James W. Bagley Inventions Information

Major James Warren Bagley (October 31, 1881 – February 19, 1947) was an American aerial photographer, topographic engineer and inventor.

Bagley was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee. He took an early interest in mathematics and engineering, and attended Washington and Lee University, where he graduated in 1903. Edwin Raiz said in his obituary of Major Bagley, "James Warren Bagley was born on October 31, 1881, at Fayetteville. Tennessee, into a distinguished southern family. Even as a student he showed a marked interest in mathematics and engineering. He pursued his studies at Washington and Lee University, where he received a Phi Beta Kappa key. He was graduated in 1903."

Bagley was a popular athlete at his university, and during a football game between Washington and Lee and the Virginia Military Institute, he was badly injured while playing guard, and was carried unconscious from the field. There was a resulting rampage by the students that continued off the field, and into the town of Lexington and on to the campus of VMI. As a result, all games between these two schools were banned for the next fifty years.

Bagley was an employee of the US Geological Survey from 1905 to 1917, when he was called into service for World War I. During his time with the USGS, he helped develop a panoramic camera used to document the topography and geology Alaska.

In 1911, James Bagley was instructed to return to Washington from his work in Alaska, and to come through Ottawa. He was instructed "to investigate the method of photo-topographic surveys in use by the Canadian government, with a view of obtaining information which will be useful in introducing these methods for some of the Alaskan surveys." That winter, Baglet, F. H. Moffit and J. B. Mertie, two geologists, developed their ideas for the construction of a tri-lens camera and transformer in 1916.

"The USGS surveyor most closely associated with the development and use of the panoramic camera system in Alaska was Maj. James W. Bagley. In 1917, Bagley wrote USGS Bulletin 657, The Use of the Panoramic Camera in Topographic Surveying. In retrospect, the history, justification, technical information, documentary evidence, and mathematical formulas found in this bulletin make it one of the most important publications ever produced on the scientific uses of the panorama. While most swing-lens panoramic cameras were used for scenic or group shots, Bagley found a way to use it for precise topographic measurements that would be used by geographers during this crucial period in Alaska's history."

"Major J. W. Bagley, assisted by Fred H. Moffit and for a part of the time by J. B. Mertie (all of the Division of Alaskan Mineral Resources) pursued experiments towards designing and constructing a tri-lens camera for taking airplane pictures on a continuous roll of film and a rectifying printer for restoring the scale of the wing exposures. This work was executed under the direction of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, and the Director of the US Geological Survey. Sixteen engineer officers, most of whom were sent to different aviation fields in the country, were trained in the use of these instruments, and about 40 enlisted men assisted them in mapping areas, which included among others the airplane mail route from Washington to New York,, and the airplane route from Washington to Langley Field, Virginia."

Alfred H. Brooks also complimented Major Bagley in his preface to his USGS Bulletin: "The plate camera has heen used for many years in topographic surveying in the United States and Canada, as well as in many European coimtries, and since 1910 J. W. Bagley, a topographic engineer of the United States Geological Survey, has been employing the panoramic film camera in conjunction with the plane table in surveys in Alaska. Mr. Bagley has devised some new instruments and methods and has proved conclusively that the panoramic camera is extremely valuable in certain kinds of topographic work. Some of the results of his phototopographic surveys are presented in the maps accompanying this bulletin. These maps give conclusive evidence of the refinements that are made possible by the use of that instrument. The methods and instruments here described have thus far been used only in Alaska, but they promise to have a wider appUcation in topographic surveys; hence this bulletin has been prepared. As the camera is used in conjunction with the plane table the bulletin includes also a brief account of the uses of the plane table. Mr. Bagley shows clearly that the field cost of surveys made by the use of the panoramic camera and plane table is far lower than that of surveys made by the plane table alone, and though the compilation of the field data in the office is more laborious the final cost of the completed map is nevertheless lower. The methods here described are especially applicable to regions where the field season is short, the field cost high, and the climatic conditions adverse to topographic work."

"Major Bagley was by no means the only USGS surveyor in Alaska using the panoramic camera. He was simply the most prolific, influential, and technically astute photographer the USGS had in these remote locations. His panoramic legacy may have been embodied and preserved in USGS Bulletin 657, but even as this went to press, Bagley had his sights set elsewhere. The last chapter of this 1917 bulletin discusses "the Application of Photogrammetry to Aerial Surveys." Even as panoramic land-based photography would continue at the USGS until at least 1932, Major Bagley already had his surveyor's eye trained at the skies and to the potential of aerial photography. The panoramic negatives and prints taken by Major Bagley and the others associated with this project eventually found their way to the USGS Photographic Library in Denver, Colorado."

Mr. Gerald Fitzgerald, Chief of the Topographic Branch of the US Geological Survey, said, "Do you have a copy of USGS Bulletin 657? that your father wrote? You must obtain a copy! That bulletin laid the groundwork for the entire field of photogrammetric surveying and map-making!"

