where the content was carefully unpacked and placed between two thin sheets of glass. The photographs are said to have been projected by magic lantern on to a screen where the enlargement could be easily read and written down by a team of clerks. This should certainly be true for the microfilms but the earlier despatches on photographic paper were read through microscopes. The transcribed messages were written out on forms (telegraph forms for private messages, with or without the special annotation "pigeon") and so delivered. The interval between sending a private message and its receipt by the addressee depended on many factors: the density of telegraphic traffic to and from the sender's town, the time taken to register the message, to pass it to the printers where it was assembled with its 3000 companions into a single page and then to assemble the pages into nines or twelves or sixteens. De Lafollye observed that these stages rarely took less than a fortnight and only then could photography begin. It was then necessary to wait for a pigeon launch and final success hinged upon a safe arrival of a pigeon in Paris. There was one message handed in at Blois on 14th November, passing through Tours the same day and reaching Paris on 26th November. But there was also a message (Fig 5) handed in at Pontarlier on 2nd December which passed through Bordeaux on 9th December and did not reach Paris until 5th February (Fig 6). The popular impression that it was an instantaneous service is false; what really occurred was that the first private messages got to their destinations fairly quickly, but with the increasing volume of traffic during and after November and the deterioration of the weather from mid-December, from handing in to delivery could easily span two months. There were exceptions: Dagron himself records that he was running short of photographic materials in mid-January; he sent on 18th January a message to Paris asking for fresh supplies, the message reached Paris on 20th January, the supplies were flown out by balloon (probably the G閚閞al Daumesnil) and reached Bordeaux on 27th January. Such a performance was rare. Fig 5. Letterpress (2nd series, page 107) of message handed in at Pontarlier, 2nd December 1870. Fig 6. Message form Pontarlier delivered by telegram in Paris on 5th February 1871, showing page 107 in top left hand corner. The despatchesThe content of nearly every despatch, official and private, which was photographed is known today. As has already been said, the letterpress of each set of private despatches was used to provide a permanent printed record and a total of 580 pages were bound together in six volumes, a set of which is in the Mus閑 Postal. A foreword dated 3rd February 1871 by de Lafollye gives a succinct account of the service even though it is a partisan statement which puts the name of de Lafollye in print larger than that used for the name of Dagron. In a footnote to this foreword, it is stated that a formal report would be prepared by Feillet, the professional historian, but tragedy intervened. At the end of February, Feillet carried a complete set of the documents relating to the pigeon post and to other war-time postal services to his house at Neuilly. During the fighting at the time of the Commune between March and May 1871 the house was shelled and, with its contents, totally destroyed. Feillet died a year later, reputedly of a broken heart. The official messages survive in the Report of an Enquiry by the Assembl閑 Nationale "Enqu阾e sur les actes du gouvernement de la d閒ense nationale" published twice, once in 1875 and again in 1876. For many of the later official despatches, the original sheets of card on which the messages were written in manuscript and then photographed have also survived and are in the Mus閑 Postal; Fig 7 is a modern photograph of a convenient size of one such sheet. A further source of information on the content of the despatches comes from their microphotography whether on photographic paper or on film. It is highly improbable that any despatch, and particularly one on microfilm, now in private hands was ever carried by a pigeon. Remembering their delicacy and the handling they would receive before and during their projection at the Central Telegraph Office, the originals were probably so damaged that it is unlikely that any survived. But, as will be recalled, it was possible to make numerous copies, some of which were sent off by pigeons both of the same and succeeding launches. The remaining copies were retained by de Lafollye and many were bound together as a collection in a book published by Mame, with a foreword by de Lafollye again dated February 1871 and with an introductory note: Fig 7. Official despatch written on sheet of card to be photographed. "Le recueil suivant contient, ?l'exception des d閜阠hes manuscrites et des premi鑢es 閜reuves photographi閑s et en petit nombre qui n'ont pas 閠?conserv閑s, toutes les communications officielles et priv閑s adress閑s ?Paris, pendant le si鑗e, par pigeons voyageurs. Les num閞os manquant dans la deuxi鑝e serie sont ceux de quelques d閜阠hes manuscrites ajout閑s aux envois au moment du depart des courriers. Ce recueil, qui n'est tir?qu'a un tr鑣-petit nombre d'exemplaires numerot閟, est