Description: WD-3 A Shell Passes Through Tower of St. Legor Church at Soissons. Here we have an example of one of the unusual things that has happened during the war. A shell has passed through the tower of St. Legor Church without causing a great amount of damage. It is one of the many instances where the German shells have failed to explode. It is fortunate for the Church of St. Legor, for all of the other six churches of Soissons are in ruins from the result of shell fire. The shell in this case has only torn a small portion of the tower away in passing through and has fallen to the ground without exploding. The battlefields of France are literally covered with these unexploded shells, which are called "duds," and many a man owes his life to the fact that some of the shells did become "'duds." In the lower slit just beyond the telephone pole is something of equal interest. The white splotches about it are bullet marks. Some dreaded franc-tireur took refuge in the church and in an ill-advised moment started sniping from the loophole. Hence the dozen or so Mauser bullet marks, commencing wide, but winding up on the casement and inside. (From Great War in 3D Online) Fisher Scientific Materials Company of Pittsburgh, PA, founded by 20-year old Chester G. Fisher in 1902, sold laboratory supplies to the Army during World War I. Fisher was tasked to equip a research laboratory to identify German gas weapons. The company exists today as Fisher Scientific. In the early Twenties, the company produced a set of 72 medium-format glass stereographs. All images were authorized by the French War Department and were obtained from French manufacturers Paris Stéréo and STL. The plates have a characteristic layout of a black center bar with logo and sequence number and a black bottom bar with the title. Fisherview images are not in the standard French medium format, which is a glass plate 59-60mm x 129-130mm with a 6mm title bar at center. The Fisherview plate is 62-63mm x 126-127mm. The 6mm center strip was used for the company logo and a 12mm strip was created at the bottom for the number and title. The viewing area of a Fisherview plate is 6050mm2, or about 81% of the area of a standard French medium format view (7440mm2). Production of photographic equipment was out of character for Fisher. The company does not have archives today that explain the reason for it. A possible explanation may be that Chester Fisher’s artistic bent led him to acquire rights to a batch of Great War stereo images when given the opportunity during his war work. He became a prominent art collector specializing in paintings related to alchemy and chemistry, building an extensive collection eventually donated to the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. Fisherview plates were sold in boxes of 12 plates for the "Fisherview," a crude stereoviewer of two wooden boxes with the lenses in one and the image holder in the other; the inner box slides in-and-out to get the correct focus. The World War set was accompanied by a Catalog of Plates describing each view in much the same manner as the text on the reverse of Keystone stereoviews. The catalog mentions additional sets, all related to the war. They include the London Peace March, the return of American troops to New York, and the bombardment of Rheims.
Price: 14.95 USD
Location: Elyria, Ohio
End Time: 2025-01-23T23:25:04.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Antique: Yes
Image Color: Black & White
Title: WD-3 A Shell Passes Through Tower of St. Legor Church at Soissons
Material: Glass
Brand/Publisher: Fisherview Scientific Materials Company
Subject: France, Germany, Military, Europe, World War One, WWI, The Great War, Trench Warfare, Soldiers, Doughboy, St. Legaor Church, Soissons, France
Vintage: Yes
Type: Stereoview & Stereoscope
Year of Production: 1920
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Theme: Cities & Towns, Conflicts & Wars, Continents & Countries
Features: 1st Edition
Time Period Manufactured: 1900-1924
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
