1940 article on a 360 degree panorama camera
Toronto. … often meant starting over as perhaps the designer of this odd panorama camera did. The article in the December, 1940 issue of Popular Mechanics describes a clock-work camera that records a full 360 degree image in fifteen seconds on just six inches of 35mm film.
The camera is suggested as an alternative for the multi-snapshots taken by police at a crime scene. While the printing of the panorama is not mentioned, I imagine a full plate or 8×10 enlarger could handle the job.
I don’t recall ever seeing such a camera, although there were many practical cameras like the Cirkut series. Perhaps the resolution was an issue when using a half foot strip of 35mm film compared to those ‘snap-shots’ likely taken on far larger negative material using a flash gun on a Speed Graphic or similar camera.
As a youth I read such ideas in various Mechanics magazines. The ideas seldom appeared in stores as marketable concepts translated into actual items for purchase. While Popular Mechanics articles usually described workable concepts, Mechanics Illustrated was notorious for using implausible filler articles. One idea I recall was a means to ‘move’ the plane of focus into the film to ‘correct’ the focus after the photo was taken and processed. In that case the film was in a movie projector…
My sincere thanks to my good friend, George Dunbar, for sharing his research with us, especially on these ‘dog days’ of summer.
