The Reuters news agency began by using 45 homing pigeons to deliver stock market prices.

In April 1850, Paul Julius Reuter established a news-gathering service in Aachen, Germany, after the telegraph line between Berlin and Paris was left with a significant gap. The telegraph ended in Aachen and did not resume until Brussels, Belgium, leaving a 122-kilometer (76-mile) void. To solve this, Reuter employed a fleet of 45 homing pigeons to carry stock prices and news summaries between the two cities.Homing pigeons were chosen because they could fly at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, significantly faster than the steam-powered express trains of the era. By using these birds, Reuter was able to deliver market closing prices from the Paris Bourse to Aachen several hours before the mail train arrived. This gave his clients a massive competitive advantage in the financial markets, allowing them to trade on information that others did not yet have.The service remained operational for approximately one year until the telegraph line was finally completed in 1851. Once the gap was closed, Reuter moved his operations to London, where he founded the Reuters Telegram Company at the Royal Exchange. This early innovation in logistics and speed laid the foundation for Reuters to become one of the world's largest and most trusted international news agencies. The use of pigeons remains a legendary example of early 'high-frequency' data transmission.