exclusivement destin?aux Archives, ?la Biblioth鑡ue nationale, et ?quelques 閠ablissements du m阭e genre. Cette publication restreinte ?d'autant moins d'inconvenient qu'une tr鑣-grande quantit?de ces d閜阠hes ont 閠?dispers閑s en France par les nombreux messagers qui les portaient, et qui se sont 間ar閑s sans jamais arriver a Paris: tandis qu'elle pourra avoir un notable int閞阾 pour l'閠ude de l'histoire contemporaire de notre pays... ...DE LAFOLLYE" Copies of this book are still extant, one in the Mus閑 Postal and others in private hands, but the rest have probably been broken down and the pigeongrams they contained disposed of separately. The copy in the Mus閑 Postal is in its original binding and appears to be just as it was when it was first published. Nevertheless, there are missing more despatches than would appear from de Lafollye's note. In particular, several of the numbered official despatches comprised more than one sheet but de Lafollye included only the first sheet; private messages subsequent to the last in his book may have been sent by pigeon; and he omitted the composite private despatches, made up of previous messages which either had never reached Paris or had become distorted or illegible in transit. These last are unevenly assembled as distinct from the uniformly assembled duplicates which are in the book. The foreword to the book later became de Lafollye's formal report and is repeated, together with a detailed account by Blay of the releases of pigeons for their return flights to Paris in "Les T閘間raphes et Les Postes 1870-71" published in 1883 by Steenackers, himself an amateur historian of some repute. The official despatchesThe official despatches can be divided into three groups: the manuscript despatches sent between 27th September 1870 and 15th October, those on photographic paper sent between 16th October and 13th December, and the subsequent microfilms up to 3rd February 1871. Survivors of the first group are in the archives of the French Army and commence with the despatch of 27th September which reached Paris on 1st October (Figs 8 and 9). These messages, and most that followed, were in a mixture of numerical cipher and clear language, but their texts, when of sufficient importance, were tabled before the Enqu阾e and are of major interest in a study of the conduct of the war. In the present context may be recalled the messages about the journey of Gambetta who left Paris on 7th October accompanied by pigeons who were to signal his safe arrival. On the same day, Favre was told 'Pigeon de Gambetta arrive mais plume avec d閜阠he disparue, les autres pigeons arriveront surement demain matin' but it was not until about 10th October that there did arrive a repeated message from Tours dated 10th October 'Gambetta arrive ?bon port. Excellentes nouvelles!". Fig 8. Official despatch in manuscript on thin paper carried by a pigeon. Fig 9. Official despatch in manuscript on thin paper carried by pigeon. With the advent of photographic methods, the number of messages that could be contained in a single despatch increased considerably and the opportunity was taken of adding personal messages from officials to their friends in Paris. On several occasions, messages were addressed to the British Embassy in Paris as, for instance, one (Fig 10) in late October in a numerical cipher and concluding with 'Tours 23rd October Lyons'; Lord Lyons the British Ambassador to France had left Paris for Tours on 18th September. The French civil servants transmitted their departmental instructions, for example (Fig 10) that in the middle of November which laid down the uniform and insignia of workers on the telegraph lines (in order that the workers should be protected against accusations by the Prussians that they were francs-tireurs). There were many trivial messages which contrast strongly with the importance of the ministerial messages for which the service had been intended as a reliable means of communication between the Delegation and the Government in Paris. In a message of 24th October, the numerical part is followed by 'Je vous prie de faire tous vos efforts pour arriver me faire conna顃re l'opinion du gouvernement sur la presente d閜阠he - Leon Gambetta!' The service also provided a means of informing Paris what was happening outside Paris and the Government released to the Paris newspapers whatever news it thought appropriate to publish. There was Gambetta's proclamation of 31st October to the French people in which the fall of Metz was announced and Marshal Bazaine declared a traitor. This proclamation was written in manuscript even though a week earlier a despatch had contained in letterpress extracts from the Moniteur. In fact, the greater part of all the official despatches was in manuscript; messages in manuscript could be produced more quickly than in letterpress and, in theory at least, official despatches were urgent. Fig 10. Official despatches on photographic paper. It is not possible accurately to ascertain the number of despatches sent before photography was employed but it was probably in the region of ten. With the introduction of photography, the official despatches were neither explicitly dated nor, for the first 17 according to de Lafollye, but probably 