Comments for CECOM Historical Office

Comment on Pigeons in WWII by Piracetam

Piracetam — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 07:54:55 +0000

At the expiration of this period, and at about 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon, but not when it is raining or snowing or a fog or mist prevailing, and before the birds have their afternoon feed, the traps of the house should be opened and the birds allowed to go out of the traps on their own initiative. It is fatal to drive the birds out of the loft. If they are driven, they will fly wildly, and without knowledge of the country surrounding the loft, will lose themselves, and fail to return. The normal young bird on being permitted to go through the trap for the first time of its own free will, will perch on the landing board or roof of the pigeon loft and probably make a few short flights in the air, returning to the roof of the loft after each one, venturing further and further away from the loft at each succeeding flight. On the day selected, the birds should be fed rather lightly in the morning and kept rather sharp so as to have their appetites assist in bringing them back to the loft after their first flight in the open air.

Comment on Always Faithful by reillyc

reillyc — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:08:17 +0000

Hi Esther,
Thanks so much for the comment and the info about how the races are timed. I didn’t realize how competitive it was! Thanks again for reading. – Chrissie, Staff Historian

Comment on Pro Patria by reillyc

reillyc — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:06:30 +0000

Hi Anne,
Thanks so much for the comment! Yes, you’re right, many of the birds were preserved through taxidermy after death. The preserved birds went to various museums, including the Communications Electronics Museum (which transferred from Fort Monmouth to APG) and the Smithsonian. I think the history office may have some records of the taxidermy costs as well as who provided those services. We’ll get back to you as soon as we find out. Thanks again for reading. – Chrissie, Staff Historian

Comment on Pro Patria by Anne Burton

Anne Burton — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:38:36 +0000

It looks like many of the pigeons were preserved through taxidermy following death. Do you know who provided the taxidermy services? Where are all of the preserved pigeons located?

Comment on Always Faithful by Esther Baxter

Esther Baxter — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 10:21:52 +0000

The winner of a pigeon race is the bird with the highest velocity , measured in ypm or mpm; this calculation demands that the distance be divided into yards, then divide the yards by the number of minutes it took the bird to return. Since races can often be won and lost by seconds, many different timing and measuring devices have been developed. The traditional timing method involves rubber rings being placed into a specially designed clock, whereas a newer development uses RFID tags to record arrival time.

Comment on About by Jacinto Czlapinski

Jacinto Czlapinski — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 19:56:26 +0000

I like this blog very much, Its a very nice billet to read and get information.

Comment on Yearbook Photo by reillyc

reillyc — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:44:01 +0000

Richard, thanks for commenting. The early Signal equipment is pretty cool, and if you’re interested, we had a brief entry on it: . Thanks again for reading! -Chrissie, CECOM Staff Historian

Comment on Bordeaux by reillyc

reillyc — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:40:18 +0000

Thank you for commenting. This collection sounds like it’s pretty unique. The foresight to collect these things, and then having a donor supply them, really makes such a huge difference to archives and special collections. Thanks again for reading! -Chrissie, CECOM Staff Historian

Comment on Yearbook Photo by Richard Fowell

Richard Fowell — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 07:44:47 +0000

There are four U.S. Signal Service heliographs in the front of this photo – you can see the tripods and the square mirrors. Heliographs were used to signal using flashes of reflected sunlight. See the Wikipedia article for more. The heliographs of most other nations used round mirrors.

Comment on Bordeaux by silver price

silver price — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:53:06 +0000

The Berkeley Posters collection, housed in Rare Books & Special Collections at the UBC Library, comprises 250 posters from the years 1968 to 1973. Covering anti-war and pro-social justice themes the posters run the gamut of concerns of the time such as the Vietnam War and corporate responsibility. Produced by student and underground groups on the University of California Berkeley campus and around the San Francisco Bay Area the posters feature striking art and often used found materials such as used continuous form paper as in the featured image above (note the dot-matrix or line printing on the poster verso ). Highly ephemeral in nature the posters were collected by Helmut Jung of Gold River, British Columbia and donated to the UBC Library.