March 11, 2008

New Automatic Machine Delivers Metal-Framed Photos (Nov, 1936)

Filed under: Photography — @ 1:54 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1936

New Automatic Machine Delivers Metal-Framed Photos

IN LESS than one minute, a new coin-operated machine snaps a photo of the operator, develops it, and delivers the finished photo encased in a metal frame. The operator has only to sit down, look into a mirror to assure the desired pose, and insert a coin. The novel machine does the rest.

The framed photo produced by the machine is 2-5/8×3-1/8 inches in size. The back of the photo has a lined space on which the date and place where the photo was taken can be inscribed. A special duplicator device incorporated in the machine makes it possible to secure additional metal-framed copies of any photo taken by the machine.

The “Photomatic,” as the machine is called, is housed in a cabinet occupying floor space of about 2-1/2×4 feet. It is 73 inches in height. The operating unit is mounted on the door of the cabinet for quick and easy inspection.

March 2, 2008

Century-Old Camera Snaps Modern Scenes (Aug, 1939)

Filed under: Photography — @ 2:54 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1939

Century-Old Camera Snaps Modern Scenes

By EDWIN TEALE

COVERED with dust and dumped higgledy-piggledy into a box of odds and ends, one of the first cameras ever used in the United States was discovered recently in a New Jersey attic. Almost 100 years ago, it produced some of the first “tintypes” seen in this country.

To commemorate the one hundredth birthday of photography, which the world is celebrating this year, Robert N. Dennis, a New York amateur, bought and renovated the ancient daguerreotype machine. Through its lens, he is photographing skyscrapers and other modern wonders undreamed of in the days of Louis Daguerre.

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February 8, 2008

Carrier Pigeons Turn Cameramen (May, 1936)

We’ve seen these pigeons before. This article also has examples of the pictures they took.

Carrier Pigeons Turn Cameramen

SOMETHING entirely new in aerial photography has been developed in Munich, Germany. In place of trained photographers carried aloft in airplanes or observation balloons, camera equipped pigeons are released to fly over the object to be photographed.

The pigeons do not fly at random. Months of training and selection are required before a few birds are chosen for camera work. Then their flights in each direction are timed so that the trainer knows exactly at what time the bird will be over a certain point. It is then a simple matter to time the camera to expose the film at the point desired.

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January 22, 2008

Science Takes the Measure of Man (Jul, 1961)

Filed under: Photography, Science — @ 2:00 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1961

Science Takes the Measure of Man

Strange instruments are pointing the way to the shapes of tomorrow—from hats to space cabins

By S. David Pursglove

FURNITURE for your future house, seats for next year’s cars, desks for new schools—all are being designed by scientists who specialize in studying man’s past. The Air Force is leading the way and business and industry are following close behind—in using anthropology to make clothing fit better, seats more comfortable and working conditions safer and more efficient. The Air Force started using anthropology, the science that led to reconstruction of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man, to design pressure suits and other space-age clothing and equipment.

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January 20, 2008

Makes Big Candid Camera (Jun, 1939)

Filed under: Photography — @ 8:15 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1939

Makes Big Candid Camera
USING the back of an old view camera, the front of an old reflex camera, the finder from a Speed Graphic and the range finder from a Leica, Fred R. Jolly, of Peoria, Ill., has assembled what is believed to be the largest candid camera in existence, taking an 8×10 negative. The novel camera is equipped with a synchronized flash and the synchronizer is used to trip the shutter at all times, whether the flash is used or not.

January 19, 2008

How Photographic Film Is Made (Oct, 1940)

How Photographic Film Is Made

“Mustard” plants and chemical “noodles” contain the elements that must be put into film base and emulsion before your camera can do its work.

PHOTOGRAPHY has wedged its way into our daily lives so securely that we do not view it with the alarm and mysicism people did when Daguerre announced the first successful photographic process one hundred years ago, in 1839. We have come to expect and accept the seemingly impossible with little exhibition of surprise or enthusiasm. This is, in many ways, unfortunate, for the real joy of science comes from knowing her intimately—knowing how she can make so few characters play so many parts, disguised outwardly but working inwardly to the same objective.

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January 12, 2008

Repeating Flash Systems (Feb, 1947)

Filed under: Photography — @ 12:55 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1947

Repeating Flash Systems

Time-savers for photographers are the two lamps above, in which manually operated cranks replace spent bulbs with new ones, moving the reflectors out of the way as they do so. Once the fresh bulbs are in place, the reflectors return to position. The top lamp was invented by E. B. Nobel and A. W. Seitz, the lower one by John J. Malloy. Both devices use a series of bulbs with bayonet-type bases, and their discharge switches can be operated either by hand or by synchronizing apparatus.

January 5, 2008

Synchronizing Photo Flash Lamp With a Camera Shutter (Aug, 1932)

Filed under: Photography — @ 2:45 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1932

Synchronizing Photo Flash Lamp With a Camera Shutter

THE difficulty of synchronizing the flare of a photo flash lamp with the click of the shutter is frequently encountered by enthusiasts of the camera art. There’s a way to overcome this difficulty, however, and that is by constructing the little gadget shown in the accompanying photo.

The contrivance consists of a flat type pocket flashlight battery mounted between two pieces of wood, on the top of which is affixed a common porcelain socket to hold the photo flash lamp.

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January 1, 2008

Subject Operates New Camera (Jan, 1932)

Filed under: Photography — @ 3:12 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1932

Subject Operates New Camera
A NEW camera, designed by Luther J. Simjian, of Yale University, permits photo gallery customers to pose to their heart’s content for the picture and then operate the camera when ready. A mirror close to the lens shows what the picture will look like and extension bulb clicks shutter.

December 19, 2007

HIDE CAMERA IN COW’S SKIN (Mar, 1933)

Filed under: Photography — @ 12:17 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1933

If this had been in Mechanix Illustrated they definitely would have made a joke usingthe two meanings of the word hide. Popular Science is so stuffy!

HIDE CAMERA IN COW’S SKIN
Stretched over wires and padding, a cow’s skin is now part of the photographic equipment of the California State Fish and Game Commission. The lens of a camera is poked through a hole in the skin, and pictures of wild animals, otherwise unobtainable, are taken.

December 18, 2007

cigarette-case camera (Feb, 1947)

Filed under: Photography — @ 12:23 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1947

cigarette-case camera

by Max Spitalny

YOU’VE said a hundred times, “Oh if I only had a camera with me!” Raymond La Rose, veteran Hollywood cameraman and incurable inventor, said it too. He said it often. He said it so often he got tired of saying it: he got busy. He ended by turning out a snapshot camera hardly larger than a cigarette case—so small one can carry it ready but unnoticed in the pocket at all times, and so well designed that it takes excellent pictures.

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December 10, 2007

Periscope House (May, 1947)

Filed under: Cool, Photography — @ 1:01 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1947

This is pretty awesome. Anyone know if it’s still around?

Periscope House

YOU walk across the green-lawned, palm-hemmed park overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California, and climb the stairs to the little house in the picture above. Your party gathers around a circular rail in the center, the door is closed and at first all is darkness.

Then, slowly and as if by magic, the scene you left outdoors a few minutes before appears on the revolvable table in front of you. Colors are perfectly natural. Strollers in the park move about, quite oblivious to their observers.

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