18, numbered. These first 18 can only be approximately ordered by reference to the dated messages they contain; the order in Table III follows that of the Mus閑 Postal copy of de Lafollye's book. At the beginning of November, a second series of despatches was begun and the despatches were thereafter numbered, sometimes using recto and verso to denote each side of those printed on both sides of the paper. Despatch No. 8 of this series contains a message dated 10th November from Steenackers to Mercadier "La tournente de ces jours pass閟 a perdu tous nos pigeons. Je vous envois beaucoup de pigeons. Les recevez vous. Je n'ai aujourd'hui que 25 pigeons en cages. Vos a閞onautes n'en ammenent pas assez. Chacun d'eux devrait en apporter au moins vingt. Tenez la main ferme ?cel?et expediez ?moi par des hommes s鹯s." Despatch No. 10 was the first to carry a printed heading which was subsequently used on all despatches, official and private; it, too, sought pigeons: "Presque plus de pigeons. Envoyez en." Despatch No. 34 was the last to be on photographic paper and contained a message "Cr閙ieux aux membres du Gouvernement. Vous voyez, mes bons amis, que nous sommes ?Bordeaux." Despatch No. 35, the first on film, has a message to Favre dated 21st December from Bordeaux. The last despatch, No. 47, consisted of a message to Favre from Simon, who had been sent to Bordeaux to convert the Delegation to an acceptance of the terms of the armistice, reporting that the Delegation had decreed (as recorded in Despatch No. 46) the exclusion from the new Assembl閑 Nationale of all who had held office under Napoleon III, a political move which foreshadowed the further tragedy about to descend on France with the civil war between the Commune of Paris and the Government at Versailles. Before leaving the official despatches, it is appropriate to mention two bogus official despatches sent by the Prussians. When the Daguerre fell inside the enemy lines on 12th November, 6 pigeons were saved from the Prussians and used to notify Paris of the loss of the balloon. The remaining pigeons were caught by the Prussians who later released 6 of them with messages calculated to dismay Paris. One message was: "Rouen 7 d閏embre. A gouvernement Paris - Rouen occup?par Prussiens, qui marchent sur Cherbourg. Population rurale les acclame; d閘ib閞ez. Orl閍ns repris par ces diables. Bourges et Tours menac閟. Arm閑 de la Loire compl鑤ement d閒aite. Resistance n'offre plus aucune chance de salut. A. Lavertujon." The pigeons reached Paris on 9th December going to the loft of Nob閏ourt, whose father carried the message to Rampont. The fraud was apparent; it was known that Nob閏ourt had been captured and Lavertujon, a French official, was actually in Paris. Another message in similar terms arrived addressed to the Editor of Figaro. These messages were tied to the pigeons with ordinary thread, whereas the French always used waxed thread: further evidence of the attempt at deception. The conclusion that the message had come from the enemy was, however, scant consolation for the bitterness of learning almost immediately that they were partly true: Rouen and Orleans were in Prussian hands. The private despatchesThe success that Blaise was having in the photography of official despatches prompted Steenackers and de Lafollye to propose the extension of the service to the public. On 4th November, there was a decree that the Delegation "Consid閞ant que depuis l'investissement de Paris, il a 閠?閠abli par les soins du double service des T閘間raphes et des Postes, au moyen de ballons partant de Paris et de pigeon-voyageurs partant de Tours, un 閏hange special de correspondances, destin??suppl閑r, entre Tours et Paris, aux moyens de correspondance ordinaire momentan閙ent suspendus; Consid閞ant que cet 閏hange, jusqu'?pr閟ent r閟erv?aux communications du Gouvernement, se trouve aujourd'hui suffisamment assur?pour qu'il soit possible d'en faire profiter les particuliers pour leurs relations avec la Capitale, sans en garantir cependant la parfaite r間ularit? Consid閞ant, toutefois, que ce mode extraordinaire de correspondance, d'ailleurs co鹴eux, n'offre encore que des facilit閟 tr鑣 restreintes, et que les exigences de la d閒ense nationale ne permettent d'en accorder l'usage public que dans d'閠roites limites et ?conditions de taxe relativement 閘ev閑s sur la proposition du Directeur g閚閞al des T閘間raphes et des Postes, D閏r鑤e Art. 1er Il est permis ?toute personne residant sur le territoire de la R閜ublique de correspondre avec Paris par les Pigeons-voyageurs de l'Administration des T閘間raphes et des Postes, moyennant une taxe de cinquante centimes (0.50c) par mot ?percevoir au d閜art et dans les limites qui seront determin閑s par des arr阾閟 du Directeur g閚閞al de cette Administration. Art. 2 Les t閘間rammes destin閟 a cette transmission sp閏iale seront re鐄s dans les bureaux de T閘間raphe et de Poste qui seront d閟ign閟 par l'Administration et transmis au point de d閜art des pigeons-voyageurs par la Poste, ou par le T閘間raphe lorsque les exigences du service g閚閞al le permettront. Il ne sera per鐄 aucune taxe compl閙entaire ?raison de la transmission postale ou t閘間raphique, ni ?raison de la distribution des t閘間rammes ?domicile ?Paris. Art. 3 L'Etat ne sera soumis ?aucune responsabilit??raison de ce service