Category Archives: history

the way we were

Posted on January 20, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Back on July 1st, 2017 Alice Evans wrote an article featuring photographs from 1867 and a few years later to show how we looked around confederation. The photos and article appeared in the Daily Mail. The title of the … Continue reading →

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brass monkey time

Posted on January 18, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. On January 8th, the Insauga website had an interesting article by Don Redmond titled, “Can Niagara Falls ever fully freeze over?“. Ignore the many, many ads and instead read the words and see the photos. We had a speaker … Continue reading →

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a colourful projection 

Posted on January 17, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Most of you don’t remember seeing colour slides let alone colour projectors. I used to buy the Kodak frames to hold self-developed 35mm transparencies by Agfa (colour slides) in those pre-carousel days. A household  iron sealed the each Kodak … Continue reading →

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miracle projector

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. The toy advertised back in November, 1949 was hardly a new invention since opaque projectors had been around for decades. This dinky little box sat on a picture about 3×4 inches and  projected it on a screen a few … Continue reading →

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pixilated

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Can you imagine a “fine precision camera” for only $6.25 US including a roll of colour film, shipping and all taxes? No? I can’t either, but that is what the makers claimed in this  July, 1949 ad. The cheap … Continue reading →

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a brighter view

Posted on January 12, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. One issue that Kodak likely had with its folders and box cameras was tiny, dim, viewers. Kodak solved this problem in many ways. One was advertised in the April, 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics – a TLR with a … Continue reading →

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Alfred the editor

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Any photo historian worth his salt knows about the great American photographer Alfred Stieglitz. In the late 1800s Stieglitz returned from Europe and settled again in NYC. He combined the two existing camera clubs in NYC and took over … Continue reading →

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discovering photo history

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Our photo historian, George Dunbar, found another interesting site in his pursuit of photographic history through old magazine articles and advertisements. The site includes many issues of an early 1900s magazine called “Photographic Topics”. George writes, “Some great, old … Continue reading →

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the dangers of random sparks

Posted on January 4, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. As a youth, I once took a winter course and stayed at the King Edward in downtown Toronto. My leather soles scraped along the corridor carpets building up a spectacular static discharge when I came close to metal – … Continue reading →

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brave new camera

Posted on January 2, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. In the 1920s after losing the great war (WW1), Germany suffered a massive bout of inflation and depression. The Ernst Leitz optical house in Wetzlar had mainly made microscopes, objectives, eye pieces, accessories, and the occasional other optical item … Continue reading →

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