Photography
Related: About this forumMy grandfather's "selfie" (circa 1898)
Last edited Sun Aug 30, 2015, 11:05 PM - Edit history (1)
When I was about 8 years old, I'd often ask my granddad, "Tell me about the olden days." He would always answer, "Well, let's bring out the photo albums."
When I saw this photo, I remember saying, "Granddad! That's YOU in the mirror!" He laughed and said, "Well, I wanted to do some experiments."
Thank you, everybody, for talking about scanning old photos. My brother was able to do this for me.
Does anybody know what kind of camera this is?
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)Cool bit of family history.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)It might be a Century or a Sanderson but the lens doesn't look quite right. There were a few manufacturers of field cameras back then. It looks to be 4x5 format, meaning the plates used were 4" by 5".
Believe it or not, they still make cameras like that one today.
Whoa_Nelly
(21,236 posts)Your granddad must have been pretty awesome
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)... A great big square old-fashioned camera with bellows. Or something like that. I had one of those back in the 1960's that my grandmother gave me. She called it a "viewing camera". I never actually used it. I preferred my black Bakelite Brownie Hawkeye.
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)Thanks.
sheshe2
(83,751 posts)Cool post~
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)TygrBright
(20,759 posts)NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)Yes the collars were said to be very very stiff.
indivisibleman
(482 posts)a series of what looks like group photos on the back wall and a very nice still life behind him.
colorado_ufo
(5,733 posts)I believe it is actually a type of lamp using natural gas, although I could be wrong.
hunter
(38,311 posts)... and had the unfortunate property of being poisonous because it contained carbon monoxide.
Wealthier people in areas beyond the reach of city gas lines used acetylene gas made by dropping calcium carbide pellets into water. Some of these gas generators were automatic, mechanically complex, and very dangerous if not properly maintained. Ordinary folk used kerosene lamps.
"Natural gas" (mostly methane) and "bottled gas" (propane and butane) were considered great safety innovations.
The typical 3/8 inch threaded electrical lamp fittings used today were standardized in a time when electrical lighting was replacing gas lighting and the new electrical wiring was threaded through the disconnected gas pipes.
I love old family photos like this, and I collect too many old cameras.
colorado_ufo
(5,733 posts)I grew up in New Orleans, so all the gas lamps there were with natural gas, which was plentiful.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)He took an interior of his home which had a big chandelier. We think by the early 1900's it might have been electrical. We call it the mystery photo. I will try to post this in my next group of "olden day" photos.
colorado_ufo
(5,733 posts)So handsome and intelligent looking, and what a moment preserved in time. It reminds me of the words in the McCartney song: "When we were young, and our hearts were an open book . . . "
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)He lived to be 92 and was pretty sharp until the last year.
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)1898 - wow
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)You would see the rubber tube going over to someone's hand.
Then there was the ultimate "selfie" I read about years ago where the guy had a camera set up on a tripod and next to it was a flash pan. It was the kind where a lit match would lower into the flash powder. The idea was to take the cover off of the lens in the dark of the basement and then back up a few steps and pull the string lowering the match into the flash powder.
Instead, the match flipped off it's rig and dropped into the can of flash powder.
The story ends with the description of a badly overexposed picture of a guy with his clothes blown to shreds.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)The old ones are just like a time machine... I wonder what will happen to all the digital ones from today's world?
colorado_ufo
(5,733 posts)I could almost picture myself able to step through the frame and have a conversation! I think he would be excited to tell me all about his camera.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)Wise, friendly, good natured--I imagine he would have loved talking to you.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)taken by the same photographer.
brer cat
(24,562 posts)A family treasure.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)Lots of scenes in "old" Brooklyn and NYC. Horses, big wheel bicycles, and Model T's mixed together. Family visiting Atlantic City dressed in extremely funny looking bathing suits.
hunter
(38,311 posts)left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)That shirt collar would have driven me nuts. I don't like anything around my neck. I suspect I was hung in a previous life.
(OK - no comments about me not being "hung" in this life)
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)I looked them up and apparently they are detachable.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)I knew there would be some camera experts to help me out. As I mentioned, I hope to be posting a few more choice oldies in the near future.
I loved looking at these books with him, like some children want the same favorite storybook to be read over and over.
An interesting conversation I had with him about the transportation system in the city: I was looking at the pictures of horses and horse drawn trolleys mixed in with the very early automobiles and bicycles and I said, "I wish we still had horses instead of cars!" (Like many young girls, I loved LOVED horses ). His answer to me was, "You don't want that. As a boy I would sit in the trolley and cringe at the way they would whip those poor horses. It was cruel. It helped the horses when the automobile was invented." I never forgot that.
midnight
(26,624 posts)NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)(my dad) became a teenager. Dad was born in 1914.
I never asked him what happened to his old camera. He had a huge walk-in attic with lots of little rooms with trunks of neat stuff, but I was most interested in looking at my grandmother's old-fashioned clothing. Never occurred to me to ask him about the camera.
By the time his 5 grandchildren came along, he seemed to just sit back and enjoy all the photos my parents would take of us. Really was into his grandchildren--Because of him, I developed a great interest in gardening and learning about barometers- weather, insects, and most of all birds. My grandparents no longer lived in the city, by that time.