{"id":33013,"date":"2025-12-22T01:03:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T05:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=33013"},"modified":"2025-12-21T18:59:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T22:59:39","slug":"pottering-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/pottering-about\/","title":{"rendered":"pottering about …"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Rapid Rectilinear lenses from Mike Robinson’s<\/a> collection<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. A small subset of PHSC members who collect cameras also collect microscopes. For example, the late Ron Walker collected Zeiss cameras and old microscopes. At some point in time, I noted Chas. Potter (Toronto) as a microscope maker. Ron did some research on the establishment and suggested it was a retail operation that re-badged European or American microscopes, cameras, lenses etc., for sale.<\/p>\n

A short while later the journal issue 26-1 carried an update to an issue 25-1 article. The 26-1 update is titled “Canadian Marked Lenses” and sets out to clarify Bill Belier’s column in 25-1 which discussed whether lenses in the 19th century were made here.<\/p>\n

The update begins, “Bill Belier\u2019s column in our May\/June\u00a01999 issue describing a lens with a Hearn\u00a0<\/i>& Harrison, Montreal <\/i>marking, and Bob\u00a0Wilson\u2019s study of that optical company\u2019s\u00a0Canadian history, caused us to wonder\u00a0what other lenses might similarly have\u00a0Canadian markings.<\/p>\n

“Andrew Birrell of the National\u00a0Archives of Canada wrote in 1978:\u00a0<\/span>\u2026there remains a yawning gap in information about the hardware supply industry in\u00a0Canada. By this I mean the manufacture\u00a0and sale of cameras, chemicals, plates,\u00a0films and other photographic supplies.<\/p>\n

“Naturally this industry never reached the\u00a0proportions here that it did in the United\u00a0States and Europe, but surely there must\u00a0have been some inventive individuals or\u00a0industrious types who attempted to make\u00a0their fortunes in this fashion rather than\u00a0taking photographs. We know of the efforts\u00a0of John Connon, William Notman and\u00a0James Inglis, but there must have been others. If readers know of any I would be\u00a0delighted to hear of them.<\/p>\n

“It is still unknown when it was first possible to purchase a camera that was commercially made in Toronto but Charles Potter and Augustus F. Potter, opticians and instrument dealers, advertised photographic apparatus for sale in the 1860s. It seems likely that Augustus was a camera manufacturer while Charles teamed up with William Hearn and supplied surveying equipment for the H.Y. Hind 1858 expedition to the\u00a0Assiniboine and Saskatchewan districts.<\/p>\n

“They could have made photo equipment as\u00a0early as the 1850s but conclusive evidence\u00a0is lacking. \u2013 Lilly Koltun.\u00a0An advertisement in the August 1892\u00a0issue of The Canadian Photographic\u00a0<\/i>Journal <\/i>indicates that C. Potter at 31 King\u00a0Street East was selling off his cameras and\u00a0Rapid Rectilinear lenses at less than cost.\u00a0Was it the same Charles Potter closing out?<\/p>\n

“In the same CPJ issue photo dealer\u00a0Mulholland & Sharpe <\/i>on Bay Street in\u00a0their advertisement (pg. 165) list for sale a\u00a05 x 8 camera, complete with holders, a\u00a0Potter R.R. lens and shutter <\/i>for a reduced\u00a0price of $23.50. Such an inscribed lens\u00a0would be a\u00a0pleasure to\u00a0locate today.” …<\/p>\n

Members read all the update and viewed the illustrations in the 26-1 pdf file on the free members-only DVD\/thumb drive. See above and at right to join. Any membership questions may be sent to member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those searching for old lenses and microscopes should check our 2026 events. Confirmed events will be posted in the right hand sidebar. A post will be pinned up a few weeks before each event to provided details. Lots of old lenses (and the occasional microscope) pop up at our events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. A small subset of PHSC members who collect cameras also collect microscopes. For example, the late Ron Walker collected Zeiss cameras and old microscopes. At some point in time, I noted Chas. Potter (Toronto) as a microscope maker. Ron … 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":[4632,34,279,4840],"class_list":["post-33013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-articles","tag-cameras","tag-lenses","tag-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33013","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=33013"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33018,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33013\/revisions\/33018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}