Nicht immer nur Kaviar ... (English Version)

[pgk]

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3 minutes ago, wlaidlaw said:

Paul, do you make the Waterhouse stops from thin aluminium or brass shim stock? 

I actually use thin black plastic from modelmaker's shops. I bought some years ago and its lasting well. With a new scalpel blade they are simple to cut out and adjust and the centre is drilled out. Some really early lenses used stops in 1/8" or 1/16" intervals, probably due to these being easily available drill sizes. No f/numbers then!

[thomas_schertel]

Bessamatic, lenses and accessories

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yours sincerely
Thomas

[thomas_schertel]

New arrival form Tübingen:
Bertram BCI, a camera for rollfilm or cassettes 6x9 cm. The lenses are austomatically coupled with the rangefinder and the viewfinder.

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yours sincerely
Thomas

[willeica]

For the past 9 months I have been cataloguing the collection of the former Photographic Society of Ireland, which was founded in 1854 as the Dublin Photographic Society. I have found many treasures there and I could post about a lot of interesting items and will do so over time. Last week I came across 3 Cp Stirn's Vest or Waistcoat cameras from the 1880s and one of them contained a developed circular negative plate, containing 6 images, which I have inverted and cropped to show that they were taken at an equestrian event in May 1888. The name Capt Scott is there , but I don't believe this is related to the famous Captain Robert Falcon Scott of Antarctic fame. In 1888 Cape Scott was a 20 year old Midshipman in the Royal Navy.

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Technical details of this model are here.

http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/entry_C6.html

https://www.19thcentury-photography.com/product-page/c-p-stirn-s-geheim-camera-alexandria-c1890

The camera was also called a 'button-hole camera' as the lens could be pointed out through the button hole of a vest while the body of the camera was hidden behind. It was not really intended for equestrian events, but rather for what people today call 'street photography'. Some examples of that are here.

https://www.exibartstreet.com/news/19th-century-street-photography-with-a-spy-camera/

William 

 

[sandro]

Fascinating camera and photos, William!

Lex

[willeica]

6 hours ago, sandro said:

Fascinating camera and photos, William!

Lex

Thanks, Lex. I have lots more to show. Next Wednesday I am looking at an Ives Kromskop with an award winning professor of optics. This is for viewing colour stereo slides from the 1890s and we have a collection of those to view. 

I may post something about that next week.

William 

 

 

[wlaidlaw]

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5 minutes ago, willeica said:

Thanks, Lex. I have lots more to show. Next Wednesday I am looking at an Ives Kromskop with an award winning professor of optics. This is for viewing colour stereo slides from the 1890s and we have a collection of those to view. 

I may post something about that next week.

William 

 

 

William, 

Are those hand painted/tinted slides? I have a number of sets of magic lantern slides telling traditional  stories (Cinderella, Aladdin etc), which are all hand painted. I have a Watson quarter plate, tin plate magic lantern, which belonged to either my grandfather or his brother (both of whose Leicas, a model II and a model III, I still have). Sadly the original acetylene lamp was converted, I suspect during the 1930's by my uncle, to a 175V projector lamp to suit the 175V DC generated electricity at the family textile works but using the original parabolic mirror and condenser. The 175v projector lamp is also now dead but I may be able to obtain a 240V replacement. 

Wilson

[willeica]

58 minutes ago, wlaidlaw said:

William, 

Are those hand painted/tinted slides? I have a number of sets of magic lantern slides telling traditional  stories (Cinderella, Aladdin etc), which are all hand painted. I have a Watson quarter plate, tin plate magic lantern, which belonged to either my grandfather or his brother (both of whose Leicas, a model II and a model III, I still have). Sadly the original acetylene lamp was converted, I suspect during the 1930's by my uncle, to a 175V projector lamp to suit the 175V DC generated electricity at the family textile works but using the original parabolic mirror and condenser. The 175v projector lamp is also now dead but I may be able to obtain a 240V replacement. 

Wilson

Thanks, Wilson. The Kromograms are black and white stereo pairs, but when viewed through the Red, Green and Blue filters built into the Kromskop they reveal themselves in colour. The photography is the reverse of this. Images are created using colour filters  As you know, B+W plates can be sensitive to certain colours and when the process is reversed for viewing, the colours are revealed. It is an additive process as opposed to the subtractive process often found in colour film.  I will try to do justice to them with my post next week. A lot of lantern plates were hand painted, some good, some not so good. There are examples of painted slides in the collection, but it also contains examples of early colour processes such as that of John Joly of Dublin and also commercially produced processes bought from GB e.g. the Paget process. One very rare thing we found in the box with the Kromskop was the original 1890s manual for the Ives process. Real skin on hens' teeth stuff. 

As regards magic lanterns, we have have found all kinds of illumination solutions for lanterns, such as 'steam punk' style paraffin lamps with 4 wicks. I think I will have to do a weekly post on this stuff. 

William 

[pgk]

12 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

The 175v projector lamp is also now dead but I may be able to obtain a 240V replacement.

