April 2008, Chapter 72 Meeting

The April meeting was a varied program as usual, the highlight being a presentation by Mario Corral from the racing pigeon club. These pigeons evolved from the "common blue rock" pigeon "Columbia Liva). Charles Darwin's research showed the pigeon was recorded in 3000BC. The English Carrier Pigeon was around in the 1700's. Many allied lives were saved during the world wars where pigeons were used to carry messages back to a base. Two were released each time in case one got shot!

Mario, pigeon racer, with a couple of his birds on screen	Pigeon clock display	Waterbury alarm clocks were used in Australia for single bird recording	They were called "tin lizzies" and were enclosed in any tin can. The clock started when the thimble with the birds details was inserted	More examples
Models went from single bird like the tin lizzies to multiple birds from this Turner 3 bird to 18 birds or more	De Vriend timer which runs continuously like a clock and stamps the time of arrival	Plasschaert example	Brian Root is pleased he won the raffle	George Percival did a great job of dial and hand restoration on this longcase