Notes on the Photographs

Within this web site are over 200 photos taken while I was up on the DEWline. We were not allowed to take pictures of the electronic systems enclosed in the modules, but could take outside pictures. There are a few inside pictures of the living quarters and of technicians off duty and at play, during the installation phase. All these pictures were taken before the line was actually commissioned for operation. In fact, our purpose for being up there was the commissioning and acceptance of all the electronic systems.

A photo in the cluster may be enlarged by clicking on the picture. Once a picture is enlarged, three arrows appear at the right on the top of the page. Clicking the arrow pointing left brings up the preceding picture. Clicking the right arrow will bring up to the next picture in the series. Clicking the up arrow will take you back to the index showing all the pictures. Many of the photos have an explanation or description associated with them..

I must explain that these pictures were taken in the mid 1950s. A few years later they were encased in boxes and hadn't seen the light of day since -- almost 50 years. My son encouraged me to do something about them for history's sake, and if I did, he would put them on the Internet. The attached text is my 50-year memory in action.

Also, I have to confess I am not a photographer. The only pictures I had taken prior to this were family pictures on my wife's camera. When I knew I was going up to the DEWline I splurged and bought a newly introduced Argus C-forty-four, 50mm slide camera. I learned the hard way that the camera had to be carried within my parka until I was actually going to shoot a picture. Otherwise the film would be so brittle from the cold that it would rip out the ratchet holes of the film when winding for the next picture.

There are an unusual number of scenes taken out of airplane windows. The scenes, in person, were wonderful but I soon learned that the resulting pictures were rather ho-hum. By the way, the only way we could get pictures was to ask our wives for new film, then send the negatives back to her for developing, and then have her send the pictures backup on the line or have her keep them at home. This was a very slow process, and not conducive to describing and keeping the pictures in any semblance of order.