WW1 Photo titled "French Soldiers and Kite"

French Soldiers and Kite

I came across this image in the Smithsonian Institution Air & Space Museum Library. Their listing for it is simply "French Soldiers and Kite", Item No. 2002-16629. But to me it sure looks like French soldiers inspecting a Picavet suspended camera! You can click on the image for a closer look or click here for a still larger image.

What do you think? Does anyone know details about this? Email me and I'll add the comments to this web page (see below).

Charles Hall
Raleigh, NC
USA
Dec. 23, 2002

Jan. 7, 2003
Jan Desimpelaere writes from Belgium:

About "French soldiers with kite" is indeed an aerial photo system and his postillon ("messenger") but we don't see the kite. Unfortunately the kite is much higher and not visible. The man holding the suspension might be Jaques-Theodore Saconney on his early trials for the army between 1902 and 1904.
He first used Lenoir kites and worked with Emile Wenz' kites ( Eddy kites) for the Navy and later on with the typical Saconney kites but smaller than his manlifting kites.