Carrier pigeon photography

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Carrier pigeon with a camera, probably used for aerial reconnaissance during the First World War

The pigeon photography is an early 20th century by Kronberger pharmacist Neubronner Julius invented method of aerial photography . A carrier pigeon is provided with a harness to which a light, time-controlled miniature camera is attached. Neubronner's experiments ended after the First World War, as the military lost interest in the invention. However, the technology was later temporarily resumed by the watchmaker Christian Adrian Michel from Walde in the canton of Aargau and, according to reports, also by the German and French military and later by the CIA .

Origins

The first aerial photographs were taken in 1858 by the French aeronaut Nadar ; the oldest preserved was made by James Wallace Black in 1860, also from a balloon. Advances in photography technology allowed them to be used in unmanned aerial vehicles at the end of the 19th century. Arthur Batut experimented with photography from kites in the 1880s . Many others followed him, and in 1896 William Abner Eddy took good pictures using this technique. Amedee Denisse equipped a rocket with a camera and parachute in 1888, and Alfred Nobel also did rocket photography in 1897.

Carrier pigeons were widely used in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially in civil pigeon mail and as messengers in war. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the famous Parisian pigeon post transported up to 50,000 microfilm telegrams per pigeon flight from Tours to the besieged French capital - a total of 100,000 state dispatches and a million private messages.

In an experiment by the Imperial Russian Technical Society of Saint Petersburg , Alexander von Kowanko, the head of the Russian Balloon Corps, took aerial photographs from the balloon in 1889 and sent the collodion negatives developed to the ground by carrier pigeon.

Julius Neubronner

Julius Neubronner (1914)

In 1903 Julius Neubronner , court pharmacist in Kronberg im Taunus near Frankfurt am Main , came back to the technique of having recipes sent by carrier pigeons, which his father had practiced half a century earlier. In addition, he also delivered urgent medicines up to a weight of 75 grams using the same method and provided his Frankfurt wholesalers with a few pigeons in order to be supplied more quickly himself. When one of his pigeons lost their orientation while transporting a recipe in the fog and, mysteriously, only arrived well fed four weeks late, the passionate amateur photographer had the initially joke idea of ​​equipping his pigeons with automatic cameras that record their path. This thought motivated him to combine the pigeon sport with amateur photography to form a new "dual sport".

Neubronner began developing a lightweight miniature camera that was held on the pigeon's chest with the help of a harness made of elastic cord and leather and an aluminum cuirass . The pigeons were carefully accustomed to their load using wooden models weighing between 30 and 75 grams. To take an aerial photo, Neubronner brought a carrier pigeon to a location up to about 100 kilometers from its loft, provided it with a camera and released it. The bird, anxious to be relieved of its burden, typically flew the direct route, at an altitude of 50 to 100 meters. A pneumatic mechanism in the camera regulated the time delay before the recording. The dovecote had a spacious and elastic flight board and a large entrance hole that could only be passed inwards to accommodate the camera pigeons with their load.

Aerial photos of Schlosshotel Kronberg (top left) and Frankfurt am Main (bottom left and center); Pigeons with cameras (right).
Pigeon camera with two lenses (patent sketches)
The patented camera with cuirass, hung on the harness

According to Neubronner, there were around a dozen different models of his camera by 1920. In 1907 he had sufficient success for a patent application. His invention “method and device for photographing sections of terrain from a bird's eye view” was initially rejected as impracticable by the Imperial Patent Office, but accepted in December 1908 after subsequent photo results were submitted. (The rejection was based on a widespread misconception about the carrying capacity of domestic pigeons .) In 1909, the technology was introduced by Neubronner's participation in the International Photographic Exhibition in Dresden (at the invitation of August Scherl's publishing house ) and the first International Airship Exhibition , then still in Frankfurt on Main, further known. Spectators in Dresden could watch the pigeons fly in, and the aerial photos they brought with them were converted into postcards on the spot. The invention received an award in Dresden, as well as in 1910 and 1911 at the second and third Paris air shows .

A photo of Schlosshotel Kronberg (then Schloss Friedrichshof ) became famous because it happened to show the pigeon's wing tips. The picture was shown in 1929 in the weekly newsreel in German cinemas in violation of copyright law , but was cut out after the Neubronner family intervened.

