First Looks

City Portraits | Kites | Rockets | Pigeons | Balloons

Rockets

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This photo rocket was conceived by the Frenchman Amedee Denisse in 1888. The design is thought to be the first of its kind. On the left is a 12-lens camera which fits beneath the rocket's nose cone. After the film was exposed the camera and rocket would be parachuted back to Earth. It is not known if the rocket was ever actually built.

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Alfred Nobel, famous for establishing the Nobel prize, also designed a photo rocket in 1897.
Courtesy of the Nobel Foundation

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Patent drawing for Nobel's camera-carrying rocket.

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View of a village in Sweden thought to be taken by Alfred Nobel's photo rocket in 1897, although Nobel was also experimenting with balloon-borne cameras at the time.
Courtesy of the Nobel Foundation

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German landscape photographed in 1904 by the camera system of Alfred Maul, a pioneer in photo rocketry.

Pigeons

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In 1903, Dr. Julius Neubronner patented a miniature pigeon camera activated by a timing mechanism. Equipped with the cameras, the pigeons photographed a castle in Kronberg, Germany, around 1908.
Pigeon Photographs © Deutsches Museum, Munich.

First Looks

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