sp閏ial. La taxe per鐄e ne sera rembours閑 dans aucun cas. Art. 4 Le Directeur g閚閞al des T閘間raphes et des Postes est charg?de l'閤閏ution du present d閏ret." On the same day, Steenackers issued his regulations: "... Art. 2 Ces d閜阠hes devront 阾re r閐ig閑s en fran鏰is, en langage clair et intelligible, sans au,cun chiffre ou signe conventionnel. Elles ne devront contenir que des communications d'int閞et priv? ?l'exclusion absolue de tout renseignement ou appr閏iation de politique ou de guerre. Art. 3 Le nombre maximum des mots de chaque depeche est fix??vingt. Les expressions r閡nies par un trait d'union ou separ閑s par une apostrophe seront compt閑s pour le nombre de mots servant ?les former. Par exception, dans l'adresse, la d閟ignation du destinataire, celle du lieu et du domicile, ne compteront chacune que pour un seul mot, bien que form閑s d'expressions compos閑s. Il en sera de m阭e de la signature de l'expediteur. Toute lettre isol閑 comptera pour un mot. Les nombres devront 阾re 閏rits en toutes lettres et seront compt閟 d'apr鑣 la r鑗le ci-dessus. ... Art 6 Les bureaux, soit de T閘間raphe, soit de Poste, r閡niront sous une m阭e enveloppe, toutes les d閜阠hes qu'ils auront re鐄es dans la journ閑 et les adresseront au Directeur g閚閞al des T閘間raphes et des Postes ?Tours, avec la mention sp閏iale "pigeons-voyageurs" inscrite au coin sup閞ieur droit de l'enveloppe. ... Art. 11 Les dispositions du present arr阾?sont applicables ?partir du 8 de ce mois." The conditions of the service were published in the Moniteur on 7th November and were reported to Paris in an official despatch (2nd series No. 37). The response of the public was immediate and the first messages were dated 8th November. The very first was addressed to Monsieur Berger at 6, rue M閚ars: "Albert (Rouen), Tous autres votres (Agen), Delorme (Laval), Faure (Loire), parfaite sante. Aussi tous les miens - Paul." Soon the service was inundated. Mame could not cope with the printing and had to be assisted by Joliot, and, even then, soldiers who were skilled in typesetting had to be recalled from the armies. The situation became worse with the move of the Delegation to Bordeaux and, although a contingent of Mame staff had been transferred with the Delegation, the backlog demanded the use of other printers: Lanefranque and Metreau at Bordeaux and Sirven at Toulouse. Still the printing bottleneck was not cleared and 18 pages had to be written out in manuscript. Towards the end of January the service had regained control and was geared to the demand of the public. On 14th January, the cost of a private message was reduced to 20 centimes per word. Whilst the Delegation had taken the initiative in opening the service to the public, the Government in Paris was also demonstrating its interest in helping the public. On 10th November, the eve of its contract with Dagron, it passed a decree introducing three new facilities associated with the pigeon post. One, of letter-messages of up to 40 words at 50 centimes per word, was so similar to that started by the Delegation that it never had a separate existence. The two others were acceptable to the Delegation which authorised them in its own decree on 25th November. The second facility permitted the transmission of postal orders with a maximum value of 300 francs each subject to a supplementary fee of 3 francs; during its currency 1,370 orders to a total value of 190,000 francs were sent by pigeon. The third facility was the use of d閜阠hes r閜onses. The method of operation was announced to the public inside and outside Paris in a special supplement to No. 7 of the Gazette des Absents (one of the miniature newspapers published for carriage out of Paris by balloon) and again in No. 8. In a letter written in Paris and addressed outside, a Correspondent could ask four questions, each capable of being answered 'yes' or 'no'. With the letter would go a card purchased at a post office for the price of the 5 centimes postage stamp affixed to it. The recipient of the letter then entered in four columns his answers as oui or non on the card, taking care to get the order right, affixed a 1 franc postage stamp to the card, and sent it to the designated post office. Since this facility was introduced contemporarily with the appearance of Dagron, the authorities in Paris designated Clermont Ferrand as the destination of the completed card, but, in the event, it was to Tours, and later to Bordeaux, that Dagron - and the cards - went. The message, consisting of the address, the oui's and non's transcribed as o's and n's, and the replier's name, was included in a page among messages in clear language, and the whole photographed and, in due course, formed part of a despatch. Once the content of a card had been set up in type, the card was, in theory, destroyed but, in fact, a few escaped and are still in existence, although most apparently used cards that are exhibited are forgeries. There were about 30,000 messages so abridged, representing about one-quarter of all the private messages. Also included in the private despatches were messages under the heading 'Services et Autorisations' which were intended to be official messages not sufficiently important to warrant their inclusion in an official despatch but enough to demand a