Stunning photo taken from kite that captures devastation from 1906 earthquake in San Francisco

Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | 12th February 2012 | Nina Golgowski

[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.

[huldah1776]

No Fed income tax then?

[SunkenCiv]

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