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be figured. Both Batut and Archibald made "map views", with the
lens pointed straight downward. At Rheims in 1890, another photo
grapher, Wenz, made the first horizontal perspective view from
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kites, although, as the record states, "the slant was very great."
In the U. S., another meteorologist, William A. Eddy of Bayonne,
New Jersey, on May 30, 1895, made what he claimed was the first photo
graph from a kite ever taken in the western hemisphere. Eddy used
a "Bullet" camera with a 3%" x 3%" film, and employed a timed slow
match to release a weight attached to the shutter. The camera was
enclosed in a box attached to a revolving table, and its rear could
be raised or lowered in a slot by a set screw, so that the lens could
be directed at any slant to any desired compass point. Finding that
the dropping weight caused a blurred picture, he added a light cord
on which a steady pull could be exerted from the ground to steady the
camera at the time of exposure. He also used a light wooden T-frame
attached to the kite line and the camera to prevent side swing in
more than one direction. With 6 to 9 kites on his line, Eddy obtained
pictures at heights up to 1,000 feet and claimed that it might be pos
sible to raise the camera to 16,000 feet.
For best results, however, he recommended an altitude of not more
than 500 feet, with a camera making pictures under 4 inches in size.
Larger pictures, he argued, would require heavier cameras and involve
danger of breaking the kite line. With his kites, he stated, he made
as many as 32 aerial pictures in a day, and occasionally made simul
taneous snapshots with three cameras working together on his line.
During the Spanish-American War, his system was sent to Puerto Rico