1922 #8 Cirkut Camera

Cirkut cameras came into being in the early 1900's. They were made by the Folmer and Schwing Division of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. (I think there's a whole lot more to the story, but that's all I really know!) The camera is made of mahogany and the bellows are made of red leather. The entire outside of the camera body is covered in black leather. All glides, catches, screws and rails are made of brass. The lens used on this particular camera is a 'convertible' type. That means that the optics can be rearranged to give two different focal lengths - 11" and 18" on my camera.

The camera rotates on a turntable-style tripod head made of cast aluminum with small brass wheels which roll smoothly (hopefully) on a polished chrome disc as the camera rotates. Surrounding the tripod head is a large planetary gear into which the smaller drive gear fits into. The drive gear is of a specific number of teeth which relates the focal length of the lens and the distance the lens is focused at to the advancement rate of the film. Choosing this gear properly is critical to the success of the photograph.

 

Each focal length lens generally has a set of three gears with it to accomodate different focusing distances. The gear is driven by a wind up clock -type mechanism which is built into the back of the camera. The exposure is controlled by varying the speed of this motor via an amazing governor system that I cannot do justice in describing. Exposures on my camera can be set from 1/2 second to 1/12th of a second. (for those really bright days!) The film is pulled by the same motor, past a slit in the back of the camera where the lens is focused to. This is where gear selection is critical, the film must be pulled at exactly the same speed as the the rotation of the camera in order for the image to be sharply recorded on the film. The film is taken up on a large drum inside the camera, this drum has a clutch system between it and the very strong motor which is controlled by way of a thumb screw. The clutch can be allowed to loosen when rewinding the film and may prevent damage to the motor should the film jam or the drum become stuck while the camera is in motion.

Film for my camera is 8 inches wide by 5 feet long and resembles a very large roll of 220 size film. It can be loaded in the daylight as it has a paper leader which is light tight. I prefer to load the camera in the dark or a change bag as I find the edges tend to fog even in subdued light. The exposure is started and stopped by a mechanical hand switch on the back of the camera. This switch removes a leather 'brake' from the motor system which allows rotation and also opens the slit that covers the film plane. The camera is allowed to rotate as long as the photographer wishes and is stopped by once again flipping the switch which brakes the motor and closes the slit to end the exposure. If left to rotate, the camera is capable of taking 360 degree photographs without edge distortion or perspective problems on a single roll of film.

Development of the film is done in large trays that I had specially fabricated solely for this purpose. The film still available from Kodak is Vericrome Pan which I develop in HC-110 diluted one part of concentrate to 100 parts water (one shot). The trays need 10L of chemical to cover the film adequately, I store the stop and fix in 10L gas containers as commercially available photo containers will only hold 4L (at best). The negatives are dried in my shower stall overnight and contact printed onto 8" black and white paper which I buy in 275 foot rolls. I have been unsuccessful in purchasing colour film to this point. Kodak Canada is being very co-operative with my requests and I am confident that I will be taking colour cirkut images this summer.