Party Fun With This FREAK Camera (May, 1932)

Party Fun With This FREAK Camera

IF YOU are looking for something different in party entertainment, perhaps a freak camera similar to that shown here will help.

This camera started life as a store box. A little paint and a trimming of lantern-slide tape transformed it into something resembling a camera. From that point the construction consisted of attaching accessories that have no connection with photography.

One of these devices is a pair of bells arranged so that coins dropped into slots will ring them one at a time. It was desired to photograph a “hot” subject, so the camera was equipped with an electric cigar-lighter unit mounted inside a small tin can, and covered with a piece of wire screen. Slightly moistened sawdust placed on the screen produced an abundance of smoke.

To extinguish the fire, water, retained in a length of garden hose, and drawn from a faucet on the side of the camera, was used.

To produce a crash when the “shutter” was operated, a swinging hammer, operated by a strong coil spring, demolished an old photoflash bulb held in a socket.