Early Techniques and Equipment (continued)

Bagley Three-Lens Camera

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James Bagley of the US Army Corps of Engineers developed the 3-lens camera around 1917. The three lenses, one vertical and two oblique, provided expanded ground coverage without adding the distortion produced by the wider angle lenses of the day. Operated manually, the camera recorded the three exposures simultaneously on one roll of film.

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Photos from the 3-lens camera. Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center.

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As technology advanced, more and more lenses could be added. Fairchild developed a 5-lens camera around 1926. Actually five separate cameras linked together, the T-3 produced one vertical and four oblique images simultaneously.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center.

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Prints from a T-3 5-lens camera.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center

Portable Photo Lab

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To provide quick access to reconnaissance photography, portable labs were sometimes towed into the field. Shown here is an 18-foot long processing laboratory equipped with separate rooms for developing and printing. Inside the lab, which was equipped with its own generator, as many as 200 prints could be processed per hour.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center.

Flying Photo Lab

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Rapid photo processing was taken a step further by portable labs carried right on board reconnaissance aircraft.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center.

Flight Lab
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This World War II portable darkroom was used for immediate processing of film right on board reconnaissance aircraft. Sometimes swift acquisition of photo intelligence was so important that photo interpreters went along on the reconnaissance mission to radio in instantaneous analysis of the film developed in flight.

George W. Goddard

George Goddard is one of America's foremost pioneers in aerial photography. He started his training at the Officer's School in Aerial Photography, US School of Military Aeronautics at Cornell University in 1917, and later rose to such positions as Director of the Army Photographic School at Chanute Field, Illinois, Chief Photographic Officer in Charge of Aerial Photographic Research at Wright Field, Ohio, and Aerial Reconnaissance Chief of NATO. His work greatly advanced the technology in many fields of aerial photographic science including night reconnaissance photography, in-flight processing, high altitude and long-range lenses, and the use of infrared film for distinguishing camouflage.

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George Goddard with a K-7 camera designed for high altitude photography. Goddard foresaw the need for high quality, long focal length lenses to provide detailed long-range reconnaissance.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center.

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Goddard (left) with another variation on the K-7.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center

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Goddard pioneered the development of nighttime reconnaissance photography. One night in 1925, he stunned Rochester, N.Y., by igniting an 80-pound flash powder bomb to light up the whole city. The result was the first aerial night photograph. Pictured here is one of his first attempts at recording an aerial view of Rochester at night.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center.

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Goddard's technique was used to photograph this night view of an anti-aircraft position camouflaged by smoke pots.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center

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Night photograph of New York City in 1931.
Courtesy of Defense Visual Information Center.

Early Techniques

Military Reconnaissance