The different camera models were built quite differently. In an article published in 1911, four types were listed: an ordinary camera with one lens, a camera designated as a “panorama camera” in quotation marks, a camera with two lenses, and a camera for eight consecutive photos. According to the article, the largest and heaviest of them was about 10 by 6.5 centimeters and weighed about 75 grams.

  • The camera with two lenses with a focal length of 4 cm simultaneously took two pictures with a format of five by five centimeters: one facing the front and one pointing straight down. In this model, also described in the patent, the two lenses shared a common focal plane shutter mechanism that moved parallel to the direction of flight. A similar model, in which both lenses were pointed in the same direction, allowed the creation of stereoscopic images.
  • In one model, the lens was attached to a bellows, which was made smaller by a scissors construction immediately after the exposure was triggered. This enabled a picture in the format 6 cm × 9 cm with a focal length of 8.5 cm.
  • Around 1910 Neubronner developed the double sports panorama camera , which took panorama pictures in the format 3 cm × 8 cm. Like the other models, however, it did not go into series production.
  • The last model (before 1920) weighed just under 40 grams and took 12 pictures.

A well-known photo of three stuffed pigeons with cameras (see above) shows a camera with only one lens on the right, a camera with two lenses in the middle and the panorama camera on the left.

In 1920, Neubronner stated that ten years of hard work and considerable expenses had only been rewarded by being included in the conversation lexicon and by the awareness that an auxiliary technology, the mobile dovecote described below, had benefited his country during the World War. In the meantime, Neubronner's invention has also made it to the museum. B. in the collection of the Agfa Photo Historamas in Cologne. In addition to the Kronberg City Museum, the double sports camera can also be seen in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin and in the German Museum in Munich.

First World War

From the beginning, Neubronner's invention was at least partially motivated by the prospect of military utility. At that time, photographic aerial reconnaissance was possible, but inconvenient as it was dependent on balloons, kites or rockets. The Wright brothers' successful flight in 1903 opened up new possibilities that were to be perfected during World War I. But even after that, pigeon photography promised - despite all the practical difficulties - to provide additional, more detailed shots from a lower height.

Neubronner's mobile dovecote with darkroom, as presented at the 1909 exhibitions

The Prussian War Ministry showed fundamental interest in the invention, but the initial skepticism could only be reduced by a series of successful demonstrations. It was found that the pigeons were relatively insensitive to detonations, but a significant difficulty in war conditions was the fact that it takes a relatively long time to get used to a pigeon loft even a few meters away. The problem of minimizing the retraining time of carrier pigeons after the loft was transferred had been tackled with some success by the Italian army around 1880, and the French artillery captain Reynaud finally solved it by raising carrier pigeons in a roaming dovecote. It is not clear whether Neubronner were aware of this work. He knew, however, that there had to be a solution, because he had heard of a showman who was moving around in the car with his dovecote. At the 1909 exhibitions in Dresden and Frankfurt, Neubronner presented a small car that combined a darkroom with a dovecote in striking colors. In months of strenuous work he trained young pigeons to return to the loft, even if it was moved.

In 1912 Neubronner solved the task he was given in 1909 to photograph the waterworks in Berlin-Tegel from the air using only his mobile dovecote. After almost ten years of negotiations, the state wanted to test the invention itself during a maneuver in Strasbourg in August 1914 and then take it over. However, the plans were thwarted by the outbreak of war. Neubronner had to make his pigeons and all his equipment available to the army, which tested them in the field with satisfactory results. The pigeon photography was subordinated to the news department.

The aerial reconnaissance by pigeon photography was ultimately unsuccessful. Instead learned under the new conditions of trench warfare , the pigeons in their traditional role as messengers of a renaissance. The mobile dovecote found its way to the Battle of Verdun , where it proved itself so well that similar facilities were used to a greater extent at the Battle of Somme . After the war, the war ministry wrote to Neubronner that carrier pigeon photography was no longer of any military use and that further experiments were not justified.

The International Museum of Spy in Washington, DC has dedicated a small room to carrier pigeon photography and carrier pigeons in World War I.

Second World War

Toy soldier with camera pigeon

Despite the rejection of the invention immediately after the First World War, the German military seems to have trained carrier pigeons for photography in Munich in the 1930s, with pigeon cameras that could take 200 pictures on one flight. The inventor of the method, who died in 1932, was probably no longer involved. But the Germans were no longer the only ones claiming this technology for themselves. The French military declared that they had film cameras for pigeons and that they had developed a method to bring the pigeons behind the enemy lines with trained dogs and to let them start there.

