{"id":30978,"date":"2025-03-11T01:03:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T05:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=30978"},"modified":"2025-03-09T23:22:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T03:22:47","slug":"the-eye-looker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/the-eye-looker\/","title":{"rendered":"the eye looker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

an interesting little optical device c1901<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. Camera collectors often included various odd looking optical items in their collection. In the late 1980s, I was browsing antique stores, junk sales, etc. for interesting items.<\/p>\n

In one case, a little girl stood guard over a road side table of odds and ends including a small brass tube with openings on each side and an eye piece. “What’s that?” I enquired. “An eye looker”<\/em> she replied. Intrigued, I bought the unsigned little brass tube. It was a low power ‘magnifier’ with side openings for a perhaps small bug? a bit of flower? a Stanhope pasted to the smooth block of glass? \u00a0another tiny positive image? A ‘condenser’ at the bottom illuminated the block of glass.<\/p>\n

The image for this post is the journal photo, of a nickel plated version of the magnifier, upsized with Topaz Photo AI and enhanced with that software and \u00a0Focus Magic, then re-sized with Affinity Photo.<\/p>\n

About a decade later, Everett included an article in issue 22-2. Ev titled his illustrated article, “A <\/span>Mys<\/span>tery w<\/span>ithin an E<\/span>nigma<\/em>“. It described an almost identical item labelled “P<\/i><\/span>an-A<\/i><\/span>m<\/i><\/span>erican <\/i><\/span>Exposition <\/i>1<\/i><\/span>90<\/i><\/span>1<\/i><\/span><\/a>, <\/i><\/span>Bu<\/i><\/span>ffa<\/i><\/span>l<\/i><\/span>o,\u00a0<\/i><\/span>N. <\/i><\/span>Y. <\/i><\/span>Pr<\/i><\/span>i<\/i>c<\/i><\/span>e <\/i>$1.00″<\/i> [one or two days pay in 1901].\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Ev wrote, “This <\/span>souveni<\/span>r, <\/span>in<\/span>scri<\/span>bed\u00a0P<\/i><\/span>an<\/i><\/span>a<\/i><\/span>m<\/i><\/span>erican<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/i><\/span>Exposition <\/i>1<\/i><\/span>90<\/i><\/span>1<\/i><\/span>, <\/i><\/span>Bu<\/i><\/span>ffa<\/i><\/span>l<\/i><\/span>o,\u00a0<\/i><\/span>N. <\/i><\/span>Y. <\/i><\/span>Pr<\/i><\/span>i<\/i><\/span>c<\/i><\/span>e <\/i><\/span>$1.00<\/i><\/span>, <\/i><\/span>i<\/span>s a form <\/span>of S<\/span>tanhope.\u00a0(Char<\/span>l<\/span>es <\/span>St<\/span>anh<\/span>ope, Chevenin<\/span>g, <\/span>Engl<\/span>and<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>ca. <\/span>1829). It <\/span>was <\/span>fo<\/span>und <\/span>in <\/span>a box <\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>mi<\/span>scell<\/span>an<\/span>eou<\/span>s it<\/span>em<\/span>s belonging <\/span>t<\/span>o the <\/span>l<\/span>at<\/span>e [photographer]\u00a0B<\/span>rodi<\/span>e Whit<\/span>el<\/span>aw.<\/p>\n

“Th<\/span>e <\/span>cylinder <\/span>is <\/span>nicke<\/span>l pl<\/span>a<\/span>te<\/span>d a<\/span>nd the\u00a0<\/span>ex<\/span>pl<\/span>o<\/span>de<\/span>d view <\/span>revea<\/span>l<\/span>s <\/span>its <\/span>co<\/span>ns<\/span>truction. It\u00a0is <\/span>46 <\/span>mm l<\/span>o<\/span>ng and <\/span>21 <\/span>mm diameter.\u00a0The <\/span>magnifying eye<\/span>piece <\/span>i<\/span>s <\/span>cemented\u00a0t<\/span>o a <\/span>block of <\/span>glass w<\/span>ith <\/span>a 7 <\/span>mm <\/span>s<\/span>qu<\/span>are\u00a0<\/span>p<\/span>oli<\/span>sh<\/span>ed <\/span>surf<\/span>ace at it<\/span>s focus. <\/span>S<\/span>om<\/span>ethin<\/span>g\u00a0mu<\/span>s<\/span>t <\/span>have been mounted o<\/span>n thi<\/span>s (a\u00a0<\/span>co<\/span>ll<\/span>o<\/span>di<\/span>o<\/span>n image?) <\/span>for <\/span>v<\/span>iew<\/span>ing. <\/span><\/p>\n

“At <\/span>the\u00a0o<\/span>ppos<\/span>i<\/span>te e<\/span>nd is a <\/span>la<\/span>rge<\/span>r le<\/span>ns <\/span>mounte<\/span>d in <\/span>a\u00a0<\/span>tubul<\/span>a<\/span>r <\/span>insert w<\/span>hi<\/span>c<\/span>h <\/span>is <\/span>pi<\/span>e<\/span>rc<\/span>e<\/span>d <\/span>with four\u00a0<\/span>peculiarly s<\/span>h<\/span>ape<\/span>d <\/span>a<\/span>pertur<\/span>es; <\/span>these d<\/span>o <\/span>n<\/span>o<\/span>t\u00a0<\/span>coin<\/span>cide with <\/span>th<\/span>e singl<\/span>e simil<\/span>ar <\/span>ap<\/span>ertur<\/span>e\u00a0in <\/span>the <\/span>out<\/span>er tub<\/span>e. <\/span>Th<\/span>e lar<\/span>ger l<\/span>en<\/span>s i<\/span>s\u00a0obv<\/span>io<\/span>us<\/span>ly <\/span>to <\/span>illumina<\/span>te <\/span>th<\/span>e <\/span>ob<\/span>jec<\/span>t o<\/span>n th<\/span>e\u00a0<\/span>po<\/span>lis<\/span>he<\/span>d s<\/span>urf<\/span>ace.<\/span><\/p>\n

“R<\/span>obert <\/span>Ca<\/span>rt<\/span>er h<\/span>as a si<\/span>mil<\/span>ar<\/span>,\u00a0un-<\/span>inscribed, brass device e<\/span>qu<\/span>a<\/span>ll<\/span>y\u00a0<\/span>enigmati<\/span>c.\u00a0<\/span>Who <\/span>pro<\/span>duced it<\/span>? <\/span>Wha<\/span>t was <\/span>th<\/span>e\u00a0<\/span>purpose of <\/span>the a<\/span>p<\/span>ert<\/span>ur<\/span>es? <\/span>Wh<\/span>at was <\/span>the\u00a0obj<\/span>ect to be <\/span>seen<\/span>?\u00a0$ <\/span>1.00 was <\/span>a <\/span>fa<\/span>ir s<\/span>um in <\/span>1901.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. Camera collectors often included various odd looking optical items in their collection. In the late 1980s, I was browsing antique stores, junk sales, etc. for interesting items. In one case, a little girl stood guard over a road side … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[2017,1167,1731,576],"class_list":["post-30978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-article","tag-magnifier","tag-optical","tag-photographic-canadiana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30978"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30983,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978\/revisions\/30983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}