Dave,
You were very close. RAPD is Raritan Arsenal Printing Department. My dad was once employed there, and I still have a friend who spent his life printing TM's and setting up the photo shots. He occasionally looks at my old tm's and admires the clarity. The two main photo units for tm's were Raritan and Ft Ord.
We take good photos for granted these days, but he tells me that a lot of special effort went into getting good clear ones for the tm's. I have boyhood memories of my dad and company bringing problem shots home for after hours work, and setting them up on our kitchen table. When everyone was satisfied on how to do it, they would meet the next day and shoot it at work. meanwhile, our kitchen was a fascinating, never ending array of bazooka sights, rifle parts, truck transmission gears, field gear, and radios.
One interesting fact about the tm photos is that a lot of them are of objects placed against a seemingly white or nonexistent background. With today's computer magic, this is not a problem. However, in the 50's before computers, getting a shot of a tank turret without the distracting background was quite a lot of work. Some of these photos look like grayscale technical drawings, but of very high density and quality. These were made up with basic photos, then manipulated in both the darkroom and the cut and paste board. Sometimes it took an entire work day to get one shot right. Pen and ink artists were used to bring up details that got lost in the photo process. It was like being in a Disney studio.
When Raritan closed for good, the dispersal of all that talent was a sad thing to see. You can also see the resultant drop of photo quality in tm's printed after that era.
Just thought you'd enjoy a story about the old days!
Regards,
Jack
In a message dated Fri, 4 Jan 2002 10:03:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, DDoyle9570@aol.com writes:
> Ever notice the RA PD number in the lower left corner of photographs in older
> Technical Manuals? Anyone know exactly what this stands for? Raritan Arsenal
> Photographic Department? Regular Army Picture Dude?
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> David Doyle
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