Murray & Heath 8.5 x 17

In 1832, Charles Wheatstone commissioned Murray & Heath to build two versions of his pioneering stereoscope. With the explosion in popularity of stereo photography in the 1850s, they began producing Brewster style stereoscopes. Features of the Murray & Heath designs were ornate stands (of which I do not have one for this viewer) and a unique removable lens panel for easy cleaning of the optics.

Unlabeled 8.5 x 17

On the basis of objective size, it would be easy to assume this is a 45 x 107 viewer, but in fact it happily swallows stereo cards or 8.5 x 17 glass slides. The enormous lenses are great in that they cover the full extent of 8.5 x 17 slides. As is common for viewers of his type/era, there is no maker's name anywhere on the viewer.

Unlabeled 8.5 x 17

Imagine any product today not carrying some form of brand identity. Although covered with a nice burl veneer, this is not an especially high quality viewer. The small lenses make it hard to see all of image. As is typical for all large viewers, there is a flap with a mirror mounted inside. This is used to reflect light onto cards. Glass plates, of course, are lighted from behind.

Stereoscope, Verascope Richard Fancy 45 x 107

Not surprisingly, viewers were made with innumerable variations in both style, and quality. The cheapest hand held viewers were constructed from card stock, with simple fixed lenses. At the top of the range, one could have fully adjustable optics and fancy marquetry or hand painted housings. Today, by far the most commonly seen 45 x 107 viewers are made from solid mahogany, making this example of a marquetry housing quite unusual. Unlike the larger 6 x 13 and 8.5 x 17 viewers of the period, 45 x 107 viewers do not include a mirrored flap for viewing reflective materials.

Stereoscope, Verascope Richard 6 x 13

Adapting the eye pieces from a Taxiphote to a small handheld viewer may seem clever, but it makes for a heavy, unbalanced unit. It may have been possible to swap in a pair of transposing prism units, thus giving the viewer a dual use capability for regular transparencies and untransposed Autochromes. Later Taxiphotes used a quick change system for the objective lenses, although I have not seen a hand held viewer with this feature. I have seen photos of this style with a mirror flap on top for viewing prints.

Stereoscope, Verascope Richard 45 x 107

If the 6 x 13 viewer was a little front heavy, this smaller unit is downright unbalanced. The inter ocular adjustment seems hardly worthwhile on a viewer such as this. I don't know how many were made, but could imagine the numbers being small. The location of the maker's label follows typical Richard practice. On the surface it seems to be on the bottom, but when holding the viewer, it is presented to the eyes. With the inter ocular adjustment lever sticking out top and bottom, these viewers are meant to be set down with the lenses pointed up.

Unis, France 6 x 13

I would call this a semi-deluxe viewer. The beveled corners and interocular adjustment ar e more costly features, although the wood itself is plain mahogany. The mirror flap is typical of 6 x 13 viewer models, although I've never seen any reflective viewing materials in this size. Commercially produced cards are typically in the 8.5 x 17 format.

Unis, France 6 x 13

Why the extended eyepieces, I don't know. They are held in place by a simple bayonet mount, so perhaps the viewer was designed to allow interchangeable focal length lenses. The overly ornate inter ocular distance scale is distinctive, but accomp lishes little on a viewer of this sort. On the basis of mass alone, this is not a particularly fine or expensive viewer.

Ica 6 x 13

The bulk of late nineteenth/early twentieth century stereo equipment was of French origin. Ica, later absorbed by Zeiss Ikon, was an exception. This fairly typical middle of the road viewer came along with a set of slides. It's now my "daily driver" for reviewing slides. I saw a minty boxed example on Ebay some time back, and it sold for pretty good money. In this condition it's nothing special.

Negretti & Zambra folding 45 x 107

It's likely this unusual folding viewer was in fact made by Richard. I have seen photos of an apparently identical example with Verascope labeling. Knowing Negretti & Zambra commonly sold private label products, it is easy to assume they bought and relabeled this unit. Although collapsible, the viewer possesses advanced features li ke interocular adjustment and focusing lenses. The hinged metal cover on the back folds up and over the top to act as a glare shield. To collapse the viewer for storage, first the lens board is folded down over the bed, then the bed folds up effectively encasing the lenses. While I'm sure this was seen as a very clever device, in practice it's a little awkward to use, and when folded it is not much smaller than a simple wooden box type 45 x 107 viewer.

Le Glyphoscope 45 x 107

Ever the inventive marketer, shortly after bringing his Verascope camera and 45 x 107mm format to market, Jules Richard realized he needed a more affordable solution. Le Glyphoscope was the answer. Made from cheaper materials, it combined a camera and viewer in one unit. A removable shut ter panel allowed the d evice to be used as a camera, and a special plate holder with built in diffuser replaced the normal light tight negative plate holders for slide viewing. Although a clever idea, as with most compromises, it was generally better in concept than in use. To see the Glyphoscope in camera guise, have a look at my stereo camera section. It's interesting to note how little area of the lenses is actually utilized by the shutter panel.

