252
for example cost one guinea. However, this was still
too expensive for many aspiring photographers. East-
man asked Brownell to design a camera which could
be mass produced for very low cost. The result was the
Brownie camera. A box camera fi tted with a simple
lens and shutter, the Brownie sold for just 5 shillings.
Named after the Brownie characters popularised by the
Canadian writer, Palmer Cox, the camera was initially
aimed at children. Soon, however, it enjoyed much
broader appeal as people realised that although very
basic, the Brownie could produce very good results
under the right conditions. Within a year, over 100,000
Brownie cameras had been sold. For the next eighty
years, the Brownie name was to be synonymous with
snapshot photography.
Colin Harding
See Also: Kodak; and Camera Design: 5 Portable
Hand Cameras (1880–1900).
Further Reading
Coe, Brian, Kodak Cameras: The First Hundred Years, Hove
Foto Books, 1988.
Collins, Douglas, The Story of Kodak, Abrams, 1900.
Jenkins, Reese V., Images and Enterprise: Technology and the
American Photographic Industry, 1839 to 1925, Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 1975.
CAMERA DESIGN: 7 SPECIALIST AND
NOVELTY CAMERAS
A large and increasing number of specialist and novelty
cameras were introduced through the nineteenth cen-
tury. Specialist cameras were designed to accomplish
tasks that were beyond the standard studio or amateur
camera such as panoramic photography and novelty
cameras in design or appearance were manufactured
to take advantage of new photographic processes or
methods such as roll fi lm or materials from which to
manufacture cameras. Others were made to look unlike
a typical camera and pass unrecognised. The defi nition
of novelty changed over time.
Specialist cameras were introduced early on. Cam-
eras designed for stereoscopic work in either single or
double lens versions were introduced as early as 1852.
The fi rst stereoscopic camera is credited to J. B. Dancer
who made a binocular camera in 1852, shown in 1853,
and was refi ned in to the 1856 patented Binocular cam-
era. Dancer’s fellow Mancunian Petschler introduced his
own design shortly after 1852. Latimer Clark introduced
his single lens version on a special parallelogram in
- Most other manufacturers introduced their own
versions of rigid box, sliding box, and front-focusing
stereo cameras during the 1850s and 1860s until demand
declined. From the later 1880s into the 1900s there was a
renewed interest in stereoscopy and many manufactuers
introduced stereoscopic versions of their regular models.
These were all with two lenses as the single-lens camera
was impractical for hand use. The stereo Photosphere of
1888, stereo-jumelle hand cameras of the 1890s, stereo
versions of mahogany fi eld cameras, the Stereo Sigriste
of 1898, and detective hand cameras such as the Tit-Bit
are all examples of stereo versions of regular cameras.
There were also cameras such as the Richard Verascope
of 1894 and the Stéréocycle of 1898 that only appeared
in stereo models.
Panoramic photography was also in demand from
photography’s earliest days. In 1845 Frédéric Martens
mounted a specially adapted daguerreotype camera
on the roof of the Louvre and took 150 degree views
of Paris on curved plates 12 × 38cm. Martens used a
stationary camera with a lens rotated by clockwork.
The camera was also adapted to make paper negatives.
In Britain Thomas Sutton designed a water-fi lled lens
in 1859 and a special camera designed to take curved
glass plates was sold by Ross. The camera and lens
appeared in a variety of sizes and produced 120 degree
views. Johnson and Harrison’s patent of 5 September
1862 described a camera that moved by clockwork on
a turntable and could cover 110 degrees. Other designs
such as Moëssoral’s Cylindrographe of 1889, the Kodak
Panoram of 1899 and the Al Vista of 1899 all moved the
camera lens. The Cirkut , Wonder Panoramic camera of
1889 and Damoizeau Cyclographe all moved the camera
on special turntables.
In-camera processing was also attempted early on
and was suggested by Talbot who was the fi rst person to
patent such a camera in 1851. In his design the plate was
dropped into a glass cell within the camera and silver
nitrate added for sensitising purposes, after exposure
the developing chemicals were added and drained as
necessary. No record exists of the design having been
produced.
Over twenty different British patents were granted
for in-camera processing during the next thirty years up
to the 1880s. The fi rst such patent for a camera that was
made commercially was designed by Frederick Scott
Archer. Archer’s portable folding camera was registered
in February 1854 but fi rst appeared the previous year and
was discussed in the Photographic Society’s Journal of
21 April 1853. Mr Shelley having seen the demonstra-
tion by Archer stated ‘Mr Archer’s camera possesses
the advantage that the whole is carried in one box.’
The same issue included Newton’s patented design for
a similar camera. Archer’s camera was also described
and illustrated in Robert Hunt’s Manual of Photogra-
phy of 1854. The camera was made commercially and
improved upon by Mr Griffi n and sold by him with a
2½ inch achromatic lens for views and chemicals for
£16 6s. A tripod was £1 extra. The Dubroni camera of