Sketch sheet from Adrian Michel's patent

Although carrier pigeons and mobile dovecotes were used extensively on both sides during World War II, it is not clear whether or to what extent carrier pigeons were actually used in aerial reconnaissance. Apparently rumors circulated on the Allied side that the Germans and the Japanese would use Neubronner's invention, and as late as 1943 it was reported that the American intelligence forces were aware of the possibility of using carrier pigeon photography, but had not yet officially accepted it.

What is certain is that carrier pigeon photography found its way into children's rooms during the Second World War through war toys. Among the mass figures of the Elastolin brand , some of which still showed motifs from the time before 1918 with updated uniforms, there was also a news soldier with a pigeon transport dog from around 1935. The soldier lets a pigeon fly, which carries a somewhat oversized pigeon camera.

Thanks to the investigations of the Swiss Camera Museum in Vevey , much more is known about the pigeon cameras developed around the same time by the Swiss watchmaker Christian Adrian Michel (1912–1980) in Walde in Aargau . Assigned to the Swiss military's carrier pigeon relief service in 1931, he adapted Neubronner's double sports camera to 16 mm film from 1933 and improved it with a mechanism that controlled the delays in the first picture and between the shots and transported the film. Nevertheless, the camera, patented in 1937, remained below the critical weight limit at 70 g. It was probably one of the first cameras with a spring mechanism .

Michel's plan to offer the camera to the Swiss Army failed when he couldn't find a producer for series production. In total, there were no more than about 100 cameras of this type. After the outbreak of World War II, Michel patented a sleeve for transporting small objects such as rolls of film by carrier pigeons. From 2002 to 2007, three of Michel's pigeon cameras were auctioned off by Christie's in London.

The Swiss Camera Museum owns around 1000 photos that were taken for test purposes during the development of Michel's camera. In the catalog of the exhibition Des pigeons photographes? in 2007 they are divided into

  • Test images on the floor or from a window,
  • Human perspective images from the ground or from elevated points,
  • Aerial photos from the plane,
  • Aerial photos from a relatively high altitude, which presumably come from carrier pigeons that have been removed from the aircraft
  • a small number of typical carrier pigeon aerial photographs.

After the Second World War

Pigeon camera in the CIA museum

A battery-operated pigeon camera used by the CIA is shown in the virtual tour of the (otherwise not publicly accessible) CIA museum. Details of their use are still subject to confidentiality. According to media reports, this camera was used in the 1970s, with the pigeons released from an airplane; however, the technique was unsuccessful.

In 1978 the French-language Swiss magazine L'illustré printed an aerial photo of Gotthelfstrasse in Basel , made of a pigeon by Febo de Vries-Baumann with a hydraulic camera.

In the 1980s, Rolf Oberländer produced a small number of high-quality copies of the double sports camera, one of which the Swiss Camera Museum acquired in 1999. Some were probably also sold as originals.

In 2002/2003 the performance artist and pigeon lover Amos Latteier experimented with carrier pigeon photography. He used APS and digital cameras and processed his research, experiences and results into "PowerPointillist" lecture events in Portland (Oregon) .

In Arend Agthe's 2008 film adaptation of Sleeping Beauty , the prince invents carrier pigeon photography and discovers Sleeping Beauty in one of the photos.