priority of treatment on their arrival in Paris. There were many abuses and numerous messages which were so sent were personal messages from officials with access to the service. Dagron himself sent many messages on behalf of others; these can be recognised by the real sender's name being followed by that of Dagron. Fig 11. Private despatches. the first (on photographic paper); 3 x 3 pages in manuscript; The first microfilm; Headed by page numbers 311 & 326. Fig 12. Private despatches - a sub-page from the printed records The collection of the letterpress of the private despatches well illustrates how this section of the service developed. The first two pages (which formed the first despatch) (Fig 11) were headed 'D閜阠hes Priv閑s Tours 8 Novembre', 'Feuille No 1' and 'Feuille No 2' but the ones that followed were headed 'D閜阠hes priv閑s ?distribuer aux destinaires', 'N.3', 'N.4' up to 'N.64' dated at Tours from 9th November to 18th November, with the first volume completed by 'No 1 bis' to 'No 14 bis' dated at Tours from 15th November to 22nd November. These pages were each 415 mm by 260 mm with the messages set out in three columns. It will be seen that the dates are not in strict concordance with the page numbering, an inconsistency which applies throughout and is explained by the fact that pages were made up in parallel and that the messages were inserted not always in the order in which they arrived at the printers. All these pages appear in despatches on photographic paper, with pages 15 and 16 and pages 17 and 18 as the first to be printed on both sides but fifty-four duplicates were subsequently sent on microfilm (Fig 11). The second volume opens with 56 pages set up in a way to permit Dagron to produce microdots (even though the experiment was not successful), each page being divided into twelve sub-pages each 80 mm by 112 mm ( Fig 12). The sub-pages have a heading of D.S. for d閜阠he du service, D.P. for d閜阠he priv閑, and so on. The first two sub-pages contained de Lafollye's announcement of the new service: Tours - 30 novembre 1870. Inspecteur des T閘間raphes de Lafollye ?inspecteur g閚閞al Pierret (chiffre des inspecteurs). Nous commencons aujourd'hui une nouvelle serie de d閜阠hes qui seront r閐uites ?Petal tout ?fait microscopique par M.Dagron (here follow 85 blocks of numbers). Je les enverrai aussit魌 qu'elles seront typographi閑s. Je vous adresserai aussi en duplicata la r閜roduction microscopique des d閜阠hes priv閑s photographi閑s depuis la page 11 dont nous n'avons pas re鐄 r閏eption. Je ne m'explique pas que la page 6 ne vous soit pas parvenue. Elle doit se trouver sur une feuille qui contient quatre pages et au dos de la page 3. N閍nmoins je vous en adresserai un duplicata. Pour ne pas confondre ces duplicata avec la serie nouvelle, J'aurai soin de placer sur le c魌?de chaque point microscopique l'inscription: DUPLICATA DE LA PAGE 6 POINT 1 ou 2, 3, ... 9. M.Dagron appelle 'point' une des petites images microscopiques d'un millim鑤re carr? Le nombre des points contenus dans une des pages photographiques pr閏閐entes sera de 9. J'aurai la precaution d'indiquer, ?la fin des duplicata, que la s閞ie en est termin閑. Dans la nouvelle s閞ie, chaque feuille portera un num閞o dont la suite sera ind閒inie, et les points de chaque feuille, une s閞ie de num閞os qui se renouvellera pour chaque feuille. Afin que, si pour la lecture vous separez ces points, vous puissiez toujours recomposer les feuilles, chaque point portera le num閞o de la feuille ?laquelle il appartiendra. Cette inscription faite en plus gros caract鑢e aura la forme =F.8=P.15= Cette indication sera suivie de celle de la nature des d閜阠hes, sous la forme DP, DP, DM, ou DS; pour d閜阠hes priv閑s ordinaires, d閜阠hes r閜onses, d閜阠hes mandat ou d閜阠hes de service. Elle sera suivie de la date et du num閞o du mois. La premiere ligne de chaque point sera consacr閑 a cette indication comme ceci: =F.8=P.15=DP=30.XI=. Je vous demande de me faire accuser directement r閏eption des feuilles que vous recevrez afin que je puisse conna顃re celles qu'il sera n閏essaire de r閑xpedier." The sub-pages are not complete in themselves, and messages run over from one to the next. The pages are numbered 2e s閞ie from 1 onwards. The sub-pages were sent on microfilm, five containing 144 and one containing 96 plus 6 ordinary pages. The first d閜阠hes mandats (postal orders) appear on page 69 dated at Bordeaux 28th November, and the first d閜阠hes r閜onses on page 91 dated at Bordeaux 3rd December (Fig 13). Volume 2 closes with page 100. Volume 3 also contains 100 pages. 