Paul Julius Baron von Reuter (Israel Beer Josaphat, 1816-1899) | Founded a news agency in Aachen, Germany and Verviers, Belgium in 1849, using carrier pigeons to dispatch the news that arrived by telegraph in the two cities. Two years later Reuter moved to London and established the Reuters Telegrams news agency. Today Reuters is one of the largest international news and press agencies. Born in Kassel, Reuter adopted his new name in 1844, later became a British citizen, and received the title of baron in 1871. Also see Reuters auf Deutsch (de.reuters.com).
http://www.german-way.com/famous2b.html
Interesting Facts
Reuter’s news service got it start just after Paul Julius Reuter began delivering news between Aachen, Germany and Brussels using a covey of 45 pigeons. In 1850, the birds traveled the 76 mile distance in two hours to deliver the latest news, stock prices and other information. Although the telegraph was in operation within each of the countries, there were gaps in the transmission lines within and between the two. At the time, the railroad carried most of the news over a route that took 6 hours. In less than half the time, Reuter was able to transmit his information to clients willing to pay a premium for early financial information. After about a year, the telegraph reached most points so the pigeon delivery service offered no advantage and Reuter had to develop other ways to deliver timely information.
In the early 1800’s, the Rothschild family set up a network of pigeon lofts throughout Europe and used the birds to send information to their financial houses quicker than that available by other means. The speed of the information assisted the family in accumulating a fortune that helped make them the name they are today. In 1815, Count Rothschild, so the story is told, was aware of the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo much earlier than the rest of England. Rothschild used the knowledge to make financial decisions based on fact long before others were aware of the battle’s outcome.
http://pigeonexpresso.com/famous-pigeons.html
Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter (Baron De Reuter) (July 21, 1816 – February 25, 1899) was a German entrepreneur and later naturalized British citizen. The pioneer of telegraphy and news reporting[1] was journalist and media owner, the founder of Reuters news agency.[2]
Biography
He was born in Kassel, Germany to a Jewish family[3]. His father was a rabbi. His birthname was Israel Beer Josaphat. In Göttingen Reuter met Carl Friedrich Gauss who experimented with the transmission of electrical signals via wire.
On 29 October 1845, he moved to London, where he called himself Joseph Josephat. On November 16 he converted to Christianity during a ceremony at St. George's German Lutheran Chapel in London[4] and changed his name to Paul Julius Reuter. One week later on November 23, he married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus in Berlin. After the failed Revolution of 1848, he fled from Germany and went to Paris and worked there in Charles-Louis Havas' news agency, the future Agence France Presse. While telegraphy evolved, Reuter first founded the Reuters News Agency in Aachen which transferred messages between Brussels and Aachen using carrier pigeons. This was the missing link to connect Berlin and Paris. The carrier pigeons were much faster than the post train, giving Reuter faster access to stock news from the Paris stock exchange. In 1851, the carrier pigeons were superseded by a direct telegraph link.[5] A telegraph link was established between Britain and the European continent through the English Channel. This link was extended to the south-western shore of Ireland, at Cork in 1863. There ships coming from America threw canisters containing news into the sea. The news was telegraphed to London, arriving before the ships.
In 1851 Reuter moved back to London and set up an office at the London Stock Exchange. Reuter founded Reuters, one of the major financial news agencies of the world. On 17 March 1857, Reuter was naturalised as a British subject, and on September 7, 1871, the German Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha conferred a barony (Freiherr) on Julius Reuter. The title was "confirmed by Queen Victoria as conferring the privileges of the nobility in England".[6]
Baron de Reuter had two sons, George, 3rd Baron de Reuter, and André Reuter. His only daughter, Clementine Maria, married Count Otto Stenbock, and after his death, Sir Herbert Chermside, a governor of Queensland.[7] George, 3rd Baron de Reuter had two sons, Oliver, 4th Baron de Reuter, and Ronald Reuter. The last member of the family, Marguerite, widow of the 4th baron, died on January 25, 2009.[8]
Paul Reuter died in Villa Reuter, Nice, France, and was buried in the family vault at West Norwood Cemetery in London.
Edward G. Robinson portrayed Reuter in the Warner Bros. biopic A Dispatch from Reuter's (1940).
On February 25, 1999, the Reuters News Agency commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of its founder by launching a university award (Paul Julius Reuter Innovation Award) in Germany.[9]
The last surviving member of the Reuters family, Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, who was Paul Reuter's granddaughter-in-law, died in 2009 at the age of 96.[10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Julius_Reuter
