c1951 Elmar enlarger lens by Leitz. Click it to see an ad for the 1c enlarger of the same period.
Toronto. Anyone wanting to see a magnified view of a small object would likely use a simple magnifying glass – just like Sherlock Holmes in the many Conan Doyle stories. Predating photography, a projector (magic lantern) projected an enlarged view of a glass plate’s drawing on a screen or wall for all to see.
Initially (and for much of the 1800s) a photographer chose his camera and lens to create the desired size of print. In an effort to enlarge images taken with a smaller camera, some people invented devices that used the sun as a light source and projected the negative on the rather slow photographic paper using what today would be a slow lens.
When Eastman began touting roll film in the later 1880s, a means to make decent enlargements became useful. And mid 1930s when the minicam craze blossomed, enlargers became mandatory. Negatives were often as tiny as 1 by 1.5 inches! Enlargers could increase the size of the final print by 10x magnification, and sometimes even more.
My good friend, George Dunbar, shared this advertisement for a Leitz 1c enlarger from page 20 of the October 1950 Popular Photography magazine. I did another post about the 1c back in January 2018 when the same ad appeared about a year later ( before the world was rocked by COVID-19).
The 1c’s basic design was often copied. Other enlargers like many Durst models automatically retained focus as the print magnification was changed. Durst used a pillar and fixed arm to also keep the print centred on the base board.
Of course, in the old days of view cameras and ground glass to focus, a nifty brass stand held a magnifying lens the correct distance from the ground glass to allow the photographer to move his lens and put the scene in sharp focus.
