Posted on 02/12/2012 1:57:18 PM PST by DogByte6RER
A city in ruins: Stunning photo taken from kite that captures devastation from 1906 earthquake in San Francisco
This rarely seen image of the city of San Fransisco lying in ruins after the devastating earthquake of 1906 was captured by an ingenious photographer using a camera attached kites.
The panoramic shot, which is of outstanding quality considering the basic equipment available, shows the full scale of the disaster which claimed the lives of over 3,000, injured 225,000 and caused $400,000,000 worth of property damage.
Commercial photographer George Lawrence, who used home-made large format cameras, was well known at the time for his wide angle photographs of banqueting groups, national political conventions, and state legislature sessions.
To take aerial shots he had previously gone up in balloons, but after a near fatal accident in 1901, when he fell 200ft and was only saved by telegraph wires broke his fall, he began looking for a safer alternative.
The following year, a Chicago inventor Silas Conyne, patented a kite for flying advertising banners.
Impressed by the kites' stability and lifting power, Lawrence obtained permission to build some for himself. To boost their capabilities even further, Lawrence flew several kites in series which allowed him to hoist his heavy wooden-framed cameras up to 2,000ft high.
After developing a stabilising system he was able to fly as many as seventeen kites in a train, although five to ten were usually enough.
With his great business sense, Lawrence knew there would be huge international demand for the San Francisco pictures and sure enough they earned him well over $15,000 the equivalent today of over $300,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Historic panorama: A camera soaring above San Francisco Bay by a kite immediately following the earthquake of 1906 captures the mass destruction from the historic 7.9 magnitude quake
Maybe GGG material
Very cool photo. I just love photography anyway.
Thanks for posting
Thanks for posting
No fire...
(They didn’t start until people realized there was no coverage for earthquake damage, but fire insurance would pay to rebuild)
In that era, possibly a “hydrogen balloon” would have been feasible to get an unmanned, ground controlled camera aloft, but it would have needed to be a really big one.
Even more stunning than the ingenuity of this photographer is the realization that San Francisco was once a thriving port.
The Photog was clearly a Gnurd for his time. He rocks for doing kool things.
The Photog was clearly a Gnurd for his time. He rocks for doing kool things.
Looks too me like this was taken after the fires as well. Look closely and you can see what looks like building foundations, or partial first floor walls with nothing but black (ashes?) inside them. Some still smoldering a little.
My great grandfather’s cameras from a decade later were still pretty hefty equipment. He lugged a bunch of stuff around on an old Indian cycle when he was a surveyor in Michigan’s upper peninsula.
All his old glass plates and negatives are stored in a museum these days.
I really should talk to the museum about accessing them and developing them to digital format. These days a flatbed scanner and photoshop will do the job.
Pretty amazing I can see several tall building still standing considering the magnitude of the quake.....Guess them actual made building back them to last
Too bad the same city is now a cesspool of perversion and deviates
FYI: All the people in that picture are dead now.
That’s what I would say except for the immediately after notation.
I’m more inclined to think you are correct and “immediately” was within a week or so.
BTTT
I read an interesting tidbit about the mindset then. The U.S. government offered any help needed. The Mayor or Governor said something like, “Thank you. We’ll let you know if we need help.”
Nowadays, a heavier than usual rainfall results in cries for FEMA.
I have a digital copy of a 16mm movie that was reportedly filmed three days before the earthquake. It was taken from the front of a trolley car. It’s a very neat film in that the few automobiles in it had virtually no rules of the road. Cars and horse drawn wagons and pedestrians all shared the road willy-nilly.
I am making a copy of this picture and adding it to my historical files. Thanks for posting it.
.....facepalm.........
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