It was Alfred Maul, an industrialist and engineer born in Pößneck, in the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, that thought of, and implemented, the idea of taking photographs of the land with a rocket-attached camera.
He was inspired by Ludwig Rahrmann, who in 1891 patented a means of attaching a camera to a large calibre artillery projectile or rocket.
When the rocket had reached an altitude of about 600 to 800 meters, a few seconds later, its top would spring open and the camera would descend on a parachute.
[5] In 1912, his rocket cameras were using a 20 by 25 centimetre photographic plate and gyroscopic steering to ensure stable flight and sharper images.
[5] Maul's rockets achieved no military significance because conventional aeroplanes during World War I succeeded in the role of aerial reconnaissance.