See also

literature

  • Olivier Berger: Report concernant le traitement de conservation-restauration d'une série de petits appareils photographiques pour pigeons (PDF; 830 kB) . 2008. (With color photos of dismantled cameras by Adrian Michel.)
  • Franziska Brons: Images on the fly: Julius Neubronner's carrier pigeon photography . Photo History No. 100. 2006, pp. 17–36. ISSN  0720-5260 . (The authoritative work in the early days of the invention.)
  • Franziska Brons: Facsimile: 'see above'. In: Horst Bredekamp , Matthias Bruhn, Gabriele Werner: Pictures without a viewer . Akademie Verlag 2006, ISBN 978-3-05-004286-2 , pp. 58-63. (Two-page article on rarely seen photos.)
  • Franz Maria Feldhaus: Pigeon Post . In: Fame sheets of technology - From the original inventions to the present . Leipzig 1910, pp. 544-553. (With report by Julius Neubronner.)
  • Rolf Häfliger: A pigeon camera from Switzerland . Photographica Cabinett. Issue December 45, 2008.
  • Musée suisse de l'appareil photographique: Des pigeons photographes? . Vevey 2007. (Covered Julius Neubronner and Adrian Michel. Many photos.)
  • Julius Neubronner: The carrier pigeon as a photographer . Die Umschau No. 41. 1908, pp. 814–818. (Includes detailed elevation drawings from two models of cameras.)
  • Julius Neubronner: The pigeon photography and its importance for the art of war, as a dual sport, for science and in the service of the press. In addition to an appendix: "The Critique of Foreign Countries" . Wilhelm Baensch Verlag, Dresden 1909.
  • Julius Neubronner: My life as a lover photographer . In: About Julius Neubronner and how he invented carrier pigeon photography . Town house Ulm. edition stadthaus , Volume 16. Ulm 2014. ISBN 978-3-934727-38-0 (new edition of Neubronner's memoirs and additional articles about his family roots and pigeons in the war)
  • Julius Neubronner: 55 years of photography enthusiasts: memories shared on the occasion of the fifteen-year existence of the factory for dry adhesive material. Knauer Brothers, Frankfurt am Main 1920. (Neubronner's view shortly after the First World War.)
  • Jan-Peter Wittenburg: Photography from the bird's eye view: the history of the pigeon camera . Photo deal. Vol. 4, No. 59. 2007, pp. 16-22. (Treats only Neubronner; partly written from a museum and collector's perspective.)

