Jack Barnett, roving cameraman for Chicago Daily News-Universal News Reel, tells an interesting bit of news that occurred while on an assignment in Atlanta, Georgia.

Barnett, while in the South on several assignments, received a dash from Charlie Ford to cover a prison break. Jack chartered an airplane — flew over the prison — secured several air views of the fugitives attempting escape through the woods – landed the plane on the state highway paralleling the prison wall — set up his camera and photographed the juncture at which the break occurred.

“A complete story — a scoop — and what a break for me,” mused Jack. But he had made one mistake — one leg of his tripod had been placed on prison property — and the guards ushered him into the prison with his complete camera equipment…claiming confiscation of the photographed negative.

Instructed to develop a test strip of the exposed negative in the presence of the prison photographer, Jack finally succeeded in convincing him (by showing him the Super Pan label on an Eastman carton) the film had to be handled in total darkness. While the inmate photographer was developing the test in total darkness — Barnett succeeded in transferring the exposed and unexposed negatives. Given an unconditional release, he sauntered out of the prison gates to his waiting plane, still in possession of his exposed negative; leaving the prison photographer the possessor of several hundred feet of unexposed stock.