Technical Manual TM 11-410: The Homing Pigeon (1945) | Hacker News Reader

Technical Manual TM 11-410: The Homing Pigeon (1945)

gutenberg.org

116 pointswolfgang4229 comments

Racing pigeons and homing pigeons are amazing, and can be so much fun to look after.

My wife's grandfather kept racing pigeons back in the 50s and 60s. He would go to football matches across England, with 3 pigeons inside his coat pockets. He'd then write down the half time, full time and extra time scores - setting one pigeon off home each time.

My wife's father would then wait at the coop, and as soon as the scores came in, he'd run to the 5 pubs in their small town and announce the scores (getting a penny or so for his trouble if he was lucky).

This was before local radio was common, and certainly before live football broadcasts of smaller teams. (Once those who had been to the football match (which could be across the country), got back they'd be expected to regale the pub with a description of the game).

I thought it was pretty cool that the birds had a 'real life' use, other than just for the fun of racing them.

that's an awesome story, thanks for sharing

I get a weird feeling reading these technical manuals from the 1940's. It feels like we used to know how to do things correctly, and can describe them with precise language, but somehow we lost those abilities?

I know that doesn't make much sense but that is exactly the feeling I get reading these.

This type of writing takes a lot of effort. In computing, the pace of change is high, so in many cases, by the time you've published the manual, the product has changed. In the old days, software would come with large manuals, and then a brief pamphlet of things that changed between when the manual was finalized and when the software was finalized, and then usually a one sheet with installation instructions.

Of course, "noone" read the manuals, in part because they were out of date, in part because hopefully the software was easy enough to use that the manual wasn't required, in part because reading the manual is boring. Since they're a lot of effort to write, and nobody reads them, they stopped getting made.

Well said. This type of writing is perfectly doable but it does take effort and a lot of experience.

Well, things were simpler back then, but for the ww2 manuals in particular, I wonder if it wasn't also that the manuals were written for rapid comprehension because it was quite likely that the reader was someone who just took things over in the field after the expert had been killed.

You could make the argument that things were more complicated back then. They had a real need for well written comprehensive manuals. Nowadays I guess we don't because they don't appear to be made much any more.

See also schematics. I watch a lot, perhaps too much, of people repairing old electronic equipment. And they always seem able to whip out a set of schmatics to help them diagnose the problem. In some areas things get worse over time.

This isn't really a technical manual, though, like the one that may come with a dishwasher or something.

This is more like a training manual meant to help a person with no prior knowledge become proficient in some topic. You should compare it to a textbook or online classes.

Thing is, it still compares very favourably. Hell, going to school in 90s and 2000s, I remember old textbooks and exercise books books from 1950s-1970s, that my grandfather would occasionally give me. Those old English books (for English as second language - geographical context: Poland), in particular, were miles ahead of the stuff we had to buy for classes.

My working theory is this: those old books of my grandpa that I liked so much were, just like the manuals GP mentioned, written with reader's self-education in mind. They're supposed to teach you things as you read them and work through the exercises. In contrast, textbooks of my time seem to be written for supervised learning - the student gets content-light, fluff-heavy books that cannot be used in isolation, as crucial information is restricted only to teacher's companion books.

My cynical addendum is this: the latter is a great way for ensuring recurring revenue: the student book is not a complete solution, forcing dependence on teachers; schools are easier to convince that the last year's edition is obsolete and needs to be replaced with this year's edition, and then teachers will pressure students to buy new books, to avoid the hassle of supporting multiple editions of textbooks that are all incompatible with the most recent teacher's companion book. The market wasn't this diabolically wasteful a few decades ago.

The quality and precision of technical documentation indeed has gone down a lot. This is not merely because (some) things have become more complex, and because people tend to jump between a growing multitude of things, but also because people just don’t take the time anymore to do it right, and increasingly don’t even experience good technical documentation, and thus don’t know what it would look like.

I get a similar feeling looking at instructional videos from that era[0][1], or reading books like Stick and Rudder[2][3], or even the simple brilliance of the visual design of the London Underground[4]. There's a pervasive sense that despite the reams of progress that has been made in the science of human factors, simple straightforwardness is becoming an endangered species.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOLtS4VUcvQ [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stick_and_Rudder [3] https://i.stack.imgur.com/7YAxo.jpg [4] https://i.redd.it/iav0ejncor7a1.jpg

I use to keep homing pigeons as a kid and participate in racing, it use to be quite popular in The Netherlands and Belgium, the area where I live. But it's a dying hobby. The biggest race is Barcelona, 1000 km or 600 miles, which birds can fly in 10 hours.

I recently built a coop and finally have a few pigeons again after not having them for almost 20 years. They are intelligent animals that are fun to keep and bring me peace having them around me.

There are still plenty of local homing pigeon communities for racing and other purposes (most often, it seems to help with a dazzling show for events like funerals, weddings, and other celebrations).

But... it's still faster to transfer large amounts of data via homing pigeon than the Internet—up to a certain radius: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/pigeon-still-faster-i...

> The records and reports required for each pigeon unit are Breeding Card, Pigeon Breeding Record, Pigeon Flight Record, Pigeon Pedigree, and Monthly Pigeon Loft Report.

Wow. Red tape city.

Somehow I am inspired to write a variety of WWII-era US Army-style training manuals for operating my complex systems.

Please also produce an audiobook reading it.

Things like this can happen: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1401,_A_User%27s_Manual

>Wow. Red tape city.

At least it was more auditable than a modern Boeing assembly plant.

This doesn’t appear as red-tape to me.

Breeding animals takes many generations to get desired traits, so all this information would help to identify a problematic lineage. Since these pigeons were used to deliver critical messages if you had a lineage who began to lose their homing abilities it could be very costly.

