THE POCO SHUTTER - SECOND MODEL

Gundlach Optical Company, Rochester, New York 1895

The second model of the POCO Shutter was introduced by mid-1895, appearing in Rochester Camera Manufacturing Company's Catalogue and Price List of Photographic Apparatus, June, 1895.

It followed the original POCO Shutter, designed by Henry H. Turner of Rochester, New York, a machinist who later became president of the Gundlach Optical Company. Patent No. 520,198 was granted to Turner on May 22, 1894 and was assigned to the Gundlach Optical Company.

With its uniquely styled speed selector and a beautifully etched casing, this model marks the beginning of a period when Gundlach shutters were highly adorned. As shown in Rochester Camera Manufacturing's catalogue below, this second model was available with a pneumatic release as well. Notation of the May 22,1894 patent date carried forward, stamped on the base of the speed selector.

In 1896, the company's name changed to the Rochester Camera Company. The shutter no longer appears in the new company's catalogue, having been replaced by the third model of the POCO Shutter.

Like several other shutters from this era that were produced for a year or less, the second model of the POCO Shutter is rarely encountered today.

Second model POCO Shutter with pneumatic release, shown on a Rochester Camera Manufacturing Company Poco Camera

Second model POCO Shutter with pneumatic release, shown on a Rochester Camera Manufacturing Company Poco Camera

Second model POCO Shutter with manual release

From Rochester Camera Manufacturing Company's June, 1895 catalogue showing the POCO Shutter, second model with a pneumatic release

Image courtesy of Pacific Rim Camera