American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1919-04-18
THE EVE BEHIND THE LINES.
How the Camera Conquered Csmou
fIage.

(By Douglass Reid. in the May Pop |
ular Mechanics Magazine).
The trenchesl The air is shaking
Ireeling, tearing; the ground is heaving,
fiying, collapsing. Fire, mud, metal
scar, and splatter everything. Orders
are shrieked, and the commander dis
appears in a shell clap, while the men
who carry them out topple carelessly
! to the ground. Great cannon nasn
lnoiselessly, so lost are their voices in
| the deafening roar OF otner guns
Brown squads of men leap over ditch
top and vanish in the smoke. Wires
break, airplanes come crashing 10
earth; wires break and telephone men
throw up their hands; wires break and
stream of enemies come lunging
through a gap in the barbed strands.
Bones break, bayonets break-hearts
break.
All is confusion Where is the
Eighty-ninth? Where are the Fusi-
leers? Where are the Zouaves? Is
Hindenburg through on the left? Did
Colonel De Rescke win Marmont
farm?"
Chaos has come!
Through such scenes the spies OF the
air, the camera men, sped on their
daily tasks during the great war Ihe
, side whose air photographers were best
won the war. The camera that the al
lies perfected saw colors that man does
not see at all. The camera shows the
golden. fluffy hair of girl almost
, black, and the blue black hair of an
3 Indian gray.
, The ordinary camera sees blue best,
f hut science worked out a panchromatic
plate, which while still being sensitive
l. to blue. sees other colors so well that
- il defeated German camouflage.
For instance a stereoscopic picture
J. shows a suspicious depression close be
I hind the German trenches. Has 1t
= battery hidden in it? The whole tielc
is smooth and green, having looked sc
l. innocent that it was not shelled II
z, reality il contains a battery covered
$ with green canvas. The green pain
:. blends perfectly with the green grass
, However, it wouldn't fool COW, and /
e doesn't fool the camera when specla
e green filter lens is used, for the plat'
shows the green grass in its pure color
10 while it shows the painted canvas I'm
t. pure and distinct The green paint is
.e mixture of yellow and blue, and it pho
m tographs vastly different from pur
le green. Immediately the artilleryme
Of are shown the trick, and they dro
shells on it, while the allied truck drlN
Id ers roll mcrrily along some road witt
y, in their own lines that the Hun batter
as was planning to shell.
Once Germans followed out moul
tain, fitting it for luxurious quarter
for 1.20O men-electric lights, bllllar
r tables. bathrooms, music rooms-pu
ting a small rock colored canvas owe
M the little entrance A French photoi
te lrapher, Collier by name, attached I
40 the Blue Devils" at the time, foun
nf this camoufiage speck by his color nj
m er. suspected something, told the arti
70. lery. and the latter bombarded the tin
mark. Finally one shell made d
he rect hit, plunged on down into the i
ar. terror and, exploding, fred some store
ng ammunition and killed every one
We the 200 Huns within.
ng The development of stereoscop
90, and color photography will be appht
,x- to everyday uses in infinite Varlet
re What cannot we now learn of inacce
ie. sible deserts and polar regions wh
ng cannot we now discover Of the va
rn depths of the Amazon jungles the !
Ibled plateaus of Tibet the untr'
VS. heart of the Sahara?