mjp
Founding member
I'm a fan of stereo photography; those old stereo cards from the mid to late 1800s. I have a box full of them and a couple of the old wooden viewers. I even made some of my own stereo photos when I had a darkroom.
But I also like View-Master reels, which work on the same principal. The old reels are really something. They were made mainly as up-to-the-minute images of American cities and parks, but now that many of them are 60+ years old they are like little time capsules. I have a stack of Los Angeles reels here that capture a long gone city - in 3D! Ha.
But Sawyer, the company that made View-Master (before GAF bought them out in 1966 and changed the focus from travel and "cities of the world" to kid's entertainment) also made a lot of story reels. Fairy tales, versions of popular cartoons and whatnot, but they made them in 3D, using little clay sculptures. Some of these, especially the old "Sam Sawyer" reels, are like art. Really worth looking at if you're ever around a freak who has some.
Anyway, I'm posting this because I recently bought two New Old Stock Bakelite View-Master Model E's from the late 50s, and we opened the boxes tonight. It was pretty weird being the first people to pull the brand new viewers out of the boxes they were put into 50+ years ago. They are things of beauty, if you believe in industrial design having an aesthetic quality. I should probably carefully put them back into the boxes and stick them in a time capsule somewhere, but we're going to use them instead. To replace the newer plastic ones.
New Old Stock is a weird and marvelous thing, no matter what he new old stock happens to be. I recently built a 60s style fuzz pedal using some NOS 60s germanium transistors, and they just make a sound that can't be replicated by modern parts. It breaks up more when they are warm (!) so on a hot day the pedal sounds different that it does on a cold day.
This is all apropos of nothing, but there you have it.
But I also like View-Master reels, which work on the same principal. The old reels are really something. They were made mainly as up-to-the-minute images of American cities and parks, but now that many of them are 60+ years old they are like little time capsules. I have a stack of Los Angeles reels here that capture a long gone city - in 3D! Ha.
But Sawyer, the company that made View-Master (before GAF bought them out in 1966 and changed the focus from travel and "cities of the world" to kid's entertainment) also made a lot of story reels. Fairy tales, versions of popular cartoons and whatnot, but they made them in 3D, using little clay sculptures. Some of these, especially the old "Sam Sawyer" reels, are like art. Really worth looking at if you're ever around a freak who has some.
Anyway, I'm posting this because I recently bought two New Old Stock Bakelite View-Master Model E's from the late 50s, and we opened the boxes tonight. It was pretty weird being the first people to pull the brand new viewers out of the boxes they were put into 50+ years ago. They are things of beauty, if you believe in industrial design having an aesthetic quality. I should probably carefully put them back into the boxes and stick them in a time capsule somewhere, but we're going to use them instead. To replace the newer plastic ones.
New Old Stock is a weird and marvelous thing, no matter what he new old stock happens to be. I recently built a 60s style fuzz pedal using some NOS 60s germanium transistors, and they just make a sound that can't be replicated by modern parts. It breaks up more when they are warm (!) so on a hot day the pedal sounds different that it does on a cold day.
This is all apropos of nothing, but there you have it.