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When the birds arrived at their home loft, the fancier would have a runner carry the bird to a clocking station usually located at the center of town, where the arrival time was recorded and the stamp on the wing was compared to the information that the club secretary had stamped on the wing of the bird. The fancier was given a six minute correction in their arrival time, for each mile that the runner covered from the loft to the clocking station.

In the graphic below, we see that this bird had been sent to seven races during the season. Each of the stamped feathers had the name of the race station stamped on it and a unique number of letter combination stamped on it.

For example, the fourth feather from the top, has the station "Washington DC" and the unique code of "NU" stamped on it, Since only the race secretary knows the unique code, there was considerable confidence that the bird carrying these marks was the same bird sent to the race.

In the 1880's the rubber countermark was invented by Julius-Rosoor of Tourcoing. This invention gave a great boost to the advancement of the sport, as the runners no longer had to carry the bird to the clocking station, only the rubber countermark which had the secret code stamped on the inside of the countermark.

The invention of the rubber countermark, allowed pigeon fanciers to clock their birds much more quickly. Under the old method of carrying the bird to the center of town, the birds became scared of entering the loft because they knew they would be carried by a runner and so birds often took many minutes to hours to finally enter the loft after landing on its roof. With the invention of the rubber countermark, the bird was no longer required to be carried to the clocking station and not having to experiecne those jostling trips into town, the birds started to trap into the loft immediately upon arrival from the race.

Soon after the invention of the rubber countermark, the first timing devices started to appear and their use was quickly adapted by the racing pigeon sport. The first timing device was created by Van den Bossche , of Oudenaarde Belgium. Latter timing devices were manufactured by many different companies. The most familiar to USA fanciers were the Toulet, the Planche and the Benzing. The most popular clock from 1913 - 1930's, in the USA, was the Unique two bird timer.

Below are photos of a Unique two bird timer.

The "Unique" was introduced in 1912 by C.W. Groneman and almost instantly became the most common 2-bird Timer in America

When the "Unique Timer" was Patented in 1913, most Pigeon Flyers in the USA were using either the "Halstead Timer"(1898) , the "Buysse Timer"(1902) or the "Jones Pigeon Flying Timer"(also introduced in 1902 but never Patented).

The maker of the "Unique Timer" opened the first small factory that was dedicated to "only" producing these beautiful little Clocks. Groneman struck a deal with the Standard Watch Company in 1912 to provide Pocket Watch movements for the Timers and he purchased 1000 movements before his Patent had been issued and finalized. Once the Patent was issued on Feb. 7, 1913 the shop was mass producing the cases and other necessary components and the "Unique Timer" was "BORN"!

By purchasing the large quantity of movements from the Standard Watch Company, W.C. Groneman was able to produce the "Unique Pigeon Timer" at about 1/2 the cost of the earlier Timers. Most Pigeon Fanciers in the USA in the early 1900's were European immigrants from Belgium,Germany and other Countries with a love of Pigeon Racing. Many of these Fanciers were also very poor; they were "farmers" or "craftsmen" who worked the land and couldn't afford the cost of a Timer. Groneman understood this and set up "rentals" of his timers.

In 1915 a Pigeon Flyer could "rent" one of the "Unique Pigeon Timers" for $2 per season ! So...for $2 a Fancier could actually "rent" one of these timers for "Old Bird" season or "Young Bird" season. Enough History!!

All of these 2-bird timers were set at the Club the night before each race and not started until the birds arrival at the loft. For example, all timers were set at 12:00 straight up, the countermark levers open, and the timer was then "sealed" and a lead numbered wire was "crimped" so that the timer could not be opened or tampered with! Upon the birds arrival the "countermark" was removed from the pigeon's leg and inserted into the timer. Once the countermark was inside the timer, the front knob of the timer is turned. Once turned, this knob not only "locked" the countermark inside the timer, it also started the pocketwatch movement. When the timer was opened at the Club after the Race, the Bird's arrival time could be very accurately calculated by the time the movement showed. ie.) If the timers were opened at 7:00pm and the movement showed 4:17:30sec. this would put the bird's arrival time @ 2:42:30pm. From the arrival time and the loft distance, very accurate YPM (yards per minute) calculations could be made!!!