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by skookumchuck 2988 days ago
> only pigeons could have done before.

I find this peculiar. Hydrogen balloons were used for surveillance in the Civil War, 40 years earlier. It would have been easy to attach a camera to a small hydrogen balloon, with a clockwork device to puncture the balloon to bring it down in a reasonable distance.

1 comments

> It would have been easy to attach a camera to a small hydrogen balloon, with a clockwork device to puncture the balloon to bring it down in a reasonable distance.

Maybe, but homing pigeons have a few advantages. They return to their home "automatically" and they are not as conspicuous flying through the air.