HENRY CLAY CAMERA
HINGED-BED DESIGN
WITH SET-SCREW
American
Optical Company, Scovill & Adams, Proprietors 1891?
- 1893
The Henry Clay Camera's
second design incorporated a hinged-bed,
and would be produced in at least two versions.
This first version, utilizing a disc-shaped lock to
secure the track, appears to have been made for a relatively short period based
on the number of surviving cameras equipped with it. This style is found in
Henry Clay advertisements, referred to as a "set-screw". In operation, the extension track would be
pulled forward, stopping at a factory-set brass detent on the folding bed. The disc
was then rotated, engaging a slot in the bed to secure the track extension:
Set-screw with locking slot on bed
Although the set-screw design appears
in Scovill's engravings as late as 1896 in Scovill's How to
Make Photographs, 1896, Scovill no doubt failed to update their ad engravings with
the new thumb screw design.
Early catalogue engravings for the Henry Clay Camera sliding-bed
design, depict the viewfinder mounted to the body, and most surviving examples
show the viewfinder mounted on top of the lens standard. In general, by the inception of the hinged-bed design,
viewfinders were now mounted to the lens board top where they would remain
thereafter. However, at least one Henry Clay hinged-bed example has been seen
with an inner side wall mounted viewfinder indicating there was a transition
period. The maker's ivoroid tag was now
affixed to the folding bed's interior.
For a Henry Clay Camera, the example shown here is rather
exceptional, having very nice leather covering, beautiful bellows and a very
rare pneumatic version of Scovill's Instantaneous
Lens and Shutter:
Pneumatic valve connection is visible
at the shutter's base
On the whole, surviving Henry Clay Cameras have generally
poor leather and are most often found with a Prosch Triplex Shutter or a Mathein (or Wale
& Mathein) Shutter. While Prosch shutters
are seen infrequently and the Mathein is rare in
itself, Scovill's Instantaneous Lens and Shutter in
either manual or pneumatic forms, is almost never seen. The pneumatic version of the Instantaneous
was offered as an option beginning in 1893 for an additional $5 over the $50
cost of a 5x7 Henry Clay Camera equipped with their "plain" (or
manual version) shutter. By 1894,
neither version of the Instantaneous was offered, having been replaced by the Mathein in catalogue engravings.
The Henry Clay Camera featured here has some provenance,
having been owned by Maude Gamble,
granddaughter
of James Gamble, co-founder of Proctor
& Gamble and the daughter of James Norris Gamble, Vice-President of
Proctor & Gamble and credited with creating the formula for Ivory
Soap. Her initials "M.G." are
stamped into the leather at top, along with the number "1891". Relatively little is known of her life or her
photographic pursuits.
The "1891" stamped next to Maud Gamble's initials is
speculated to be the date she acquired the camera. If so, it may suggest the advancement of production
timelines for both the Henry Clay Camera and Scovill's
Instantaneous Lens and Shutter. If the
date is accurate for this camera, then production of the previous Henry Clay Camera
sliding-bed design may not have extended into 1892. We know that the manual release version of Scovill's
Instantaneous Lens and Shutter was introduced by early 1892, appearing in Scovill's How to
Make Photographs, January, 1892, and that Washington Irving Adams'
patent for the shutter's design was filed on August 7, 1891:
Patent for Scovill's
Instantaneous Lens and Shutter Source:
Google Patents
As seen many times, production has occurred prior to the
issuance of a patent. Appearing in their
catalogue engravings by 1892, Scovill's Instantaneous
Lens and Shutter was being produced well in advance of the issuance of the
patent on March 26, 1895 and could conceivably have been made even prior to the
patent's filing on August 7, 1891.
There's also the possibility the shutter was added
later to this camera. However, the lens board has a unique cylindrical wooden mount
extension which provides more space between the shutter and the lens board to better
accommodate the pneumatic release valve. This mount appears factory and
purpose-built for this requirement, especially when comparing it to the Henry
Clay Camera sliding-bed design that's profiled in the book 500 Cameras, 170 Years of Photographic Innovation by Todd Gustavson. The book's example from the George
Eastman Museum's Technology Collection, is equipped with a manual version of Scovill's Instantaneous Lens and Shutter. This manual
shutter having no pneumatic mechanism on the casing's rear, is flush-mounted to
a flat lens board as no extension was needed. This, together with no evidence of tampering or makeshift
construction, strongly suggests that the shutter and its lens board extension
are original to the camera featured here:
Cylindrical
wooden mount extension
Pneumatic valve located behind the
shutter
Ad from W.P. Buchanan's 1893 Catalogue Source: The Internet Archive
This example is slightly larger than the standard Henry
Clay Camera to accommodate the use of a roll holder. These versions are easy to identify, having
two openings at the bottom to access the roll holder's controls:
Openings to access roll holder controls (this camera doesn't have a roll holder, and stored
plate holders are visible)
The camera's dimensions are 8-1/4" in height, 7-3/4"
in depth and 10-1/16" in width, versus the typical standard model's
dimensions being 8-3/8" in height, 6-1/4" in depth and 9-15/16" in
width. It should be noted that
variations in body dimensions and other features have been found among
surviving Henry Clay's, and I'll endeavor to provide this information for other
examples featured on this website.
Fleur-de-lis tooling
on the leather covering