Camera On Policeman’s Revolver Snaps Evidence (Feb, 1938)
Camera On Policeman’s Revolver Snaps Evidence
ATTACHED to the barrel of a service revolver, a compact motion picture camera enables a policeman to take action pictures of any person at whom the revolver is aimed. The pictures thus obtained can be presented as evidence at court.
The motion picture camera is triangular in shape and is attached under the barrel of the revolver by means of metal clamps. The lens is directly in line with, and under, the revolver muzzle. The camera is set in action by a slight pressure on the revolver trigger, independent of the firing of the weapon. Due to the compact size of the gun camera device, only a small roll of film can be accommodated at one loading.
“The camera is set in action by a slight pressure on the revolver trigger…”
This sounds like something they’d invent for The Simpsons. I can just see it:
Chief Wiggum: “Aw, jeez. I still haven’t got used to this.”
Officer Lou: “Gee, chief, that’s three times this month.”
Chief Wiggum: “They were guilty anyway, Lou.”
Comment by Rick Auricchio — October 16, 2007 @ 11:03 am
LOL, Good one, Rick!
Comment by Bob — October 16, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
Rick clearly watches too much Simpsons, he’s got Wiggums down perfectly!
Comment by Stannous — October 16, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
This is actually, basically a very good idea. With 70 years’ extra technology to play around with, I’d put a small DV camera under the gun barrel, with some sort of mechanism to turn it on automatically as the gun is drawn.
Comment by nlpnt — October 16, 2007 @ 7:02 pm
agreed, this screams for a remake! can be made laserpointer size nowadays…just a simple (may even be b/w) pinhole camera and 128 mb of flash memory. enough to see what happend, doesnt have to be HD quality. Look at security camera quality, only normal frame rate.
Comment by K!P — October 17, 2007 @ 11:02 am
I had heard of a similar idea with a light attached to the gun and the light was on a different trigger, right next to the real trigger. Obviously this worked completely well and nobody ever got accidentally shot. Thanks modern technology.
Comment by Toby — October 17, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
Just what we need after every police shooting. Another piece of video that begins after the need to shoot someone developed. Or maybe something that happened in fractions of a second can reviewed frame by frame to “prove” the dead “honor student” was actually dropping his hands when the cop shot him.
And Rick, I agree…you NAILED Wiggum and Lou!
Comment by Firebrand38 — October 17, 2007 @ 1:41 pm
6 Toby, the Ohio Art ‘Astro Ray Gun’ from the 1960s was a toy dart gun with a flashlight.
Squeezing the pistol grip turned on the light, pulling the trigger fired the dart. The light was suppossed to indicate the path of the dart, like a laser on a modern real gun. Check out eBay or the Ray Gun Fan Sites. (This just in: There are Ray Gun Fan Sites.)
7 Or a couple of gigs in a SDHC card and a pinhole camera mounted on their hat, badge, glasses.
(Like the camera Jodie Foster wore in the motion picture ‘Contact’.)
Surprisingly, the police don’t want you videoing them. As seen on YouTube.
(Don’t Tase me, bro! Arrgh!)
Comment by jayessell — October 18, 2007 @ 11:42 am
It’s not the idea of videoing cops, it’s the fact that usually a clip of the video shows up on YouTube leaving out a whole lot of the story. Then it becomes a soundbite like “Don’t Tase me, Bro” leading to the inevitable t-shirt sales.
Comment by Firebrand38 — October 18, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
As an update, in the news this morning the cops in that incident were vindicated. Somehow I don’t think the announcement will wind up on bumper stickers, t-shirts or YouTube.
Comment by Firebrand38 — October 25, 2007 @ 5:44 am
Actually, Taser International has an option module that attaches to their X-26 taser that starts recording video when the taser is taken off safe.
It wouldn’t be hard to do the same thing for a sidearm.
Comment by Kenny — October 30, 2007 @ 12:22 pm
Brilliant timing. The gun mounted camera was in the news recently: http://www.wrex.com/News/index.php?ID=22973
Comment by blast — November 3, 2007 @ 6:30 pm
interesting, the article doesn’t describe it’s operation, sounds like #’s 4 & 5 should get credit. I’m getting the original ad framed. Should spark some quick looks & conversation. Besides, if you’re gullible to only research youtube, then maybe you should open your door & see what’s happening outside.
Great job on the simpsons!
Comment by notiam — March 19, 2008 @ 7:24 pm