Imagine a small group of scout soldiers whom find an unknown opposition encampment. They need additional forces to get there quickly or they may lose the chance to weaken those forces. If the pigeon is less likely to return home, they likely wouldn’t want to leverage them for these critical missions.

Having a clear and traceable record makes it so they can selectively breed the best pigeons and/or assign the best pigeons to the right tasks. Without clear and consistent records like these it would be akin to pissing into the wind and hoping you don’t get wet.

Pigeons are amazing.

THey may have a very large hippocampus, like that of a Hummingbird (my favorite bird) - which have a huge hippocampus and this is how they recall so many food resources.

Both birds can fly thousands of miles (some hummingbirds migrate from washington state to mexico)

But, Yeah this is for selective breeding of the best r/birdsarentreal stock

Pigeons are incredible critters.

* pigeon droppings were important in making gun powder, and at one point in the UK ALL pigeon droppings were property of the Crown for this reason

* pigeons can fly incredibly high and fast

They have exceptional biological compass

Self-Recognition and Social Intelligence:

Pigeons can recognize themselves in mirrors, a rare quality among birds.

They can also differentiate between humans in photos.

Their self-cognitive ability rivals that of 3-year-old children.

Impressive Flight Speeds:

Pigeons are not the fastest birds, but they can reach speeds of up to 92.7 miles per hour during flight.

Their sustained velocity is around 60 mph.

Pigeon racing showcases their remarkable flying abilities.

Cleanliness and Spiritual Significance:

Pigeons are clean and do not spread diseases significantly.

In various religions (such as Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu), pigeons are considered spiritual and cared for.

Social Creatures:

Pigeons prefer living in groups of 20 to 30 birds. They are social and tolerate human interaction better than many other bird species.

Navigation Abilities:

Pigeons use a combination of cues:

Visual Landmarks: They recognize familiar landmarks along known routes.

Magnetoreception: They sense Earth’s magnetic field for orientation. Olfactory Navigation: Their sense of smell helps them find their way home.

Sun Compass: They use the sun’s position as a compass. Homing Pigeons and Their Inner Ear:

Scientists have explored iron-rich material in pigeons’ inner ears. However, this material is unlikely to be their primary magnetic sensor.

Pigeons likely rely more on olfactory cues for navigation. Memory and Recall:

Pigeons can recall locations even when transported far away.

Their impressive navigational instinct allows them to find their way home.

> pigeon droppings were important in making gun powder, and at one point in the UK ALL pigeon droppings were property of the Crown for this reason

Bet that’s been struck of the books.

>This was not always the case. That people are turned off, I mean. In the 18th Century, King George I of England decreed all pigeon droppings to be property of the Crown. He even put guards at sites where the birds perched to enforce his edict. He was no birdbrain. There was a practical reason for his order: Pigeon manure was used in making gunpowder.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2003/04/27/in-praise-of-pigeo...

However, who knows if it has since been disproven...

Further than genetics, the training section of the article touches on directional and non-directional training, and training at distances.

It seems that you would likely be working with a message sender, and a pigeoneer preparing resources for the teams in the field. The pigeoneer could possibly have cohorts of pigeons at different stages of training and performance, and it would be bad to foul up the bird selection when sending them into battle. The specialization of this reminds me of one of the things my grandfather ( Korean War era ) used to say, "If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well"

A System is laid out here so that any qualified private could go through the basic training and have the tools he needs to be a successful pigeoneer, supporting his unit and providing the records in standard form to lower the bus-factor impact, and enable his promotion.

Unfortunately, without the threat of red tape, many humans have cashed subsidies for imaginary domesticates, or worse yet, gained a little margin by keeping other living beings in inhumane conditions. Compare 9(a) with https://www.pigeon.org/pages/loftregistration.html

You can see what happens if they compromise on these things at Boeing at the moment.

Any successful breeding program of any animal for desired characteristics tracks every single input and outcome. They're all important.

Now combine that with work that can get humans killed. I would be very, very interested in making sure everything about these birds was absolutely perfect.

If you need a large group of people to do something correctly, you need to document how to do it and train them on how to do it. The Army can't just assume that every pigeon handler comes from a background with pigeons, will just "figure it out," or that within recruits / draftees, there will be enough people who are interested in pigeons that it will "just work."

Nor can the Army assume that the pigeon expert, who wrote that book, will be available to handhold every pigeon handler with their pigeons.

This, BTW, is an important lesson for scaling a successful business. Properly documenting processes and training employees is critical.

Finally, this extensive attention to detail is why the US Army is one of the best armies in the world.

And here I thought this was going to be about Operation Pigeon, the time the US military tried to design a pigeon-guided missile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

Although I feel squeamish about blowing up pigeons who you have domesticated to help you (not that this is necessarily worse than what occurs in the meat industry, or than any of the things man inflicts on man during war), I really believe that this would have worked. We are only just now beginning to be able to approach animals' visual capabilities using ANNs, and that with much greater power consumption, more complicated supply chains, and less recyclability.

Likewise, given experiments in which rats drive cars (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50167812), and dogs who have learned to use skateboards &etc, I suspect that the self-driving car problem could be solved using trained animals and input devices well adapted to their anatomies. Which, however, would raise the question -- why not just allow children to drive? I digress.

In other stories of animal employment, a baboon once worked as a railway signalman: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_(baboon)

> He was paid twenty cents a day, and half a bottle of beer each week. It is widely reported that in his nine years of employment with the railway company, Jack never made a single mistake.

This all seems absurd to us -- "Jobs involve sitting at desks, pushing buttons on computers, don't they? That's what a 'job' is, right?" -- but I think the box inside which we think is smaller than it used to be.

Mike Tyson would be proud

Reply on news.ycombinator.com