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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

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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