"His first work was with the United States Geological Survey, from 1905 to 1917. His assignments took him all over the United States and to Alaska, where he mapped the Chugach Range. In connection with this work he developed a panoramic camera which enabled a surveyor to photograph the entire circle of the horizon in only three sections."

Part of his work at the USGS in Alaska was summarized in an article published some time later. In the article, Mr. Birdseye described the use and development of aerial photography and overlapping camera fields by Major Bagley.

Bagley brought his recently invented tri-lens camera to France, where it was used to make one vertical and two oblique images from airplanes. These images were used to overprint enemy trenches and gun emplacements over existing maps for precision targeting. An example of this camera is held at the Smithsonian Institution: "This object is on display in the Boeing Aviation Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation built the production model of the T 2 and T-2A four-lens camera, which improved upon the T-1 tri-lens mapping camera developed by Maj. James Bagley of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The T-2A had one vertical lens and three oblique lenses set at 35 degrees, which provided a 120-degree field of view at right angles to the direction of flight. Four lens caps are also displayed."

Mr. Raiz said about his military career: "During the first World War he became captain and later major in the Corps of Engineers. Together with Captain Fred H. Moffit he developed the three-lens camera by which a much larger field could be photographed at a single flight than was possible with the single-lens camera. His chief interest was in airplane photography, to which field he contributed the "Bagley five lens camera." He retired as Lieutenant Colonel in 1936, and in the following year became a Lecturer at the Institute of Geographical Exploration. His famous textbook, Aerophotography and Aereosurveying, was written here."

After the war, he was placed in charge of an Engineer unit at Wright Field, Ohio, to further develop aerial photography for military applications, and to produce a nucleus of expert photogrammetrists. During this time, Major Bagley produced a five lens camera, the T-3A, which could be used by topographers who already knew the distance between any two points, to then compute the remaining measurements and prepare a two-dimensional or planimetric map. This camera saw extensive use during World War II.

"Freedom from dependence upon ground surveys was forecast during World War I, when Major James W. Bagley, a former civilian employee of the US Geological Survey and a pioneer in American photo-mapping, brought his recently invented tri-lens camera to France. Bagley's camera took one vertical and two oblique photographs and in that way produced a much larger picture than a single lens camera previously used. Study of these photographs enabled topographic engineers to overprint the site of enemy trenches and gun emplacements on existing base maps."

The use of the T-3A cameras, when mounted side by side, produced a field of about 400 square miles. From the provisional maps prepared from the planimetric maps, multiplex operators determined elevations and filled in contours by stereocomparagraph. This technique allowed an Army topographic battalion to produce maps of over 100 square miles of contour maps a day, a vital improvement in marking and targeting the modern battlefield.

"In 1918, Major James W. Bagley (a USGS employee prior to U.S. entry into the war) was assigned to the European theatre to conduct field tests with an experimental three-lensaerial camera (Air Service History, Vol. 13, p. 58.) Bagley's earlier USGS work applied photogrammetric principals to topographic mapping using terrestrial photography, and outlined applications of his techniques to aerial photography (Bagley, 1917). Although Bagley's team arrived in Europe too late to complete the planned trials under wartime conditions, the camera was evaluated after the Armistice to photograph sectors of the St-Mihel and Meuse-Argonne battlefields to assess its effectiveness for military reconnaissance. Bagley's design was judged to be effective, although opinion favored the use of a longer focal length camera for military use (Air Service History, Vol. 13, p. 65). After the war, the Bagley design became a key component of civil aerial survey.

"Soon after the Armistice, Bagley was placed in charge of a small Engineer detachment at Wright Field (then McCook Field) to work with the US Army Air Service in applying aerial photography to military mapping. Although the Wright Field detachment seldom exceeded two officers, six enlisted men and a few civilians, it gradually provided a nucleus of expert photogrammetrists."

Some of the archives from his time in Wright Field are kept by the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Their description of their holdings records say: "The U.S. Army began aerial photography after World War I to free them from the time consuming and costly survey parties. Major James W. Bagley was placed in charge of the small engineer detachment at Wright Field to supply aerial photography for military mapping. The experiments of this time period produced methods of aerial mapping that opened up vast areas which would have been denied to a ground surveyor during World War II. This collection contains bibliographies, correspondence, reports, articles, pamphlets and drafts of papers on aerial mapping and photography (one authored by Maj. James Bagley). It also contains a dictionary of photographic terms (in German) and material on various cameras and other equipment including Adam Hilger Ltd.'s Survey Stereoscope; Fairchild's Solar Navigator; Brigg's Gyroscope Vertical Indicator; J.G. Saltzman, Inc.'s, lighting and enlarging equipment; Messter Topograph; the Nistri Photocartograph and the Santoni Photogrammetric method (in both English and Italian); and the aerocartograph (blue prints and quadrangle mapping)."

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