Postcard photo of the Salmet-Bleriot monoplane landing near Herne Bay, Kent, England, 1912. The postcard is dated 20 August 1912. The pilot was Henri Salmet who toured with a Bleriot plane in England in 1911-1913. Salmet is pictured at Llanelli in May of the same year, in this image: File:Henri Salmet at Llanelli 1912.jpg. The photographer was Fred C. Palmer of Tower Studio, Herne Bay, Kent, who died in 1941.

This print has darkened with age, but it would be inappropriate to adjust the brightness because detail would be lost.

Border

The remaining border of this image is important for researchers of this photographer. Some photographers trimmed their images more than others, and Palmer has a reputation for producing smaller postcards than other early 20th century UK photographers. He took his own photos, developed them in-house onto postcard-backed photographic paper and trimmed them himself. This is one of the reasons why the quality of his work is so interesting, and why there is an article and category for him on English Wiki. Researchers need to see exactly where the edge of the postcard is. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Points of interest

• Palmer has managed to get the moving plane sufficiently in focus for a postcard, although the rest of the image is blurred. This is quite an achievement, because he could not have known the exact direction in which the plane would land; therefore he could not measure the distance for focus beforehand. Palmer would have used a field camera with a half-plate (glass).
• If you zoom in to the plane, you can see Salmet's head.
• The plane looks very fragile.