drawing of the Eastman (Kodak) Automatic Shutter which was affixed to many of the company’s simple box cameras.
Toronto. For much of the 20th century, Kodak and photography were synonymous. By the mid 20th century Kodak was among the biggest – if not the biggest – in the industry, world-wide. Home base was Kodak Park in Rochester.
George Dunbar, in his pursuit of photographic history came across this remarkable site in Rochester, run by the Rochester Public Library, and graciously chose to share it with us. Amongst many things on the site are a number of Kodak ‘trade’ catalogues. Have a browse and see why Kodak became such a force in photography.
The sound and action of the Eastman Automatic Shutter shown at left may be familiar to many of you (Topaz Photo AI was used to enlarge the drawing and resulted in some rather weird edges and screw heads). The catalogue describes the shutter operation as follows, “To make a snapshot, press down lever”B” [top left unmarked lever]. To make a time exposure: press down lever ” A ” once to open, and again to close the shutter. That’s all there is to operating the Eastman Automatic Shutter. It is always set.
“The lever “C ” operates the [lens] stops, of which there are three.”
As a child, many of us remember the shutter moving back and forth as the lever “B” was pressed over and over. One press was all that was needed to create about a 1/15 second exposure on the film.
