Theodor Scheimpflug File online

Imagine you're back in the year 1900. The automobiles look like carriages without a horse. Most people have never seen one in real life. It is only a couple of years ago that moving images were projected on a wall and if you want to see one, you have to go to a big city a have the luck that a movie theatre is part of the fair.
There are still many white areas on the map of the earth. Flying is only for the birds or the happy few people that are so rich they can afford to fill a balloon with gas and so adventurous they dare to step into the basket.

In this time an Austrian naval officer with the name Theodor Scheimpflug is working hard to realise his dream, his vision. He is building a 8-lens panoramic plate camera and is experimenting with kites to lift the camera some 1000 or 2000 metres in the air. With an electrical device he triggers the 8 shutters and takes 8 photos at the same time of a area of 100 square kilometres or more. Then he invents an instrument to correct the perspective of the photos, so that every object in it is depicted at the same scale, regardless of the angle of the camera when the photo was taken. When that is done he puts the 8 pictures together to form one areal view. It is as accurate as a map. You can even use it as a map.

If you want to read all about it, go to my Theodor Scheimpflug File. There I have gathered all his articles and all the important articles that were written since his death in 1911. It is for the first time that this information can be found in one place. Some of it is available elsewhere in the deep web, but much was scanned from the original paper sources and is available in digital form for the first time.
The Theodor Scheimpflug File also contains more than 40 photographs and illustrations, depicting his life, world and work.
With this file I want to commemorate the 100th dying day of Hauptmann Scheimpflug (August 22). Some photographers still know the Scheimpflug rule, but very few people know what he really achieved. I hope the file will help to change that.
I have spent many hours searching for the documents and photographs, but without the help of some people in Austria I never would have succeeded in bringing it all together. I want to thank them all very much for their kind help.

eBay watch and more

The old beauties of my last blog sold for lots of $$. The Francois Kinegraphe changed owner for US $ 2857 and the Tom Thumb went for $ 4870. Too much or not enough? I really don't know, but what I do know is that US $ 2800 or even 4800 is not a small sum for the average working horse like myself.

A some more affordable nicety on eBay is the Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak Special set, with booklet, box and sample photo. The Specials were the models with the better lenses and this one has a focusing F 6.9 Kodak Anastigmat. A very nice set if you want to add a fine VPK to your collection of VPK's or if you want to have a VPK, but not one of the simple ones that you can buy by the dozen. You can buy it now for US $ 200, but international shipping is another $ 40.

The Scheimpflug File is still growing. I have 14 publications by Theodor Scheimpflug now, and that are his complete works about aero-cartography according to the 1956 Festschrift. Of one publication I have only a part. It is a series of letters to the Photographische Korrespondenz of 1908-1909. I will try to get the rest as well.
About Theodor and his work I have 12 documents, with all the important publications included. Even the 90 page Festschrift is there as a PDF.
Then I have 4 Scheimpflug patents and 1 Carpentier patent and an article about the 1914 Fishamend disaster where Gustav Kammerer, technical leader of the Scheimpflug Institute after Theodor's death, was killed in a blimp accident, together with a number of military persons.
I believe this is the most comprehensive collection of digital files on Theodor Scheimpflug. Next week, on August 1, I will make it available online. In August it is 100 years ago that Scheimpflug died, on the 22nd of that month, to be precise.

Old graveyard & old beauties

I had a look again at the photos I made a month ago of the old graveyard in Roermond and discovered some raw material that contained a nice picture. Here's one of them.

eBay watch

The original 1888 Kodak with case on eBay sold for a meagre US$ 2000. That is about € 1415 and by far not enough for this camera. What a shame (but luck for the buyer)!

Another rare and very beautiful camera that is for sale at the moment is a Francais Kinegraphe Twin Lens Reflex from about 1887. I would love to have it, but it doesn't fit into my collection of early Kodaks and until that one is complete I do not buy other cameras. Or do I...? Well, this one is tempting... Who will distract me with a fine A Daylight for sale, or a No. 5 Folding Kodet Special?

The Kinegraphe has only 1 and a half day to go, price at the moment for this beauty in wood is US$ 2225 after six bids.

A second fine and rare camera is a Tom Thumb camera in its wooden box. I don't know much about this one (didn't look for info), but it is a wonderful set. Still 3 days to go and the price is US$ 3450 after one bid.

Articles I'm looking for

Here's a list of Scheimpflug articles which I am still trying to find in digital or paper version. Most frustrating is that some of them are available as digital file, but only in the USA.
If anyone has access to one of the journals or books, I would appreciate it if s/he would scan the articles and mail them to me. Or download the whole file of a journal and mail it to jerdkamp@hotmail.com.

Die maritime und militärische Bedeutung der Photogrammetrie, in: Mitteilungen aus dem Gebiete des Seewesens, 1898.
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015073460506 available only in the USA


Über Drachenverwendung zur See, in: Mitteilungen aus dem Gebiete des Seewesens, 1904.
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015073460431 available only in the USA


Der Photoperspektograph und seine Anwendung, in: Photographische Korrespondenz, vol. 43 (1906), p. 516-531
This volume not found as a digital file.


Qui s’excuse, s’accuse! Zur Verziehung von Zeichnungen auf photographischem Wege, In Sachsen A. Nadherny, in: Photographische Korrespondenz, vol. 45 (1908), p. 360-361, 432-435, 528-530, vol. 46 (1909), p. 42, 119-121.
This volume not found as a digital file.


Photogrammétrie du ballon, Cinquième Conférence de la Commission Internationale pour L’aérostation Scientifique à Milan 1903, Procès-verbeaux des Séances et Mémoires, Strasbourg, 1907, p. 76-95
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015021075851 available only in the USA

Addition to this blogpost:
See Ake's comment! It works! Thanks!

eBay watch and Scheimpflug file

The most interesting early Kodak on eBay at the moment is a nice example of the original 1888 model. It comes with a case and doesn't look too bad. Some scuffing and a chip in the leather on one side. Still 7 days to go. I wonder what it will do.

In the past week I have added some more articles to the Scheimpflug file, but there are six more articles I would like to get. Three of them are available in digital form, but only in the USA. I asked a person I have had contact with in the past if she could download them for me and mail them. I hope this is going to work. If not, I have another person I can ask to help me. Let's see what is going to happen.

One artice I ordered from the library. There is a good chance that I will get it. Two others were published in Photographische Korrespondenz of 1906 and 1908. Both are not available online, as far as I know.

Also I have tried to get a photo of professor Ernst Mayer, the person from whom Scheimpflug heard of photocartography, but to no avail until now.

So, there's still work to do.