101 to 200. In this volume, and in the three later ones, all the ordinary messages are in letter-press, but most of the d閜阠hes r閜onses are in manuscript. Volumes 4 and 5 also each contain 100 pages: 201 to 300, and 301 to 400 respectively, whilst Volume 6 has 180 pages but, according to a manuscript note, only the first 112 (401 to 512) were sent by pigeon. Page 512 is dated Bordeaux 29th January 1871. All these pages were sent on microfilm in groups of 9 or 16; the microfilm carrying pages 311 to 326 was the first to carry the first and last page numbers in its top corners. The microfilm carrying pages 409 to 424 is the last in de Lafollye's book so that it cannot firmly be established whether page 512 or page 424 or neither was the last to be sent by pigeon. After the closure of the pigeon post, the remaining messages were sent to Paris by conventional means. Fig 13. D閜阠hes-r閜onses in manuscript - from the printed records. Messages from EnglandThe opening of the service to the public by the decree of 4th November attracted messages not only from inside France but also from outside. The decree had been published in the Moniteur which Lord Lyons, the British Ambassador at Tours sent to the Foreign Office which, in turn, forwarded the appropriate extract to the G.P.O. on 10th November. Prior information must, however, already have reached England since, on 11th November Steenackers sent the following telegram to the "Directeur G閚閞al Postes et T閘間raphes Londres" "II m'a 閠?demand?de Londres d'admettre des d閜阠hes de provenance Anglaise ?la correspondance sp閏iale avec Paris par pigeon. J'avais refus? craignant trop d'affluence en 間ard ?l'insuffisance des moyens. L'exp閞ience des premiers jours m'a fait reconnoitre que je suis dispos??admettre les d閜阠hes Anglaises que vous auriez centralis閑s ?la t閘間raphique Anglaise si vous 阾es dispos?vous m阭e ?le faire. Un compte sp閏ial pour ces d閜阠hes serait ouvert ?Tours et ?Londres mais ?raison des difficult閟 du service t閘間raphique actuel votre office les transmettrait par la poste ?Tours ?mon adresse avec mention "pigeons voyageurs". Les d閜arts pour Paris ne sont pas assez nombreux pour qu'il puisse y avoir inconvenient ?閏arter l'usage du t閘間raphe. Je vous serais reconnaissant de me faire savoir si nous sommes d'accord et dans ce cas de donner ?cet accord la publicitaire n閏essaire en Angleterre en expliquant au public les motifs de ce changement de d閏ision". The G.P.O. considered this to be for the British telegraph service and passed the telegram on to its associate, the Submarine Telegraph Company, which replied on 12th November: "La r閜onse ?votre depeche No 5187, nous sommes dispos閟 ?faire des arrangements pour la reception des d閜阠hes pour Paris par "Pigeons Voyageurs" de Tours et ?ouvrir un compte sp閏ial avec votre Administration pour ces d閜阠hes. Veuillez m'informer de la taxe et des conditions auxquelles ces d閜阠hes peuvent 阾re transmises de Tours par pigeons voyageurs. Au re鐄 de cette information la taxe totale entre le Royaume Uni et Paris pourra 阾re convenue entre nous, de m阭e que la proportion ?en crediter votre Administration et cette Compagnie respectivement". Steenackers answered by telegram on 13th November, quoting the conditions of the decree of 4th November and emphasising that the messages had to be "en fran鏰is intelligible". He went on to say: "Adressez, si nous sommes d'accord, les d閜阠hes destin閑s ?ce service sp閏ial au Directeur G閚閞al des T閘間raphes et des Postes ?Tours par la voie postage avec la mention sp閏iale "Pigeons Voyageurs". A raison de l'encombrement des lignes il est impossible de les accepter par le t閘間raphe..." On receiving this, the Submarine Telegraph Company agreed with the G.P.O. that it was for the latter to operate the service and a Post Office Notice, No 64 of 1870, was drafted. Although it was not approved by the Postmaster-General until 17th November, it was dated 16th November (Fig 14). At the same time, special envelopes (Fig 15) and letter-bills (Fig 16) were printed, and the service was opened to the British public but only for letters, a decision being taken on 9th December that d閜阠hes-mandats could not be handled. When, in January, the French internal tariff was reduced, the G.P.O. sought confirmation that this applied also to messages from England; de Lafollye's affirmative reply was dated 30th January, the eve of the closure of the service. By then, the last English despatch had, on 28th January, left for France. "The Times" had also publicised the service. Its issue of 19th November carried a report from its correspondent in Tours: "It is said that the pigeon post is gone off, with sheets of photographed messages reduced to an invisible size, and which in Paris are to be magnified, written out, and transmitted to their addresses. They are limited to private affairs, politics and news of military operations being strictly excluded. But the Prussians, it is said, with their usual diabolical cunning and ingenuity, have set hawks and falcons flying round Paris to strike down the feathered messengers that bear under their wings healing for anxious souls." In the records of the private messages is a group emanating from London on 22nd November and being set up in type at Bordeaux on 2nd January. There is an earlier message from London but with no date of origin but set up in type at Bordeaux on 30th November; the difficulties previously mentioned of putting messages in an accurate order preclude positive identification of this as the first message from England. There can be no doubt of the authenticity of these English messages since a balloon letter exists which reached England asking for questions to be answered in the form required of a d閜阠he-r閜onse. Nevertheless, this participation by the G.P.O. did not avert an accusation by de Fonveille, writing in 1871, that the G.P.O. had openly declared its lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the service and he wondered whether this was due to jealousy