Verascope Transposing

Autochrome color images were typically contact printed untransposed. This means the left and right hand images were reversed. The only way to view such images was either to cut the glass apart and swap the left and right hand frames, or use a transposing viewer. The odd looking drop down eye pieces contain prisms which flip the images. A lthough it worked well enough, the objective size is quite small, making it necessary to move the eyes around to see the whole view. The Autochrome emulsion was fragile, so images were typically bound in glass. This viewer has an extra wide slot to accept the thicker views. I suspect here were relatively few made.

L' Homeos Richard

The Homeos camera of 1913 was one of, if not the first, 35mm film cameras to reach production. Richard's cameras and accessories were all centered around glass plates. The advent of roll film meant specia l viewers and printers had to be designed to accompany the camera. While one could shoot modern film in the camera, the viewer requires transposed prints. I suppose it would be possible to use the Homeos printer with modern transparency film to make transposed copies to used in this viewer...but then again I could also convert my house from electricity to kerosene lanterns. Some things just aren't worth the effort. Maybe after I win the lottery and retire.

Verascope 40

Just prior to WWII, Richard introduced the Verascope F40. This camera pointed the way to modern (meaning post war) style 7 perforation European format stereo film cameras. The "40" viewer used a modified Taxiphote lens board, combined with a simple film transport mechanism and transposing prisms. With the advent of Kodachrome film, i t was no longer necessary to make contact prints. A transposing viewer could directly view the uncut film. The early ones like this example were made with a wood body. Later models are made from bakelite, or some other similar hard plastic material.

Belcaskop

Although not a particularly fine viewer, the Belcaskop at least had the advantage of being designed from the outset to handle European format photos. Designed to accompany the Belplasca camera, this viewer also would have been handy for images from the Verascope f40, and early 7 perf Iloca cameras.

Realist Red Button

One contributing factor in the success of Seton Rochwite and the Realist system was his combination of a useful camera AND a well designed viewer. Self illuminated by a pair of D cells, the Red Button viewer has focus and inter ocular adjustments. Pressing the round red button (hence its name) illuminates the slide. With the application of a little American know how, and a Dremel tool, These 5 perf Realist format viewers can be opened out to handle full frame 8 perf RBT 24 x 33 mounts. While they are less common, 110v conversion units also exist. The Red Button is the most versatile of all the 50s era viewers.

Realist White Button

Guess what they call this one? Oh, never mind. There were also some made with black buttons, which I believe came near the end. Supposedly, the white button viewer has simpler lenses, but I've never really tri ed to compare it side by side with other viewers.

Realist Green Button

Its the Jimmy Neutron Space Viewer. Well, not really, but it sure looks funky. When Kodak upgraded their first generation viewer, David White had to respond wi th an AC/DC model to match. Although the green button looks unique, it is a little heavy and awkward in use. The red button viewer could be converted to AC power, and was probably a better choice.

Realist Gold Button

The least common of the Realist battery viewers is the gold button model. Designed to work wi th the Realist Macro Stereo camera, the gold button featured a greater degree of magnification (7x) than its cousins. Although it can be used with standard 5 perf images, the high magnification makes it necessary to move around in relation to the eye pieces to see the entire image. Realist Macro images were smaller and make best use of the high magnification.

Kodak Kodaslide II

Back in the days before the US government decided Kodak was a threat to the American way, they were a fierce competitor. Coming from left field, the Realist caught everyone napping. Kodak quickly resp onded with a line of inexpensive stereo products and stole the market. The Kodaslide I viewer suffered from having only plain lenses, but the Kodaslide II had achromats and AC/DC power. It was ergonomically superior, and suffered only one minor flaw - the focus mechanism is friction based and ceases to function after the viewer sits in a closet for 40 years.

Revere 22

As may be seen, the Revere and Wollensak viewers are clearly based on the same design. The Revere version is quite attractive in cream and brown, but the glue holding the logo onto the button tends to give up. Today, probably half the Revere 22 viewers out there are missing their logo. Image area was better than the Realist Red Button, making them usable for European format images, although there is slight cropping at the edges.

Wollensak 11

Wollensak had been selling under the Revere name, but waited t oo lo ng before introducing premium Wollensak branded products. Consequently, Wollensak cameras and viewers are far less common than Revere. While there are distinct differences between the cameras, the viewers are mechanicaly the same, just in slightly different packages.

Sterling Stereo

Marketed under the Sterling and Busch names. this is another typical battery powered viewer. The lenses could be focused individually, which is th e used car salesman's way of saying there was no movable lens board. Like the Wollensak, it had slightly wider coverage and could be used for 7 perf viewing.

De Wijs Combi Viewer

The De Wijs is a cleverly designed and beautifully executed modern viewer, convertible between Realist and 2x2 mounts. Large 50mm lenses give this viewer the ability to comfortably encompass 8 perf slides. It also has a set of 45mm lenses which give greater magnification, although at the expense of slight corner clipping.