Evening star., 1942-04-12
Infra-Red Ray Film
Enables Army 10 Take
Photos Through Haze
PIune Camera Can Mop
Lund Area to Horizon
$50 or More Miles Awuy
Wide World News.

Wide World News,
DAYTON, Ohio, April 11.-A year
or so ago one of the Army's crack
photographers remarked that ''one
of these days I'll fly over Cincinnati
at 10000 feet, take a picture Of To-
ledo-135 air miles north-and you
should be able to see Detroit, 60
miles farther up the line
The Army Air Corps turned up
today with an aerial oblique shot
of another locale to indicate it had
made good on the proposition.
Taken by Wright Field camera
man, it shows a large section of
rural Northwestern Ohio in crazy
quilt detail-to a horizon estimated
at 125 to $50 miles distant. Appear
ing as a great blot of ink in right
center is Lake st. Mary, 10 miles
long and miles wide, with the
city of Celina at its upper right
corner.
Haze-piercing infra-red film is
the answer-that and camera equip
ment so highly developed for its
specialized military use as to prom
ise startlingly new picture posi-
bilities if and when it is made avail
able to the commercial market.
Saves on Gasoline.
To the Army Air Corps it's all a
practical application of the old say
ing that "one picture is worth 10000
words" even in modern warfare.
Working constantly for longer
ranges, greater picture area and for
faster processing, Air Corps techni-
cal experts recently mapped some
1900 square miles of territory from
an altitude of 1000 feet and were
back on the ground hours IS min
utes later.
Ten years ago the project would
have required days, considering the
100 mile-an-average of photo
graphic" planes of that day and
the 15,000-foot ceiling then consid-
cred a nominal maximum.
The really big step forward in
haze penetration has come with
I'LL d-lCu Idy 1lLll IL CuCo iii OuSll
atmospheric conditions that would
stop ordinary light rays.
The cameras designed for and
fitted with the film actually are
saving gasoline for the Army by
widening the effective range of OBJ
servation craft.
Color Plates Detect Camouf1axe,
For example:
A plane with a radius Of action
of 1000 miles flies 1000 miles to
sea actually somewhat less than
that, because radius of action takes
into account not only gasoline sup
ply but the effect of wind.
During the outbound flight the
crew takes periodic "shots" to either
side of the plane. Developed and
printed within three or four minutes,
the pictures easily could divulge
the presence of enemy ships far
beyond the reach either of naked
eye or binoculars.
Moreover, a photograph taken at
Vic vi IL al AoliilAA nOdAet
disclose in accurate detail all that
would have been visible to the plane
crew had it continued on course
for another 10 or 200 miles.
Night and color photography
and color photography at night
also are occupying the attention Of
the Army's burners of midnight
oil at Wright Field. Already the
Army has obtained Strikingly bril-
liant-colored shots from $4,000 feet
and indicated today that within the
next few months such will be posi-
BILE from attitudes Of $4,000 to 10000
feet.
Greatest use of color photography
TO the Army is in the detection Of
camouflaged areas. Enemy air
fields and other carefully disguised
bases remain hidden in black and
white reconnaissance photographs
but stand out like the well-known
sore thumb when reproduced in
color.