Pigeon photography was an aerial photography technique invented in 1907
by Julius Neubronner, court apothecary of Empress Frederick, who also
used pigeons for film special effects and to deliver medications. A
homing pigeon was fitted with an aluminum breast harness to which a
lightweight time-delayed miniature camera could be attached. The
technique was publicized at the 1909 Dresden International Photographic
Exhibition. It was successfully demonstrated at the first German
Aviation Show and at the 1910 and 1911 Paris Air Shows. The lack of
military or commercial interest in the technology after the First World
War led Neubronner to abandon his experiments, but his idea was briefly
resurrected in the 1930s by a Swiss clockmaker, and reportedly also by
the German and French militaries. There was interest in the concept
even during the Cold War, by the American Central Intelligence Agency.
The construction of sufficiently small and light cameras with a timer
mechanism, and the training and handling of the birds to carry the
necessary loads, presented major challenges, as did the limited control
over the pigeons' position, orientation and speed when the photographs
were being taken. Today some researchers, enthusiasts, and artists
similarly employ small digital photo or video cameras with various
species of wild or domestic animals.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_photography>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1234:
An Englishman lost the Battle of the Curragh in Ireland , at the same
place where an Australian would win the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge
in Scotland many years later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Curragh>
1918:
The British Armed Forces started to grant personnel the power to fly.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force>
1970:
The first of over 670,000 gremlins were released into North America to
crush imported machines.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Gremlin>
2002:
Five years after the Dutch government allowed more people to marry,
they decided it was acceptable to kill one's spouse.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_Netherlands>
2006:
As mandated by a 2005 Act of the British Parliament, several British
policing agencies joined together to become very serious and organised.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_Organised_Crime_Agency>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
ataraxia (n):
(literary, Greek philosophy) A pleasure that comes when the mind is at
rest
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ataraxia>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
144px
I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to
treat everything as if it were a nail.
--Abraham Maslow
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow>