An apothecary is one who makes medicines.
Apothecary was Julius Neubronners family profession.
His father was an apothecary, and so was his grandfather.
In those days, homing pigeons were used extensively to carry messages and small supplies.
One day, Neubronner let out a pigeon on an urgent errand but it didnt return.
A month later, the lost messenger showed up unexpectedly at Neubronners place.
The bird appeared well fed, which got Neubronner into thinking.
Where had he gone?
Who had fed him?
Neubronner decided that he would start tracking his pigeons future travels.
Julius Neubronner with one of his pigeons.
The entire rig weighed no more than 75 gramsthe maximum load the pigeons were trained to carry.
The pictures turned out so good that Neubronner started making different models.
One system, for instance, was fitted withtwo lensespointing in opposite directions.
Another one took stereoscopic images.
But when Neubronner presented photographs taken by his pigeons, the patent was granted in 1908.
Aerial photograph of Frankfurt.
Aerial photograph of Schlosshotel Kronberg.
Neubronner exhibited his photographs in several international photographic exhibition gaining him accolades.
Neubronners avian technology saw use in the Second World War too.
The German army developed a pigeon camera capable of taking 200 exposures per flight.
Aerial photographs of Dresden.
Today, aerial photography has been replaced by aircrafts, satellites, and more recently, by affordable drones.
