How an economist used pigeons to disrupt an economics seminar before winning a Nobel Prize and publicly reciting the literary works of Paris Hilton, Jeff Foxworthy, and the muses of Yo' Mama
Weren't there semaphores in France at least that could transmit information. See the Count of Monte Cristo where he suborns one of the semaphore station operators to financially cripple one of his enemies. Also, roads were being improved so it took considerably less time for info to get from place to place. Ditto America, the clipper ships. it wasn't just the telelegram.it feels like there was a communications revolution or improvement going on.
Ah, the optical telegraph! The thing was that it was controlled by the government and suborning it would have been fun. Also it was a real pain, required a lot of men, and couldn't work at all in fog.
Ok, I need to chime in here, as I used to raise homing pigeons. Unlikely as it sounds, it's true.
Anyway, the thing about using pigeons as carriers of messages is that they need to be transported to the location you want to send the message from. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. Your pigeon will only fly home to where it's lived for the past several months or more. So if you want to send a message via pigeon, it will only carry your message "home", and you must first take your pigeon to the place from which you want to send the message. That works out for some things, like perhaps sending to Paris the news of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, but if you did not anticipate that Napoleon would be fighting in Waterloo and instead sent your pigeons to another town, they would not be in place to carry the message. I guess it's kind of like sending a TV reporter to Anaheim to report on the big California fire, only to have it break out in Pacific Palisades. Oh, and pigeons probably wouldn't be much help at reporting back home against the Santa Ana winds and smoke.
And finally, of course, a pigeon's carrying capacity is limited to mere ounces. Enough to carry a small capsule into which you've slipped a slip of paper on which you've written "Napoleon lost," but not a whole lot more than that.
This is great info. To your point, I wonder how many pigeon-handlers the Rothschilds employed to fan out across the landscape. I'll not that I'm extremely fond of a very peculiar film called "Ghost Dog." Forest Whitaker plays a brilliant hit man in the employ of a small-time mobster--perhaps in New Jersey. Whitaker imagines himself to be a samurai in service of a master with whom he communicates only via homing pigeon. (Here, the elderly consigliere confuses homing pigeons and passenger pigeons and goes into a rant on the latter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4CIeZrcmpk.) Anyway, pigeons are an integral part of the plot. The film is very quirky and not for everyone. But I love it.
I think it is. It's an odd one, so don't say you weren't warned. One of my favorite directors. Most of his films only attract a small, cult following--people like me. His most mainstream piece was "Broken Flowers," with Bill Murray.
I began to pass this post by, but knowing your penchant for interesting, sometimes slightly enigmatic titles, decided to pause scrolling down my emails and give it a shot. Suffice it to say I was grabbed (pun intended), or should I day 'Grab'd' by the first paragraph and read it through, much to my delight. In the currently popular jargon of social media abbreviations, I LMAO at the skit. My wife often wonders what it is that causes her husband to laugh out loud while sitting at breakfast on his computer. Nice one. Best, Rick
"Slightly" enigmatic? Hey, I strive for "enigmatic as hell!" :) Glad you enjoyed it. The Bob and Ray skit is a classic. But then, most eveything they did was a classic. Take care.
Good post, Prof. Graboyes. I had a Finance prof in grad school with a similar presentation style. He would appear to drop off to sleep mid-sentence only to suddenly wake up and recite, verbatim, long passages from the assigned reading.
I also read about the Rothchild's and their homing pidgins. The logistics would not be that difficult to manage and the information contained wouldn't need be much. The Rothchild family traded mostly in bonds and gold if memory serves and so the price in one market could be sent with only a few words needed. The homing pidgins could be sent on a constant slow stream from one major city to the other and the return trip very quick. I suppose the answer to the question of the telegraph impact would be to see it the Rothchild advantage disappeared. Their unique information becoming universal. Just a thought from a non-economist.
As an undergraduate econ major at Columbia in the late '80s, I took a course from Mundell, and, a semester later, from Bill Vickrey. I think back then they had to teach one undergraduate course as penance for past sins. I had no idea of their background, but can confirms that their teaching style hardly electrified an often hung-over sophomore.
But it was a great cocktail party line, when, years later being asked about my experience at the school, I was able to truthfully reply that I had studied economics with two Nobel Laureates.
One more pigeon story -- consider this lagniappi dui:
When I lived in Beirut (before I raised pigeons) I used to watch men on the roof of their high-rise apartment exercising their pigeons. They would release the flock, then stand on the rooftop with a tall bamboo pole that had a white cloth tied to the top. They'd wave this arrangement in large circles, purportedly to keep their flock flying in circles and entice neighboring pigeons to join their numbers. It was said they built the number of pigeons in their flock by doing this. I never talked directly to these men or otherwise substantiate this story.
Weren't there semaphores in France at least that could transmit information. See the Count of Monte Cristo where he suborns one of the semaphore station operators to financially cripple one of his enemies. Also, roads were being improved so it took considerably less time for info to get from place to place. Ditto America, the clipper ships. it wasn't just the telelegram.it feels like there was a communications revolution or improvement going on.
Ah, the optical telegraph! The thing was that it was controlled by the government and suborning it would have been fun. Also it was a real pain, required a lot of men, and couldn't work at all in fog.
Ok, I need to chime in here, as I used to raise homing pigeons. Unlikely as it sounds, it's true.