It might just be worth looking into an LED replacement which will run much cooler and will require far less power. Some are now quite extraordinarily bright. 

[Pyrogallol]

I made an LED replacement lamphouse for my Lines and Jones halfplate enlarger, about 60 lights in a panel, only 12volts and no heat.

[wlaidlaw]

1 hour ago, pgk said:

It might just be worth looking into an LED replacement which will run much cooler and will require far less power. Some are now quite extraordinarily bright. 

Temporarily, I have been using my Olight X7R LED torch, at one of its lower settings. These settings unlike the higher power settings are not thermally time limited, are quite bright enough for projection. However the zig zag filament projector lamps have nearer the correct steam punk feel for the magic lantern. The base of the burnt out  lamp appears to be a Kodak aluminium 35mm cassette tin. I do have an acetylene lamp but it is not very bright and was intended for caving or mining rather than projecting. It is also rather smelly in operation, with an odour of rotten garlic. I suppose given how smelly coal mines are (has to be experienced to be believed. I was taken down a coal mine in the Rhonda valley as a teenager by a GP who was a childhood friend of my father), the additional smell from the carbide lamps would never be noticed. 

Wilson

[willeica]

2 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

Temporarily, I have been using my Olight X7R LED torch, at one of its lower settings. These settings unlike the higher power settings are not thermally time limited, are quite bright enough for projection. However the zig zag filament projector lamps have nearer the correct steam punk feel for the magic lantern. The base of the burnt out  lamp appears to be a Kodak aluminium 35mm cassette tin. I do have an acetylene lamp but it is not very bright and was intended for caving or mining rather than projecting. It is also rather smelly in operation, with an odour of rotten garlic. I suppose given how smelly coal mines are (has to be experienced to be believed. I was taken down a coal mine in the Rhonda valley as a teenager by a GP who was a childhood friend of my father), the additional smell from the carbide lamps would never be noticed. 

Wilson

 Wilson, if you want the real 'steam punk feel' here is the item for you. A Stocks Patent 4 wick paraffin burner from the collection which I am cataloguing.

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You could also go in another 'steam punk' direction and get something like this 4 lens Noakes Quad Magic Lantern from 1897. This was made by David William Noakes in his own workshop to illuminate his own lectures and was up for auction recently by SAS. I have not checked to see if this sold and, if so, what it fetched. Some period photos of the device are below. 

William 

[pgk]

3 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

I do have an acetylene lamp but it is not very bright and was intended for caving or mining rather than projecting. It is also rather smelly in operation, with an odour of rotten garlic.

There are some older technologies possibly best being thought outdated. Can you still get carbide? I remember playing with carbide as a youngster by throwing it into water followed by a lump of sodium metal; this was in my mispent youth when I was well into chemistry. Its an interesting concoction and almost impossible to extinguish. Possibly not to good on the H&S ways of the current world. And fortunately you probably can't buy either easily I would hope!

[wlaidlaw]

4 hours ago, pgk said:

There are some older technologies possibly best being thought outdated. Can you still get carbide? I remember playing with carbide as a youngster by throwing it into water followed by a lump of sodium metal; this was in my mispent youth when I was well into chemistry. Its an interesting concoction and almost impossible to extinguish. Possibly not to good on the H&S ways of the current world. And fortunately you probably can't buy either easily I would hope!

I bought my carbide to try out the lamp on eBay. A 5kg bag was about £10. I remember setting off large amounts of flash powder, where we found a large unopened tin of it in the school theatrical supplies cupboard. I think you can still buy flash paper and flash cotton in the UK and probably even easier in France. 

Wilson

 

[Pyrogallol]

See here for our flash powder story

http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Johnsons_of_Hendon/Johnsons_FlashPowder.html#anchorPG

[pgk]

Somewhere in the shed I still have a Kodak magesium ribbon dispenser and the ribbon. I will dig it out and try it one day.

[willeica]

12 minutes ago, pgk said:

Somewhere in the shed I still have a Kodak magesium ribbon dispenser and the ribbon. I will dig it out and try it one day.

I found a number of those magnesium ribbon dispensers with ribbon in the collection. I can post some pictures later.

William 

[pgk]

4 minutes ago, willeica said:

I found a number of those magnesium ribbon dispensers with ribbon in the collection. I can post some pictures later.

FYI they should be kept cool and dry. Like nitrate filmstock magnesium can become unstable as has been commented (which is why I store mine in the sehed sealed up so that it stays dry). Damp and warmth should be avoided.

[willeica]

1 hour ago, pgk said:

FYI they should be kept cool and dry. Like nitrate filmstock magnesium can become unstable as has been commented (which is why I store mine in the sehed sealed up so that it stays dry). Damp and warmth should be avoided.

They are stored in dry conditions in archival boxes. Some examples of magnesium ribbon are shown below.

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Sorry about the condition, but these items have been lying in an archive collection for around 100 years.

William 

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[thomas_schertel]

I could not resist and bought this Voigtländer Prominent II. The viewfinder 1 1:1 with frames foor all focal lengths from 35 to 150 mm.

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yours sincerely
Thomas