Two Early Papers on Successful Free-Balloon Aerial Photography (1880 and 1886)
Desmarets, Paul. "Sur les moyens d'obtenir des epreuves photographiques en ballon libre. Note de P. Desmarets, presentee par M. Janssen (Extrait)", in Comptes Rendus, vol 91 no. 4, 26 July 1880, the article on pp 246-7 in the issue of pp 187-250. This weekly issue is extracted from a larger bound volume, but it does come with the front wrapper, which is fairly scarce.
Offered with:
Tissandier, Gaston (1843-1899). "Nouvelle experiences de photographie en ballon; ascension de Mm A. and G. Tissandier et P. Nadar", in Comptes Rendus 19 July 1886, vol 103 no 5, the article appearing on p 224-5 in the issue of pp 179-226. Offered with the original wrappers, extracted from a larger bound volume. Good solid copy. Tissandier discusses particulars of the work by photographer Jacques Ducom who took advantage of new photographic plate tech improvements to make a superb image of Paris in a free balloon at about 1200 metres. ("Gaston Tissandier was a French chemist, meteorologist, aviator and editor. Adventurer could be added to the list of his titles, as he managed to escape besieged Paris by balloon in September 1870. He founded and edited the scientific magazine La Nature and wrote several books."--Wiki)
The two papers: $400
“The history of aerial photography began in 1858, when the photographer Nadar took the first photographs from a balloon. His results were only partially successful, as were those of other experimenters who followed him, and it was not until 1878, when factory-made gelatin dry plates were introduced, that aerial photography came into its own. Using gelatin plates, which were twenty times faster than the old wet-collodion plates, the photographer Paul Desmarets obtained two birds-eye views of Rouen in 1880 from a balloon at 4,200 feet. [the first paper offered above]. However, Desmarets' results were surpassed five years later by Jacques Ducom, who, in a balloon navigated by Gaston Tissandier, was able to take superb aerial photographs of Paris from a height of 1,800 feet" [the second paper offered above]. --Jeremy Norman, from his excellent and highly useful History of Information site (section on Tissandier's book on aerial photography, which was the first of its kind, and issued in 1886.)
"Ducom's view of the Ile Saint-Louis
, Paris from 1,800 ft leaves absolutely nothing to be desired. Through a magnifying glass people can be counted on the bridge. The exposure of this and the other photographs taken on this flight was 1/50 second, using a specially constructed guillotine shutter which was opened pneumatically and closed automatically with a rubber spring" (Gernsheim & Gernsheim, The History of Photography 1685-1914 p. 508)--again quoting the very resourceful Mr. Norman (above).
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