World Photography Day: Aerial Photograph of Middleton Hall Taken From a Man-carrying Kite
The 19th August is World Photography Day. In 1895, an aerial photograph from a man-carrying kite was taken by Egbert Alexander de Hamel, the youngest son of Egbert de Hamel who was the tenant of Middleton Hall at that time. This is believed to be the first photograph taken in the world by a person in a kite. It also provides a highly unusual historic view of Middleton Hall and its grounds.
The first ever aerial photograph was taken from a balloon in 1858 by French photographer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon. Kite aerial photography began in about 1887 when British meteorologist Douglas Archibald captured photographs, which he took from the ground, using a train of kites. He used a small explosive charge attached to a mechanism that triggered the shutter on the camera mounted on the kite. In 1888, the French photographer Arthur Batut used a kite to take an aerial photograph and this too was taken from the ground through the use of a very long slow-burning fuse. The first aerial photograph from an aeroplane was taken in 1909.
In the summer of 1894, Captain Baden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell, the younger brother of Robert Baden-Powell who established the Scouts, had developed a prototype of a kite to use for aerial military surveillance in the Boer War in South Africa. He had recognised the value of being able to have an aerial military observer in order to spot the enemy’s movements. At this time, aircraft had not been invented and although balloons had been tried, they had numerous problems including: being easily shot down; not usable on calm days; and that they were highly flammable.
His prototype was not an ordinary kite but a giant hexagonal webbed kite that was about 36 feet tall (10.9m), weighed about 50kg and had a basket attached to its base for a person to sit in. It was given the name the “Levitor”. When this was tested at Pirbright in 1894, it succeeded in lifting a volunteer a little off the ground. This proved that his idea was not completely impossible.
In order to test it fully, Baden-Powell required a large area of open space, somewhere away from the general public and someone enthusiastic enough in the development of new scientific ideas to allow the experiment to take place on their property. This exactly described the parkland of Middleton Hall and Egbert de Hamel, whom Baden-Powell knew through their membership of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Furthermore, multiple reports say numerous members of the Baden-Powell family were frequent visitors to Middleton Hall during the de Hamel tenancy. In 1895, Baden-Powell brought the kite to Middleton Hall to test.
The experimental kite was too heavy to be launched by simply a man running with it. Instead, it was tied with a rope to one of the cart-horses at Middleton Hall. The horse set off across the Park at a brisk speed in order to get it successfully aloft. However, they had not accounted for the substantial lifting capability of the kite in a high wind and the horse became airborne, being dragged upwards and backwards to great alarm. After floating the odd horse or two, it was determined that four horses attached together and to a farm wagon, was heavy enough for the horses not to take off into the air with the kite.
After the horses were successfully able to get the kite aloft, keep it aloft and not take off with it, the next challenge was to get a person in the air. The first attempt used a man who had volunteered. However, after a number of failed attempts, it was determined that he was too heavy.
Needing someone lighter, their attention turned to Egbert’s oldest daughter Kathleen, who was 12 years old at this time. She got in the basket and the horses took off and she was successfully lifted into the air. For the kite to have military use, a photograph needed to be taken as proof. However, with the added weight of the large heavy and cumbersome camera, Kathleen was too heavy for the kite to reach a suitable height. Kathleen’s daughter, Ernestine Isabel March, told Middleton Hall Trust that her mother said she was teased terribly by her siblings for being too heavy and was never allowed to forget it.
They needed someone lighter. Attention then turned to Egbert Alexander who was six years old at the time and had been standing on the sidelines watching the experiments. He was then “encouraged” into going up with the camera. Years later, Alex recounted that he was not afraid of going up in the air but was very afraid of not working the camera properly or, even worse, dropping the very expensive camera from such a height. He also remembered that he was thrilled to see Middleton Hall from above. Alex successfully took the aerial photograph from the basket of the kite.
At this point there is a small divergence in the account depending on which branch of the family told the story. All accounts agree that during the experiments Mrs de Hamel came from the East Wing in a state of alarm, after witnessing the proceedings from an upstairs window. One account said it was because she saw the floating horses. Another said it was because her son was so high up in the air. The last version said it was because she was afraid that he was going to drop and break the very expensive camera.
In 1897, the photograph was published in The Story of the Earth’s Atmosphere by Douglas Archibald, which stated that the photograph was taken from a kite at a height of 400 feet (121.9m) above the ground. However, in the publication the photograph was incorrectly credited to Baden-Powell.
Further Reading:
Francis de Hamel, Tales of Middleton Hall.
Christopher de Hamel, “Just Push the Shutter With Your Finger!”, Daily Telegraph, 21 January 2017.
Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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