TYPE L, 4 x 5 PLATE CAMERA.
MOBILE FIELD PHOTOGRAPHIC OUTFIT, USED FOR AIR SERVICE.
It includes a dark room, printing lantern, and light-generating plant.
As the airplanes moved into higher altitudes, longer focus lenses had to be employed, special dry plates developed, and special color filters provided to overcome the haze created by humidity in the long spaces between the cameras and the ground. When the war ended, cameras were in common use taking photographs at an altitude of 4 miles with such microscopic fidelity as to show even where a single soldier had recently walked across a field.
The American Army came into the war almost innocent of any information at all on the subject of war photography. Such technical information as the allied nations had developed during the war had been most carefully guarded from us and all other neutral countries, with the result that what information we had was of a meager and conflicting sort.
Although in the early months of our participation in the war the Signal Corps, which then had charge of all phases of aerial warfare, made large purchases of motion-picture cameras, hand cameras, and view cameras, it was not until the end of 1917 that our officers were able to begin their real development of aerial photography. By this time we had received much valuable information from the foreign high commissions and samples of their earlier apparatus. Aerial photography had become one of the leading activities of the air service. Thus in April, 1917, the British service made 280,000 pictures at the front, and a great part of all flying was done to secure photographs. Moreover, the art was advancing at such a pace that practices in approved use one week at the front appeared likely to become obsolete the next, as new methods and new equipment superseded the old.
For years America had been second to none as a photographic country, and it was to be expected that this country would make notable contributions to the new science. It may indeed be wondered why, with the experimental laboratories and the skilled technicians at our command, we did not start at once to develop our own aerial designs and equipment. Our officers, however, felt that such a course would be likely to duplicate much of the work already done by the allied countries, who stood ready then to furnish to us the results of their experiences. While original research work might result in the invention here of certain equipment of superlative merit, yet we would be sure, in the course of such an undertaking, to adopt methods which had been tried and discarded by the allies and which we ourselves would have to discard when experience had proven them to be without value.