This eighty-pound "Dillo-cam" (the name combines "armadillo" with "camera"), was designed to survive the most violent of winds. On May 25, 1997, it made meteorological history. Near dusk, in southeastern Kansas, it became the first observation package ever to be deployed in front of, and then struck by, a tornado. The recovered Dillo-cam tape revealed the image and sounds of the twister approaching and engulfing the device. Storm chaser Charles Edwards of Norman, Okla., created the neon-orange package out of junkyard lead, a secondhand videocamera, and assorted cheap parts.