The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-21


 the tail of kite for war purposes which has just been put into practical use by the Russian army was invent ed by a citizen of Montgomery, A dP. Weaver. and Mir. Weaver declares 1t Is his belief that the plans of his inven- tion were stolen by Russian agents from the Japanese embassy in Wash ington to whom he had submitted the device for consideration.
 There is evidence in the shape or an autograph receipt by Minister Takahira of Japan, that the plans of MT. Weaver were received at the Japanese embassy in Washington during January and MT. Weaver has received a letter from Min ister Takahiira stating that the plans have been mislaid in his office and he is unable to find them. Following up- on this correspondence and within the past few days announcement Is made by the St. Petersburg agent of the As- sociated Press that the Russian war or flee has just acquired" an invention which is described as being identical with that of Mir. Weaver. It Is called the panoramograph. Mir. Weaver styled his invention a telephotoaerograph.
 MT. Weaver. who is one of the rep resentatives of the Associated Press In Montgomery, and who has been here four years, with his office in The Ad- vertiser building, began work on plans for the ariel photographic device during the Spanish-American war. He perfected 1t to his satisfaction and made successful demonstrations. In 1898 he corresponded with the War De- partment of the United States showing in a general way what could be accom- plished by the device. He was advised by the officials of the War Department that there might be a future demand for such A device
 Inventor Is Patriotic.
 It was not MT. Viewers purpose to reap any material reward from the de- vice as he holds to the view that such an invention should be placed where it may serve the interest of the nation and without gain to its producer. Hold ing these views Mir. Weaver did not seek a patent on the device but bided his time to put 1t to the service of an army.
 Being an ardent sympathizer with Japan in it's death-like struggle with Russia, MT. Weaver early in January of this year wrote a letter to the Japanese Minister at Washington, calling his at- tention to the photographic device and offering it free of all cost to the army of the Mikado. Plans and drawings of the device were sent by the same mail to Minister Takahira These papers
  Weaver who took the precaution to mark the package personal" and to give instructions that 1t was not to be delivered into the hands of any one but the personal representative of the Mikado himself. As an evidence that the package did not miscarry MT. Weaver received a receipt for the regis tered package showing that 1t was re- ceived by Minister Takahira himself on Ta after if mailed.
 MT. Weaver waited about two weeks for a reply from Minister Takahira and, receiving no reply, wrote to Minister Takahira requesting that he advise him as to the result, of the investigations into the feasibility of using the device which he said he gladly placed at the disposal of the Japanese army.
 Letter from Taknhira.
 To this letter Minister Takahira wrote Mir. Weaver an autograph reply as follows:
 Legation of Japan, Washington, D. C., February 20, 1905.
 MT. A. d'P. Weaver.
 Montgomery, Ala.
 Dear sir:
 Your letter of the 14th is duly re- ceived and I greatly regret that your letter, which you say was written about Ll6 lOnlh Ol JdhuelA ilelo DCSA ASAN uiA answered so long. In fact, since the receipt of your second letter. l have been trying to search it out as it was not found on my file nor in the hands of our naval attache, to whom the let ter should have been referred from the nature of the subject written about.
 Tt seems that If the letter was re- ceived 1t was mislaid among other pa pers through some error although 1t Is that such n1iGfDrfnna takaE place and I assure you that, unfortun- ate as it is, there is nothing intention al on our part In not acknowledging the letter. As soon as 1t is found out will have the matter fully considered and will write you our views on the subject.
 Very truly yours
 "Takahira."
 Nothing further was heard from Min ister Takahira by MT. Weaver and he naturally thought his plans were in the hands of Japanese experts.
 "Acquired" by Russia.
 Thursday morning the Associated Press newspapers received the follow ing cablegram which was published throughout the world:
 "St. Petersburg, May 1S-2:4o a. m.- A recently invented apparatus for pho- tographing panoramas of wide stretch es of country by means of a camera suspended from a kite has been ac- quired by the War Office, and experi- ments and trials have been conducted in St. Petersburg for several weeks with such success that the Staff ex- poets important results from it's new Panoramograph in establishing Japanese positions and movements.
 ",The apparatus is said to be capable of photographing an area of thirty square miles"
 As soon as Mir. Weaver read this ca blegram he felt certain that his device had fallen into the hands of the Rus sians. Further considering the matter and referring to his correspondence with the Papanese embassy MT. Weav-