The Ackley was a specialized camera that could be angled in many directions – analogous to today’s Steadicam. In a 1924 article in the Los Angeles Times, Dorothy Calhoun describes the Ackley: “a camera arranged on ball bearings and steered in any conceivable direction by a lever so that it can lie down, roll over and over and lie on its head. It is panoramic and also telescopic, making it possible to get the close-ups of Rod la Rocque’s face in the tossing motor boat from the top of a breakwater half a mile away.” (Calhoun, Dorothy. “A Camel Through a Needle’s Eye.” Los Angeles Times. April 20, 1924, p. B11) Photographer Paul Strand took a well known photograph of an Ackley camera in 1922, titled “The Ackley Camera.”