Before the invention of the telegraph and other telecommunication technologies, carrier pigeons were an important element of telecommunication. The problem that a pigeon would only fly back to its home, providing only a one-way communication, was overcome with ingenious solutions. During the siege of Paris in the war of 1870-71, messages were carried out of the beleaguered city by hot air balloons, and pigeons transported on board of the same "Mongolfière", flew back to their base in Paris with the replies.

The importance of this service was not forgotten, and 50 years later – in 1921, well after telegraph and even radio had been invented – a French law decreed that anyone intercepting a carrier pigeon would be subject to very serious punishment, if he or she would not immediately deliver to the nearest police station any messages the bird might be carrying. If a carrier pigeon would make an emergency landing in someone's pigeon house, roasting it for dinner and throwing away the message would result in a jail sentence.