Hegelein
John C. Hegelein of New York is known for only one camera, the Watch Camera, patented in 1894. As the name suggests, this is a miniature camera, fitted into a pocket-watch case.[1] The lens plate telescopes out on the front of a lens tube in seven nested sections. The camera uses plates or cut film, held in wooden double dark-slides. The plates and holders are rectangular, but the camera makes circular images.
McKeown states that the camera was marketed by E. & H.T. Anthony, the company that much later became Ansco,[2] as 'Anthony's Watch Camera'; however, in the example linked, the camera and dark-slides bear Hegelein's name and patent prominently.
Lancaster of Birmingham, England made a similar pocket-watch camera at about the same time, for rectangular plates. Lancaster's camera came in gentleman's and lady's models (the lady's camera taking slightly smaller plates).
Notes
- ↑ Hegelein Watch Camera, with double dark slides and packs of Carbutt's Eclipse film, sold (for €96,000) at the May 2011 Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna.
- ↑ McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p381-2.
Links
- US Patent 524142 (PDF, 177 kb) granted 1894 to John Hegelein, with dagrams of the camera and plate-holder; at Google Patents.
