What is this? I am attaching a photo of what I think is an old piece of darkroom equipment. It was part of an old photographic studio I bought many years ago. I am selling most of the...

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

I am attaching a photo of what I think is an old piece of darkroom equipment. It was part of an old photographic studio I bought many years ago. I am selling most of the old items from that purchase but this was not something I was sure of its use. I think it was an adjustable easel base to correct perspective when making prints with converging lines. Since we have many older darkroom experienced members I am hoping one will know exactly what I have. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

It’s a balancing device for dog treats.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I’ve done that tilting easel trick myself and this could be an aid for a particular brand of easel that would mate with that dog bone shape.
I never got as anal as needing to know or dial in a specific degree of tilt though.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

If it was an easel support, why would one need the graduations on the foot or bottom piece? You could just use the tilt on the upper piece at any angle just by orienting the entire assembly, couldn’t you?

Stan

ClarkG Loc: Southern Indiana USA

I had an old darkroom years ago, and I don’t remember having any equipment that looked like that. Sorry!

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Is there a manufacturer name and maybe a model number on it?

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

I used that trick myself and that is why I thought that this was what it was used for especially if you needed to make several copies of the same negative.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Look like a very old pan/tilt head with top plate missing. Could also be part of a non-photographic instrument like a transit level or a surveyor's scope.

Darkroom? Well, on some older enlargers such as the Solar, and the Elwood, the base did have a perspective control build into it, but the set-screw type locking knob looks like it may be more of a camera/tripod thing.

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

StanMac wrote:

If it was an easel support, why would one need the graduations on the foot or bottom piece? You could just use the tilt on the upper piece at any angle just by orienting the entire assembly, couldn’t you?

Stan

I did see something on a tv program about forensic work and they use something like it to correct camera angle on a photo taken that oriented both tilt and angle of the camera for something they wanted corrected.

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

E.L.. Shapiro wrote:

Look like a very old pan/tilt head with top plate missing. Could also be part of a non-photographic instrument like a transit level or a surveyor's scope.

Darkroom? Well, on some older enlargers such as the Solar, and the Elwood, the base did have a perspective control build into it, but the set-screw type locking knob looks like it may be more of a camera/tripod thing.

When I bought the old studio it had an 8x10 Elwood enlarger, maybe that was part of it.

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

SuperflyTNT wrote:

Is there a manufacturer name and maybe a model number on it?

There is no manufacture name or any model number marked on it.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Two questions before I suggest an answer:

1) Does the knob turn the angle of the head, moving the pointer along the degree scale? You can't tell by the thumbnail what the scale reads either.

2) Does the scale on the base indicate 90 degrees at approximately 90 degrees?

Andy

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

AndyH wrote:

Two questions before I suggest an answer:

1) Does the knob turn the angle of the head, moving the pointer along the degree scale? You can't tell by the thumbnail what the scale reads either.

2) Does the scale on the base indicate 90 degrees at approximately 90 degrees?

Andy

Andy The knob locks the pointer in place after you move it. The degrees are 35 left or right. The scale on the base indicates 90 degrees and the start is directly under the pointer indicator that shows the degree tilt on the top. When turned upside down there is a female threaded post in the center. Looks like 1/4-20 threads. Hope this helps answer your question.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

I was going to go with the easel tilt explanation if the knob controlled the vertical axis movement, but I think you'd want a fine control to dial in the angle, rather than just a locking knob, making it more or less a floating ball head. If it supported a printing easel, I don't think you could get under it (while in use) in order to make fine adjustments. The apparent weight of it and the 90 degree rotation adjustment made me think that it was designed to hold some sort of enlarging easel, and the construction of the "dog bone" looks like it might mate with some attachment fixture on the bottom of the easel. It certainly seems designed to stably hold something rigid at a preset axis (one direction only though, which makes the easel sound plausible) and rotation.

That's still my best guess, but it doesn't look very easy to use in the intended use. Maybe that's why we've never seen one!

Andy

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

The Elwood 8x10 Enlarger was an extremely heavy machine and some of the models had a adjustments that allowed the enlargers lamp housing, negative stage, the bellows and lens board to be turned sideways so as to project the image on the wall to make photomurals. I recall the locking knob looking like the one in the image. There were also a number of othere adjustment to level the negative stage and tilt the lens board. In the attached ad, notice the remark about distortion correction.

The frame was made of cast iron. I don't know if that mechanism is strong enoug to support the upper part of that unit.

The 1/4 x 20 threaded socket makes it more likely to be a tilt head for an old camera stand or tripod. The vernier scale on the upper part of the unit may have been intended to coordinate with view camera movements.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Well, it measures tilt and rotation. Why would a photographer want to do that? And why wouldn't a manufacturer put the name and model on his products?