Old technical innovation

In the 1980s, I was taking pictures of radio towers. I still do, from time

to time, but they don't change much so I don't make hikes to towers on spec

anymore.



This was a "reflecting tower" for the first local television station in St

John's. The engineer (who I interviewed in the early 1980s) was asked in

1954 to get the signal from the studio, nearly downtown, to the

transmitting tower which was behind a hill five miles to the west. So he

came up with the brilliant idea of building a screen, about thirty feet

high, at the top of another hill, visible to both studio and tower, and

reflecting the (I think) 900 MHz studio signal off it. It worked.



This was the reflecting tower. In the late seventies the station didn't

need it any more (they moved their studio) and it fell into disrepair. I

started documenting its crumble into rust.



This picture was taken in February 1991. Someone had recently put a cable

around the screen and, tied to their truck, hauled it down to the ground.



Ilford FP4 film in my Flexo 6x6cm camera.