a c1895 UNICUM shutter on a POCO camera. Included is a Rapid Rectilinear lens.
Toronto. Up until dry plates became common, camera shutters were simply unnecessary. Timing could be easily set by holding something like a dark hat over the lens then briefly removing and replacing it.
Once dry plates and later film became established, sub-second exposures in bright light became common and shutters began to appear on cameras. A typical shutter is the UNICUM shown at left. The shutter usually surrounded a lens like the Rapid Rectilinear shown here.
This shutter was provided on a c1895 POCO glass plate camera (sans the name button). Other versions of the UNICUM are engraved as ‘Bausch & Lomb’ around the speed setting dial. UNICUM shutters appeared from a decade or two before 1900 to a couple of decades after. The Bausch & Lomb engraving showed up shortly before the year 1900 as far as I can tell. The linked page in line one above includes a Rochester Camera & Supply Co. catalogue (POCO link on the linked page. That link is repeated for your convenience).
Visit our PHSC EVENTS (see list at right). Lots of items for your collection will be shown – possibly a POCO camera or a UNICUM shutter! Next up is our spring auction on May 4th – in about three weeks from now.
