SPYING BY CAMERA.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 27, 31 January 1920, Page 17

SPYING BY CAMERA.

The war camera that the Allies perfected saw colours that man does not see at all. That's how the Allies got the better of German camouflage. For instance, a stereoscopic picture shows a suspicious depression close behind the German trenches. Has it i» battery hidden in it? The whole field is smooth and green, having looked so innocent that it Tvas not shelled. In reality it contains a battery covered with "green canvas. The green paint blends perfectly -with, the green grass. However, it wouldn't fool a cqw (says a writer in a contemporary publication), and it doesn't fool the camera when a special green-filter lens is used, for the plate shows the green grass in its pure colour, while it shows the painted canvas impure and distinct. The green paint is a mixture of yellow and blue, and it photographs vastly different from pure green. Immediately the artillerymen are shown the trick, they drop shells on it. while the Allied truck drivers roll merrily along some road within their own lines that the Hun battery -was planning to shell. Once Germans hollowed out a mountain, fitting it for luxurious quarters for 1200 men—electric lights, 'billiard tables, bathrooms, music rooms —putting a small rock-coloured canvas over the little entrance. A French photographer, Collier by name, attached to the "Blue Devils" at the time, found this camouflage speck by his colour filters, suspected something, told the artillery, and the latter bombarded the tiny mark. Finally one shell made a direct hit, plunged on down into the interior and, exploding, fired some stored ammunition and killed every one of the 1200 Huns within. The development of stereoscopic and colour photograpiiy will be applied to everyday uses in infinite variety. What lannot ivp now learn of inaccessible deserts and polar regions, what cannot vre now discover of the vast depths of the Amazon jungles, the fabled plateaus of Tibet, the untrod heart of the Sahara?