Unusual one today

[MikeEll]

A pidgeon clock!

 

[oldhippy]

Thats a nice movement and a jeweled platform. It's a good one.  

[RichardHarris123]

Pidgeon? 

[tomh207]

43 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Pidgeon? 

I expect a Yorkshire man to recognise this Richard, don’t you all have ferrets, whippets and pidgeons any more?

 

Tom

[RichardHarris123]

I was wondering what a pigeon clock was.

[Neverenoughwatches]

26 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I was wondering what a pigeon clock was.

The military used carrier pigeons during the war to deliver messages, kind of like spy pigeons.  The bigger birds..they would strap clocks to those ones.... most often when the phone lines were down and folk couldn’t ring up for the speaking clock. 

The idea was to entice the bird down with a few seeds..get your time reading to set your watch and clock by...then send big bird on his way to help someone else. 

[tomh207]

1 hour ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I was wondering what a pigeon clock was.

It is a clock used to time pigeon races to determine the winner. I think the birds were ringed prior to the start of the race the ring being removed and inserted into the clock recording the time of arrival in its home doocote.

 

Tom

[RichardHarris123]

https://landofiron.org.uk/collections-blog/pigeon-clock

That makes sense, I  thought it must have a pigeon on the dial.  Hehe. 

[mbwatch]

38 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

That makes sense, I  thought it must have a pigeon on the dial.  Hehe. 

I thought a cuckoo clock, but with a pigeon in the little door.

[oldhippy]

All right you fools pigeon clocks are used for racing pigeons. The only thing you have to worry about is cleaning out the pigeon shit. The same goes for Cuckoo clocks.  

[RichardHarris123]

2 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

All right you fools pigeon clocks are used for racing pigeons. The only thing you have to worry about is cleaning out the pigeon shit. The same goes for Cuckoo clocks.  

You're in fine form tonight OH. Hehe. 

Easier than cleaning up rocking horse s£%t.

[caseback]

14 hours ago, tomh207 said:

It is a clock used to time pigeon races to determine the winner. I think the birds were ringed prior to the start of the race the ring being removed and inserted into the clock recording the time of arrival in its home doocote.

 

Tom

My father left me two of those. They come in nice wooden boxes and have a seal applied before a race. No pigeons on the dial. Do cuckoo's have rings (please don't go that way..  no really..).

"Fun" fact: you had to persuade the pigeons to come to you to get the ring. In some of these competitions, there was a lot of money involved. So much in fact, that owners have been known to shoot pigeons down in order to get the ring faster...

Edited January 30 by caseback

[HectorLooi]

49 minutes ago, caseback said:

owners have been known to shoot pigeons down in order to get the ring faster...

Weird hobby. 

[watchweasol]

Nearly every village had someone with racing pigeons, we have one here in St Combs. Top class birds were used for breeding and were well sought after or sold for big money. They have their own newspaper/ periodical They have international races from Europe and the owners don’t all wear flat caps and have whippets. Some of the bird lofts are cleaner than most houses and the birds pampered.  Special food stuffs to build up stamina A popular hobby at home and abroad.. Never raced any but have nursed exhausted stragglers back to health for return to their owners.

[MikeEll]

On 1/29/2025 at 12:56 PM, RichardHarris123 said:

Pidgeon? 

if you mean the spelling, I just read that both pigeon and pidgeon are both correct.  Who knew.  Pigeon seems to be the commonly accepted norm these days, I stand corrected.  I'm not a fancier so its not a word I often use

I work with cryptography in cybersecurity as my main job.  Pigeon/pidgeon racing, and the timing of it, is an interesting use case to solve.  You need a shared accurate starting time, clocks to record the accurate finishing time, a method to identify the pigeon that's resistant to spoofing, and all in the hands of the participants who might have serious money in the game.  I know these days it's gone more high-tech with NFC timing devices and internet connectivity, but it's pretty cool how this was all done with mechanical clocks back in the day.

Edited January 30 by MikeEll