Web links

Commons : Carrier Pigeon Photography  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Professional Aerial Photographers Association: History of aerial photography ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . papainternational.org. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.papainternational.org
  2. ^ Alfred Hildebrandt: The airship after its historical and current development . Munich 1907, pp. 384-386.
  3. ^ Friborg: Photographie militaire et photo-cartographie (suite) . Bulletin de la Société Photographique du Nord de la France. 1892, pp. 131-136 ( digitized on Gallica ).
  4. ^ Alfred Hildebrandt: The airship after its historical and current development . Munich 1907, p. 395.
  5. ^ Alfred Hildebrandt: The airship after its historical and current development . Munich 1907, p. 406.
  6. ^ A b Franz Maria Feldhaus: Taubenpost . In: Fame sheets of technology - From the original inventions to the present . Leipzig 1910, pp. 549-551.
  7. ^ A b Alfred Gradenwitz: Pigeons as picture-makers . Technical World Magazine. Volume 10, 1908, pp. 485-487 . https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015075032303;view=1up;seq=509 (digitized version, last accessed on January 27, 2019).
  8. ↑ Extraordinary espionage techniques: The carrier pigeon photography. In: German Spy Museum. March 17, 2017, accessed on March 11, 2020 (German).
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h Julius Neubronner: 55 years of photography enthusiasts: memories shared on the occasion of the fifteen-year existence of the factory for dry adhesive material. Gebrüder Knauer, Frankfurt am Main 1920, pp. 23–24, 27–28 and 31.
  10. ↑ a b Patent DE204721 : Method and device for photographing sections of terrain from a bird's eye view. Registered on June 20, 1907 , inventor: Julius Neubronner. ‌
  11. ↑ Jan-Peter Wittenburg: Photography from the bird's eye view: to the history of the pigeon camera . Photo deal. Volume 4, No. 59. 2007, pp. 16-22.
  12. ↑ a b Pigeon Photographers . Photographic Topics. Volume 10, No. 1. New York 1911. pp. 3-5. "Strand Magazine" should be given in place of an author.
  13. ↑ a b c Pascale Bonnard Yersin, Jean-Marc Bonnar Yersin: De l'origine du pigeon photographe . In: Musée suisse de l'appareil photographique: Des pigeons photographes? ( Memento from January 16, 2011 on WebCite ) . Vevey 2007, p. 6.
  14. ^ Meyer's large conversation lexicon . 6th edition. Volume 23 (annual supplement), 1912, p. 73. Entry aerial photography , sub- entry carrier pigeon photography .
  15. ↑ Agfa-Photo-Historama . In: Yvonne and Thomas Plum: Art, cocoa and carnival - what museums in and around Cologne show. JP Bachem Verlag. Cologne 1995.
  16. ↑ Fascination of the Moment: A History of Technology in Photography (PDF; 594 kB). Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin 2/2007, pp. 4–13.
  17. ^ Deutsches Museum: The new exhibition Photo + Film: From Daguerre to DVD. deutsches-museum.de.
  18. ^ Les colombiers militaires en Italie . Revue militaire de l'étranger. Volume 30, 1886, pp. 481-490 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  19. ^ G. Reynaud: Les lois de l'orientation chez les animaux. In: Revue des deux mondes. 1898, pp. 380–402 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  20. ↑ a b Franziska Brons: Facsimile: 'see above'. In: Horst Bredekamp, ​​Matthias Bruhn, Gabriele Werner: Pictures without a viewer . Akademie Verlag 2006, ISBN 978-3-05-004286-2 , pp. 58-63.
  21. ^ Claire Lui: Travel: The museum of spies ( memento of March 24, 2011 on WebCite ). americanheritage.com, 2006.
  22. ↑ Pigeons now take aerial photos ( memento of the original from April 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.modernmechanix.com archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Popular Mechanics. July 1931.
  23. ↑ Carrier pigeons take photos automatically . Popular Mechanics. February 1932, p. 216.
  24. ↑ Carrier pigeons with cameras  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / ndpbeta.nla.gov.au The Canberra Times. April 13, 1932, p. 2.
  25. ↑ Carrier pigeons turn cameramen ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.modernmechanix.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Popular Mechanix. May 1936.
  26. ↑ Le pigeon espion . Lectures pour tous. 1932, p. 60 ( digitized on Gallica ).
  27. ^ Pigeons as birds of war , Flight - The Aircraft and Engineer, Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club. October 21, 1943, p. 450.
  28. ↑ Ernst Schnug: The photo dove . Figures magazine. No. 1. 1988, pp. 17-19.
  29. ↑ a b Pigeon camera model A no.948 , Pigeon camera Model B no.937 , Pigeon camera Model A no. 803 . Auctions at Christie's.
  30. ^ Pascale Bonnard Yersin, Jean-Marc Bonnard Yersin: Le fonds déposé à Vevey par la manufacture Michel à Walde . In: Musée suisse de l'appareil photographique: Des pigeons photographes? ( Memento from January 16, 2011 on WebCite ) . Vevey 2007, p. 10.
  31. ↑ Patent CH192864 : Photography apparatus with swiveling lens with automatic release, especially for carrier pigeons. Registered on February 3, 1936 , inventor: Christian Adrian Michel. ‌
  32. ↑ Patent CH214355 : Carrying device for carrier pigeons. ‌
  33. ↑ patent CH214356 : despatch sleeve for carrier pigeon. Registered on June 22, 1940 . ‌
  34. ↑ Olivier Berger: Rapport concernant le traitement de conservation-restauration d'une série de petits appareils photographiques pour pigeons ( Memento of the original of January 11, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 830 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.artmetalconservation.com . 2008, p. 4.
  35. ^ Pascale Bonnard Yersin, Jean-Marc Bonnard Yersin: Les images . In: Musée suisse de l'appareil photographique: Des pigeons photographes? ( Memento from January 16, 2011 on WebCite ) . Vevey 2007, pp. 16-27.
  36. ^ CIA website: Experience the Collection - Central Intelligence Agency . 2007.
  37. ↑ Ted Bridis: CIA gadgets: robot fish, pigeon camera, jungle microphones . USA Today. 2003.
  38. ^ Peter Eisler: True to form, CIA keeps its spy museum hush-hush . USA Today. July 13, 2008.
  39. ↑ McKeown's PRICE GUIDE to Antique & Classic CAMERAS. Introduction to Eleventh Edition 2001-2002. (No longer available online.) In: Camera-net.com. Archived from the original on December 29 ; accessed on May 12, 2018 .
  40. ↑ Amos Latteier: A report on pigeon aerial photography. latteier.com, 2003.
  41. ^ Chas Bowie: Visual Reviews - PowerPointillism . Portland Mercury. January 30, 2003.
  42. ↑ Joseph Gallivan: Bird brain ( memento of the original from March 24, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.portlandtribune.com. The Portland Tribune. January 31, 2003.
  43. ↑ German Children's Foundation GOLDENER SPATZ: Goldener Spatz 2009 (catalog). P. 78.
  44. ↑ Bundesverband Jugend und Film e. V .: "Sleeping Beauty" - Introduction to the DVD .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 27, 2009 .