or to its subversion by Prussian agents. Fig 14. Post Office Notice No. 64 of 1870. Fig 15. Post Office envelope. Fig 16. Post Office letter-bill. The post-war souvenirsIt has been seen that, no sooner was the armistice signed, de Lafollye commenced the publication of the records of his service by the issue of the collection of the copies of the despatches. He was quickly followed by Dagron who, on 7th February 1871, formally sought permission to publish a microfilm of the same size and having the appearance of those sent during the war. The text of his submission was: "Depuis que le Service des d閜阠hes par pigeons voyageurs a 閠?suspendu, je m'occupe, suivant votre intention, de la confection des pellicules photographiques qui devront former les collections administratives et ?cet effet j'ai adress??Mr. l'Inspecteur de Lafollye un sp閏imen qu'il a adopt?quant ?la dimension totale de la feuille transparente et qui reste d'ailleurs conforme aux types mis en usage puisqu'il est imprim?avec un des clich閟 qui ont servi la produite. Ce sp閏imen plein d'int閞阾 ne saurait manquer d'exciter un grand sentiment de curiosit?dans le public s'il y 閠ait connu, et je viens vous demander, Monsieur le Directeur G閚閞al, de m'autoriser ?en publier des simulacres contenant, comme une v閞itable pellicule, seize pages de texte. Les premi鑢es pages seraient pr閏閐閑s du titre r間lementaire qui accompagnait toutes les d閜阠hes et tel qu'il 閠ait, c'est-?dire avec votre nom qui demeure attach??la creation de ce service. Elles contiendraient avec cette demande, les d閏rets traitant de la mani鑢e et les renseignements historiques qu'il pourrait 阾re utile d'y joindre. Les autres pages seraient compos閑s de d閜阠hes suppos閑s ne se rapportant ?aucune de celles qui ont 閠?v閞itablement transmises, de mani鑢e ?en respecter compl鑤ement le secret et ?ne frossier aucun int閞阾. Je pense, Monsieur le Directeur G閚閞al, que cette petite oeuvre pourrait 阾re instructive non seulement au point de vue historique mais aussi en offrant au public et notamment aux 閘鑦es des 閏oles une occasion de faire usage de microscopes et d'instruments d'optique d'ordinaire insuffisamment employ閟. Je saisis cette occasion, Monsieur le Directeur G閚閞al, pour appeler votre attention sur ma pellicule dont la composition est bien sup閞ieure ?celle du papier. L?ou le papier jaunit et se d閏ompose, cette pellicule rebelle ?l'humidit?et que l'eau m阭e ne d閠閞iore pas, reste inalt閞able. Elle est en cela bien sup閞ieure ?tous les parchemins." On 8th February 1871, de Lafollye made his recommendation to Steenackers on Dagron's submission: "Vous m'avez invit??vous adresser un rapport sur la demande que Mr Dagron photographe de l'Administration T閘間raphique vous a soumise dans le but d'阾re autoris??r閜andre dans le public des images photographiques ayant l'apparence des pellicules envoy閑s ?Paris pendant son investissement au moyen des pigeons- voyageurs de l'Administration. Bien qu'en droit la form sp閏iale qu'ont affect閑 les pellicules portant les d閜阠hes confi閑s aux pigeons- voyageurs ne constitue pas un monopole administratif et ne puisse 阾re l'objet d'aucun contr鬺e, il m'a sembl?que d鑣 qu'on sollicitait votre autorisation, votre administration ne pouvait pas rester d閟int閞ess閑 et que son action devait d'exercer pour s'opposer ?ce que les simulacres que Mr Dagron se propose de livrer au public ne puissent rien emprunter aux d閜阠hes r閑lles et faire croire ?une indiscretion. Dans ce but, je crois qu'il serait convenable que we simulacre que Mr Dagron serait autoris??r閜roduire port鈚 une attestation administrative indiquant qu'il ne contient aucune d閜阠he privee. Il devrait d'ailleurs 阾re toujours accompagn?de la r閜roduction de ce rapport auquel Mr Dagron pourrait joindre la notice historique annex閑 au premier volume de la collection. Sous ces reserves, je pense, Monsieur le Directeur-G閚閞al, que la publication que desire faire Mr Dagron peut avoir pour avantage de faire conna顃re au public un des incidents du si鑗e de Paris les plus int閞essants pour l'histoire contemporaire et de t閙oigner en m阭e temps des efforts de votre administration pour accomplir sous votre direction la mission de conserver entre la France et Paris des relations si desir閑s et en m阭e temps si difficiles. Si vous voulez bien approuver les dispositions de ce rapport, j'ai l'honneur de vous demander de le rev阾ir de votre signature." Steenackers accepted the recommendation of de Lafollye which ensured that their own names and deeds would be well publicised but Steenackers was soon to lose his post and Dagron was to have Rampont once again as his patron. He did produce a simulacre, with no reference to Steenackers and de Lafollye, having the general appearance of the last that were sent by pigeon, that is to say: with the range of page numbers inserted at the top. He selected the page numbers 627 and 642, which were fictitious, and purported to have the sixteen pages on the microfilm. The content was, however, one title page which declared that this was a simulacre, and fifteen pages of which two numbers were twice repeated and the whole an invention of letter-press private messages. This simulacre was available to the public in three ways. It was bound between the centre pages of a booklet written by Dagron "La Poste