Item no. C146 (cancel)

Type: cancel

Country: France

Date of use: 17 November 1990

Special cancel honoring ARTHUR BATUT (1846 – 1918), French photographer and pioneer of kite aerial photography [KAP]. He experimented with kites at his farm En Laure at Labruguière (Tarn, France) and the results were published in August 1888 issue of the weekly journal "Nature". He used a 9 x 12 cm. wooden camera attached to a kite, and the being shutter released by a pre-calculated wick tinder lit at the start. A small banner was unrolled to signal the photo was taken. A. Batut is an author of a relevant pamphlet “Photographie aérienne par cerf-volant”, published in Paris in 1890.