246
Further Reading
Arnold, H. J. P., William Henry Fox Talbot. Pioneer of photogra-
phy and man of science, London, Hutchinson, 1977.
Daguerre, L. J. M., An Historical and Descriptive Account of the
various processes of the Daguerréotype and the Diorama,
London, McLean, 1839.
Coe, Brian, Cameras. From daguerreotype to Instant Pictures,
London, Marshall Cavendish, 1978.
Smith, R. C., Antique Cameras, Newton Abbot, David & Charles,
1975.
CAMERA DESIGN: 2 (1850)
Although Smith has argued that the patents of Daguerre
in Britain and Talbot held back the development of new
and innovative designs of cameras during the 1840s there
were equally few developments elsewhere in Europe or
America. The 1850s saw the development of specialist
photographic manufacturers, the development of more
sensitive and easier processes and a rise in amateur and
professional photography which probably did more to
stimulate new designs of camera. The predominant box-
form designs of the 1840s lasted through the 1850s and
beyond, but they were joined by new designs, smaller
and more specialist cameras.
Folding cameras were not new but new designs ap-
peared. Bland and Long of London produced a design
for paper processes and a similar design was registered
by Ottewill on 25 May 1853. Hinges in the centre of
the box allowed the camera to collapse in on itself once
the lens panel and focusing screen were removed. Other
makers copied or adapted the design. At the 1851 Great
Exhibition Richard Willats showed a prototype of a col-
lapsible camera that had a black cloth body. In America
W. and W. H. Lewis of New York introduced cameras
using square-cornered bellows to a design patented on
11 November 1851. Although their design was intended
to give extra extension and made the camera suitable
for copying purposes the idea of using bellows to make
a compact camera gained favour.
Major Halkett showed a camera to the Photographic
Society in April 1853 that used unpleated rubber to
connect the lens standard to the back standard. Other
designs of cameras using cloth, or bag bellows, contin-
ued to be shown. British provisional patent number 1295
of 31 May 1856 granted to Francis Fowke described a
folding bellows camera with bellows between the front
and back and this design in a modifi ed form was made
by P. Meagher and quickly established itself as a stan-
dard design for later improvement. The most infl uential
collapsible bellows camera was designed by C. G. H.
Kinnear of Edinburgh in 1857. The camera made use
of tapered bellows which gave greater compactness.
The designed was taken up by many camera makers.
These two bellows designs were refi ned and remained
in production into the twentieth century.
During the decade the rising and lateral moving
front panel holding the lens was also added to boxform
cameras. In most cases the movement was allowed by a
simply cut-out in the lens panel which allowed a screw
to be secured to the camera body. The effect of the small
movement permitted was limited. Other cameras per-
mitted in the entire lens panel to move in one direction
only with only the protruding back of the lens limited
movement. More mechanical and precise controls using
a rack and pinion or adjustable supports did not enter
camera design until later in the century.
The retention of sensitised materials in the camera
were wholly held in removable holders which slotted
into the back of the camera. Wet collodion glass plates
were usually retained with small wire clips at their
corners and one plate fi tted each holder. As dry plates
became more common holders containing two plates
separated by a metal sheath allowed for more compact
outfi ts to be made.
Cameras which allowed the photographer to process
his plates inside the body of the camera also saw some
popularity throughout the 1850s. Their designers saw
internal processing as a way of reducing the size and
weight of the apparatus the travelling photographer
needed to carry. Henry Talbot patented the fi rst design in
1851 and Archer’s portable camera of 1853 was widely
discussed and over twenty British patents were granted
for such cameras over the next thirty years.
The 1850s saw the rise of interest in stereo-photog-
raphy and camera were made to refl ect this. There were
two methods of producing stereo pairs of photographs.
The fi rst was to make two separate images with one
camera with a variety of methods employed to ensure
the correct spacing between the two pictures. The second
was to construct a camera with two lenses that took the
pictures at the same time.
The fi rst signifi cant design was shown by Latimer
Clark to the Photographic Society on 5 May 1853. A
single camera was mounted on a jointed parallelogram
that moved the camera a set distance between exposures.
A pulley system moved the plate holder so that the
second exposure could be made quickly. Other designs
moved the camera across a bar which was fi xed to a tri-
pod and John Harrison Powell’s design registered on 27
December 1858 and made by Horne and Thornthwaite
moved the camera across a box and it’s lid which also
contained the camera and plate holders. A third method
shown by John Spencer in 1854 moved the lens across
the front of the camera and had an internal septum to
divide the camera so the two photographs did not over-
lap. Two cameras placed side by side would also achieve
the same effect and was described in British provisional
patent number 1629 of 8 July 1853.
The fi rst twin lens stereoscopic camera was demon-
strated in October 1853 to the Liverpool Photographic