Since ancient times homing pigeons have been used for carrying messages for the ancient Greeks and Persians. The birds were used for carrying messages, such as the results from the Olympics. Romans as well as the Franco-Prussians and Germans in WWI and WWII used the birds to carry military instructions back and forth. The pigeons helped to speed up communications, because they were faster than man, horse, and be the time of WWI faster and more efficient than the automobile.