PHOTOGRAPHY - THE EYE OF THE AEROPLANE [Main]


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  • Year: 1919
  • Runtime: 22 mins
  • Description: (Reel 1) Trainees are shown various types of camera, the L-Type, the C-Type, and a recently-introduced camera which uses film instead of plates. They are taught elementary chemistry for developing and fixing plates. Interpreters identify the negative plate of each reconnaissance photograph, using a map, and write in the details of the location on the negative. The latest cameras photograph a number of dials simultaneously with the ground image, giving time, height, etc. To speed up the process prints are dried by passing them through a spirit flame. A run of prints is constructed into a mosaic. The construction of the particular mosaic shown takes 1 hour 55 minutes, producing a picture which covers fifty square miles. Green light is used while the plates or film magazines are loaded. (Reel 2) The skeleton of an aircraft, shows how an L-Type camera is fitted to its side: vibration from the engine is absorbed by mounting the camera on a shock absorber. The method is the same for both plate and film cameras. The observer has a sighting tube which runs down through the floor of the aircraft, which he uses to line up the shot. For a training reconnaissance flight the observer is given his map reference. He and the pilot take off in a Bristol F2B Fighter. In flight, the pilot indicates that they are near the target (in actual operations it is the observer's job to inform the pilot). Back at the aerodrome the plane is met on landing by a runner and the plates taken at once for developing. The same type of operation is shown with a film camera. Again, a member of the groundcrew races to take the film on landing. A photographic developing lorry, for use when other facilities are not available, sets up its equipment. A plane comes in to land. The film ends abruptly.
    The training and methods of the Photographic Section of the RAF, probably just after the First World War.
  • Keywords: EFG1914 / World War I / Royal Air Force, Photographic Section / training, British air - specialist: photography / equipment, British air - camera: aerial, L-Type / equipment, British air - camera: aerial, C-Type / equipment, British air - camera: aerial reconnaissance / intelligence, military, British - reconnaissance / operations, British air - sortie / operations, British air - return / transport, British air - truck, special: photographic truck / equipment, British air - navigational / aircraft, British - combat: Bristol F2B Fighter / GB, England / Instruction
  • Provider: Imperial War Museums
  • Rights: In Copyright / Imperial War Museums
  • Production company: Gaumont
  • Colour: Black & White
  • Sound: Without sound

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