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Society and the fi rst binocular boxform camera was
offered for sale by J B Dancer of Manchester. His de-
sign was patented in September 1856 and was a more
advanced design of one made in 1853. The camera
incorporated a number of innovations. The fi rst folding
bellows stereoscopic camera was George Hare’s Por-
table Binocular camera of 1860. Other designs followed
until interest in stereoscopy waned before a resurgence
of interest in the 1890s.
Throughout the 1850s cameras continued to be made
from wood. The fi rst metal-body folding camera was
described by A J Melhuish in two patents in 1859. A
single and stereoscopic version were described and one
example of the single lens version is now in the National
Museum of Photography, Film and Television, UK.
Melhuish was also responsible for a roll-holder for paper
negatives which had been designed in 1854.
Various patents were published describing cameras
that allowed processing to be undertaken internally
and specialised cameras for, for example, panoramic
photography were also made and different styles of
photography became possible through the development
of new processes. Cameras designed for enlarging or
copying were announced by the late 1850s. Despite
the many signifi cant camera designs during the decade
relatively few were patented with the more success-
ful innovations being copied and refi ned by different
manufacturers.
Michael Pritchard
See Also: Daguerre, Louis-Jacques-Mandé; Talbot,
William Henry Fox; Thomas Ottewill & Co.; and Wet
Collodion Process.
Further Reading
Coe, Brian, Cameras. From daguerreotype to Instant Pictures,
London, Marshall Cavendish, 1978.
Smith, R. C., Antique Cameras, Newton Abbot, David & Charles,
1975.
Michael Pritchard, “Tents, wheelbarrows and vans,” in Photo-
graphica World, 105, 3 (2003), 16–24.
CAMERA DESIGN: 3 (1860s–1870)
The main theme for camera design during the 1860s
and 1870s continued to be portability and the general
improvement of existing designs of camera. During the
later part of the period there was an increasing separation
between professional studio and amateur cameras with
latter generally being more innovative.
In 1861 F. R. Window described a new arrangement
of the long-established sliding box camera. The smaller
inner box was moved to the front of the camera and
carried the lens and was focused by a double rack and
pinion mechanism for moving the front box on a base-
board. The design was more compact, more rigid and
easier to focus. Window’s design remained popular and
in revised forms were popular into the twentieth century.
Most later hand and fi eld cameras retained the double
rack and pinion focusing at the front of the camera. The
design was incorporated into professional studio cam-
eras and smaller amateur cameras. By the mid-1860s
front-focus bellows cameras were introduced to take
advantage of the improved rigidity and advantages of
moving the lens rather than the back standard.
The 1860s also saw the widespread introduction
of tailboard cameras. Atkinson’s Portable camera was
described to the Photographic Society in 1857 but it
was not until commercial manufacture by P. Meagher,
George Hare, W. Watson and others for stereoscopic
and single-lens use that the design gained widespread
acceptance and by the 1870s it was very popular. The
design had a moveable back focusing screen connected
by bellows to the lensboard. For storage the back was
moved by rack and pinion to the front and the hinged
baseboard lifted up to protect the focusing screen and,
if present, a side gate was swung across to secure ev-
erything.
George Hare manufactured W. J. Stillman’s design as
the New Universal camera. The design was provision-
ally patented on 14 November 1871 and gave greater
fl exibility to move the back and front standards around
a fi xed central point.
During the period a number of features became
standardised and remained an integral part of camera
design until the 1900s. With acceptance of the dry plate
process from the early 1870s the book-form plate holder
holder became standard holding two plates either side
of a metal divider. By 1860 most cameras incorporated
some form of rising front and, later, a laterally moving
front especially on professional studio or more advanced
cameras. At the same time a swing-back was incorpo-CAMERA DESIGN: 3
Ponti, Carlo. Megalethoscope.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty
Museum.