Duplex Ruby Reflex from 1913 BJA advertisement
Toronto. I often wondered what happened to the pre-eminent British camera maker, Thornton-Pickard. By the time I became interested in old cameras, we occasionally saw a small box with a shutter. The box attached to the front of a lens (or sometimes behind) offering I (about 1/25th) and T (time) so old cameras could use the newish dry plates of the day.
My only experience with T-P was handling a Ruby camera in my local camera shop as a kid. I had no idea the maker was T-P although the owner of the camera was a British photographer cum Canadian retailer.
In issue 24-5, Ev Roseborough gives a two page writeup on “Thornton-Pickard – The All British Camera Makers” using the company’s 38 page ‘catalogue’ in the 1913 BJ Almanac.
Ev’s article begins, “Thornton–Pickard Manufacturing Company was formed when Edgar Pickard joined the Thornton Mfg. Co. in 1888. Altrincham, England was also home of the Altrincham Rubber Co. which could supply rubberized fabric and pneumatic balls upon which the best selling T–P roller-blind, time and instantaneous shutter depended. 1892 saw their first focal-plane shutter.
“When an aerial camera was needed by the British government in 1915, T–P designed and produced the great wooden box in a matter of days, followed by the Mark III Hythe camera used to train RAF machine gunners.
“The Almanac of the British Journal of Photography was a great barometer of manufacturing. Its advertising pages reliably told when a product was introduced or disappeared from the market. The Almanac displayed 38 full pages of T–P equipment in 1913, a single page in 1917, and a last ad in 1936. Financial difficulties caused the demise in 1940 [ww2 broke out in 1939].
“Thornton-Pickard had joined with APM (APeM), Amalgamated Photographic Manufacturing Ltd., of London in the early ‘20s and ten years later, with Soho Ltd. These companies made metal roll holders, Rajar rollfilm, the Soho Reflex camera, Paget self-toning paper, Marion plates and Rajar bromide paper, studio equipment and Boardman arc lamps. Even these excellent connections could not save Thornton-Pickard.” …
Members could read all of the story in the 24-5 pdf file on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. See above “MEMBERSHIP’ or right ‘Membership’ to join. Email any questions to Lilianne at member@phsc.ca.
See our 2025 events at right. Coming this autumn is our Fall Fair on October 19th. Poster with details will go up a few weeks before the fair date.
