Pigeon camera. Julius Neubronner, a German apothecary who relied on pigeons to deliver medications to his customers, patented a workable method for using the birds for aerial photography in 1907. In the early years of World War I, the German military strapped time-delayed miniature cameras to homing pigeons for aerial reconnaissance of enemy territory, but the rapid perfection of aviation soon rendered the avian approach obsolete. (International Spy Museum)