Anyway, the thing about using pigeons as carriers of messages is that they need to be transported to the location you want to send the message from. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. Your pigeon will only fly home to where it's lived for the past several months or more. So if you want to send a message via pigeon, it will only carry your message "home", and you must first take your pigeon to the place from which you want to send the message. That works out for some things, like perhaps sending to Paris the news of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, but if you did not anticipate that Napoleon would be fighting in Waterloo and instead sent your pigeons to another town, they would not be in place to carry the message. I guess it's kind of like sending a TV reporter to Anaheim to report on the big California fire, only to have it break out in Pacific Palisades. Oh, and pigeons probably wouldn't be much help at reporting back home against the Santa Ana winds and smoke.
And finally, of course, a pigeon's carrying capacity is limited to mere ounces. Enough to carry a small capsule into which you've slipped a slip of paper on which you've written "Napoleon lost," but not a whole lot more than that.
Otherwise, this is a fun story, Professor.
As to weight limits... can one train an African swallow to serve as a homing bird?
You might have to wait for the change of seasons, like the swallows returning to Capistrano in April.
Especially valuable if you want to send a message to someone in Capistrano in April. :)
This is great info. To your point, I wonder how many pigeon-handlers the Rothschilds employed to fan out across the landscape. I'll not that I'm extremely fond of a very peculiar film called "Ghost Dog." Forest Whitaker plays a brilliant hit man in the employ of a small-time mobster--perhaps in New Jersey. Whitaker imagines himself to be a samurai in service of a master with whom he communicates only via homing pigeon. (Here, the elderly consigliere confuses homing pigeons and passenger pigeons and goes into a rant on the latter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4CIeZrcmpk.) Anyway, pigeons are an integral part of the plot. The film is very quirky and not for everyone. But I love it.
Fun clip. I'm not much of a film watcher, but this sounds like one I need to look up. Thanks.
I think it is. It's an odd one, so don't say you weren't warned. One of my favorite directors. Most of his films only attract a small, cult following--people like me. His most mainstream piece was "Broken Flowers," with Bill Murray.
Nowadays you could give a memory stick. Twice, one messenger pigeon transmitted data faster than high-speed ISP for 4GB.
Ah, the wonders of Sneakernet.
Right!.
Bob,
I began to pass this post by, but knowing your penchant for interesting, sometimes slightly enigmatic titles, decided to pause scrolling down my emails and give it a shot. Suffice it to say I was grabbed (pun intended), or should I day 'Grab'd' by the first paragraph and read it through, much to my delight. In the currently popular jargon of social media abbreviations, I LMAO at the skit. My wife often wonders what it is that causes her husband to laugh out loud while sitting at breakfast on his computer. Nice one. Best, Rick
"Slightly" enigmatic? Hey, I strive for "enigmatic as hell!" :) Glad you enjoyed it. The Bob and Ray skit is a classic. But then, most eveything they did was a classic. Take care.
Good post, Prof. Graboyes. I had a Finance prof in grad school with a similar presentation style. He would appear to drop off to sleep mid-sentence only to suddenly wake up and recite, verbatim, long passages from the assigned reading.
Yeah ... it's a type. :)
I also read about the Rothchild's and their homing pidgins. The logistics would not be that difficult to manage and the information contained wouldn't need be much. The Rothchild family traded mostly in bonds and gold if memory serves and so the price in one market could be sent with only a few words needed. The homing pidgins could be sent on a constant slow stream from one major city to the other and the return trip very quick. I suppose the answer to the question of the telegraph impact would be to see it the Rothchild advantage disappeared. Their unique information becoming universal. Just a thought from a non-economist.
Witness that the "ticker" is still formatted like a telegraph output.
*The Victorian Internet* by Tom Standage is good on this. (I will warn that as an author he went downhill sharply after this.)
I second the book recommendation. Its theme is more or less how the telegraph disrupted Victorian life as much as email did in the 1990s.
I'll look into it, thanks.
Good observations!
As an undergraduate econ major at Columbia in the late '80s, I took a course from Mundell, and, a semester later, from Bill Vickrey. I think back then they had to teach one undergraduate course as penance for past sins. I had no idea of their background, but can confirms that their teaching style hardly electrified an often hung-over sophomore.
But it was a great cocktail party line, when, years later being asked about my experience at the school, I was able to truthfully reply that I had studied economics with two Nobel Laureates.
I wrote about the similarities between Mundell and Vickrey in "The Minds of Economists" ("For Whom the Toll Knells section): https://graboyes.substack.com/p/the-minds-of-economists
One more pigeon story -- consider this lagniappi dui:
When I lived in Beirut (before I raised pigeons) I used to watch men on the roof of their high-rise apartment exercising their pigeons. They would release the flock, then stand on the rooftop with a tall bamboo pole that had a white cloth tied to the top. They'd wave this arrangement in large circles, purportedly to keep their flock flying in circles and entice neighboring pigeons to join their numbers. It was said they built the number of pigeons in their flock by doing this. I never talked directly to these men or otherwise substantiate this story.
Reminds me of this additional “Ghost Dog” clip. https://youtu.be/SkQfl6NjVEQ?si=HAm-mTBejCb2Rm7k
Yup -- that's it, but white, not red. At least in Beirut in the fifies.