THE PIGEON PHOTOGRAPHER.

North Otago Times, 22 May 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PIGEON PHOTOGRAPHER.

! ANOTHER HELP FOR THE SOLDIER. i Pigeon photographers, through the invention of Dr. Jules Neubronner, have become an accomplished fact. They will soon be recognised as professionals of the skies. The extraordinary function performed by these carrier pigeons when in rapid flight they take, by means of an apparatus strapped to the breast, a series of pictures so quickly as to be almost in unbroken continuity and of such sharp outlines as to lend themselves to veritably marvellous enlargement, is something hitherto undreamed.

The origin of the idea Is peculiar and carries one back to 1810 when a certain Mr. Neubronner, a chemist of Cronberg, conceived the ingenious idea of sending pigeons to all the physicians in neighbouring villages so that when a prescription was needed in a hurry the pigeon might be despatched at once and the medicine ready and waiting when called for. This saved time and often life.

Others took up the "overhead express." In 18-18 when the villages near Cronberg were equipped with their own chemists this was no longer necessary, but some years ago Dr. Jules Neubronner, the son of the former, revived this method of communication between his office and a sanatorium at Falkenstein, but the use he made of bis aerial post was to have rare medicaments, ordered by telephone, borne to him by the faithful little messengers.

A trusted pigeon whose goings and comings could be reckoned on with clocklike regularity disappeared once a whole month., It jyns in trying to find out what had become of the express bird that led Dr. Neubronner to tnink of photography. He gathered a number of pigeons into a big room and took pictures of them in a flight of twenty meters to the second. After preliminary trials during the course of a journey by express train he made his first experiments with pigeons as photographers and got proofs of centimeter square that were relatively satisfactory.

; After this ho proceeded to perfect his process, using a special apparatus constructed under his direction with a view of securing the clearest impression in the smallest possible space. This was fastened to the breast of the pigeon by a sort of elastic harness passed across the back. A small rubber bulb working automatically at regular intervals controlled the lens instantaneously. By this means views were taken, but enlarging the tiny camera will permit the registering of pictures every half minute in a flight of ten miles. Suggested by a mishap to one of the winged messengers of his pharmaceutical post, Dr. Neubronner's original idea has become enlarged to the point where tne German Minister of War has interested himself in a process which he believes will be valuable in the study of topography, i.e., the surface of country. The inventor has been invited to give demonstration before the battalion of aerostatics of Ueinickendorf, and Major Gross, as a proof, has asked him to make photographs of the waterworks at Tcgel.-" Popular Science Sittings."