Following the 1878 work of Italian engineer Pio Paganini of the Istituto Geografico Militare[b] and others,[c] Finstenwalder advanced methods for reconstruction and measurements of three-dimensional objects from photographic images.

He applied the technique of plane table photogrammetry in addition to a conventional geodetic survey, assisted by the novel lightweight, accurate phototheodolite that he had developed for high-mountain applications.

From 1890 Finsterwalder also employed aerial photography,[16] reconstituting the topography of the area of Gars am Inn in 1899 from a pair of balloon photographs using mathematical calculations of many points in the images.

His analytical approach was laborious however, prompting development of analogue instrumentation with stereo measurement permitting faster optical/mechanical reconstruction of the photographic data arrays to determine object points.

Felix Klein commissioned Finsterwalder while the latter was professor of mathematics at the Munich polytechnic, to write on aerodynamics for his Enzyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften mit Einschluss ihrer Anwendungen (EMW) (tr.

Finsterwalder also worked with Martin Kutta (1867-1944) at the Institute in Munich to devise formulas relating to the lift on an aerofoil in terms of the circulation round it.

[23][24] Because of Finsterwalder's efforts, Ölgruben rock glacier became the subject of a notably extended, longitudinal study of flow velocity with high value in climate research,[25] with repeat surveys undertaken by Wolfgang Pillewizer in 1938, 1939, and 1953 using photogrammetry,[26] and which is still ongoing, employing modern satellite-based positioning techniques.