par Pigeons Voyageurs - Notice sur le voyage du ballon Le Niepce emportant M. Dagron et ses collaborateurs et d閠ails sur la mission qu'ils avaient ?remplir" printed in Paris by Typographie Lahure. It was also sold as part of a souvenir card 105 mm by 64 mm (Fig 17) which could be bought either from Dagron's company or from bookshops. The card repeated what was on the cover of the booklet: that Dagron was the only official photographer of official and private despatches on microfilm. The third issue of the simulacre was from March 1903 to October 1905 when the Aero Club was collecting funds for the Bartholdi monument; donors of from 5 to 20 francs received a souvenir sheet 240 mm by 160 mm with the simulacre in the centre around which was the inscription "La poste par pigeons voyageurs - sp閏imen identique aux pellicules du si鑗e contenant la valeur d'une page de journal". Donors of from 20 to 100 francs also received a copy, together with an engraving of the monument. This late reprint of his pellicule would have pleased Dagron who had died in Paris on 13th June 1900 at the age of 81. Fig 17. The Dagron simulacre. It is not known whether Dagron fabricated other souvenir pellicules but the Photographic Journal of 14th December 1871 records in the Transactions of the Photographic Society in London that "The President proposed a vote of thanks to M. Dagron for his communication (On the preparation of microphotographic despatches on film by M. Dagron's process) and the valuable specimens that accompanied it." These specimens could have been additional souvenir pellicules or microfilms which he had kept when the service at Bordeaux closed. But it is exceedingly probable that others, less so entitled, produced simulacres since there are currently in existence far more so-called pigeongrams than could have come from dismembered copies of de Lafollye's collection. The Parisian stamp dealer Maury is suspected of being one such producer and it is significant that his price list of 1894 offers microfilms at 1 franc 25 centimes each. Some of the glass photographic plates used either for the prints or for the microfilms could have been "borrowed" from official sources and more copies run off. There exist, for despatches originally printed on both sides of photographic paper, copies in which the despatches are separately printed on one side only, quite contrary to the purpose of this method. If an authentic pigeongram is defined as one produced during the war by the official service at Tours or Bordeaux, then a pigeongram can usually be certified as authentic only if it is still attached to a page from de Lafollye's collection and preferably if that page is still bound inside the book. One of the best known souvenirs (Fig 18) is that produced by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company which carries the front page of "The Times" of 19th January 1871. On 30th January 1871 "The Times" contained a report that this had been sent to Gambetta at Bordeaux and thence by pigeon to Paris. The report has since been widely quoted in histories of the siege of Paris, in histories of photography, and in the "History of the Times". Recently, it has been argued that the story is unlikely to be true and on 4th February 1970 "The Times" acknowledged that its report of 99 years before was probably false. There is also a "Souvenir of the Franco-Prussian War - A pigeon despatch", 45 mm x 35 mm, reproducing on photographic paper extracts from columns of "The Times" in issues between 14th and 18th November 1870. Fig 18. The London Sterescopic & Photographic Company souvenir. Envoi The success of the pigeon post, both for official and for private messages, did not pass unnoticed by the military forces of the European powers and in the years that followed the Franco-Prussian War pigeon sections were established in their armies. The advent of wireless communication led to a diminution of their employment although in certain particular applications Pigeons provided the only method of communication. But never again were pigeons called upon to perform such a great public service as that which they had maintained during the siege of Paris. Bibliography

De Lafollye	Recueil des d閜阠hes priv閑	Bordeaux 1871
	D閜阠hes par pigeons voyageurs pendant le si鑗e de Paris which contains:Memoire sur la section photographique et administrative du service de ces d閜阠hes	Tours 1871
De Clerval	Les ballons pendant le si鑗e de Paris	Paris 1871
De Fonveille	Les ballons pendant le si鑗e	Paris 1871
	Enqu阾e sur les actes du gouvernement de la d閒ense nationale - Annales de l'Assembl閑 Nationale	Paris 1875
Steenackers	Les T閘間raphes et les Postes pendant la guerre de 1870-1871	Paris 1883
La Perre de Roo	Monographie des pigeons domestiques	Paris 1883
Chapuis	Le pigeon voyageur	Verviers 1886
Deneuve	Les pigeons voyageurs	Paris 1888
Mallet	Les a閞onauts, les colombophiles du si鑗e de Paris	Paris 1909
Chamboissier	La poste ?Paris pendant le si鑗e et sous la Commune	Paris 1914
Brunel	La poste ?Paris	Amiens 1920
Florange	Etude sur les messageries et les postes	Paris 1925
Maincent	Gen鑣e de la poste a閞ienne du si鑗e de Paris	Rouen 1951
Savelon	La poste pendant le si鑗e 1870-1871	Paris 1961
Fromaigeat	La poste par pigeons 1870-1871	Paris 1966