nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

I'm an old retired printer.
It is a graphics arts camera, a real old one, also called a process camera. The film holder is built into the wall of the darkroom, the other end is the copyboard. Used to make negatives from camera-ready artwork (type, photos, made-up newspaper pages,etc. in the printing process. The negatives are used to expose the plate that goes on the printing press.

The film used was orthochromatic lith films. Orthochromatic means blue-green sensitive, so red safelights were used. "Lith" films (lith denotes high-contrast, as the negatives had to contain only dense black or completely clear...not gray tones). The most well-known brand was "Kodalith Ortho". There were also lith PAN films for making color separations from full-color originals, like photographs.

The digital age pretty much obsoleted process cameras in commercial printing shops. Plates are now output directly to a digital platemaker from the computer. The "motor" on the floor must be the vacuum pump that hold the film sheets on the film holder.

Many thousands of these went to scrapyards, replaced by new technology. What a shame.

tgreenhaw

Old time typesetter here...

That is a graphic arts camera. Back in the day, people call strippers would paste together type and half tone photographs to make up pages to be printed. The resulting page ready art would then be photographed using one of these to make a large piece of film. Proofs using blueprint or diazo material would be made for approval before the film was used to expose plates for offset lithograph printing presses.

There isn't any water involved so you don't need to worry about leakage. There is likely a vacuum pump involved so any valves you say are likely related to that - nothing to be worried about. The motor is likely used to move the carriage to adjust the magnification.

I suspect its not of value so its likely scrap metal unless you can find a buyer. Don't take my word on this as I've been out of that business for decades. I do know that modern computer has taken over this sort of thing long ago.

Gort55 Loc: Northern Colorado

Looks like a lot of us were printers back in the day.

Paul Moshay Loc: Los Angeles, CA

If you remove the whole device please save the lens, it is a high-quality copy lens.

cochese

I am a newspaper printer by trade since the early 80s. That is a copy camera. It images the typset pages onto film and they are the "burned" onto light sensitive aluminum plates. An antique and part of a defunct technology. Today the pages are typset in a computer program then sent directly to a laser imaging system that puts the image directly onto the aluminum plate with incredible accuracy. It is pretty much scrap metal now. We donated ours to a museum, and several years later they scrapped it.

Stephan G

And some of us are still printers. Mostly 4 x 6 s, here.

In high school, we had the Gordon hand press, a Little Giant set block printer and a lithographic press printer. And this was for an extra curricular school club! We got so good with them that no one was able to tell whether they were our work or professional sourced printings.

Zooman 1

Used one of these, or similar at an Engineering firm. Used to copy large drawings and everything had to be exact. Even had to calculate shrinkage of the film, which came in 3 ft widths and was cut to needed length. It was held in place by a vacuum board.

Bob Werre

Actually a F/9 lens was fairly common in modern view camera lens technology. I bought a Fuji 180mm F/9 lens. It was a flat field lens so it was good for copying artwork in the field or studio, but it was good for products but really did shine when you worked close-in.

In another area, the process cameras that I used had their scales, but I usually fine tuned the focus with a lupe--just 4X usually.

Also don't forget that Polaroid made several similar cameras built into a wall. You could rent the 'room' and shoot large Polaroids (not sure of sizes). The price included a tech guy to actually work the system. It was sort of a ego thing mostly! --my camera is bigger than your camera!

FlaGator

It appears to be a camera for making dot matrix images on a metal plate that has been coated with a photosensitive material. The camera should have an internal screen mesh in front of the plate for creating the fine dots you see in a printed image. The exposed plate was developed and fixed in a darkroom and then washed in a hydrochloric bath to etch the exposed negative image that remained. The plate was then placed into a composing frame table along with other photos and with the lead type-slugs from a Linotype machine to create a metallic reverse image of the printed page. The whole frame was then mounted in a compression machine together with a dampened page-size special cardboard that forced the cardboard into the page of type to create a "mat" with an image of the page. This mat was then placed into a curved casting mold which was then filled with molten lead. When the lead casting cooled and solidified it was then placed onto a rotary printing press roll along with other page castings on other rolls to create a complete newspaper.

Technology has helped change the process, hasn't it? By the way, the photoengraved dots are what we now refer to as "pixels".

dougbev3 Loc: Pueblo, Colorado

Yes in the other room is where the controls are, it has the red lights. The former owner, of the paper passed away this last October, he had put out his last legal newspaper March 16, 2019. Then he got sick and was placed in the hospital. Since he missed putting out a weekly legal paper ; he was done, it was the end of his paper. Today I took down the lights that focused on the plate. I started unplugging cords and noting where they go. The film is in boxes sitting in the darkroom. if anyone is interested in buying one, I could just about guarantee that this one works. But with no takers, I think I will talk to some museums here in town.

rochephoto

This is a Stat or Repro camera used to make specifically sized photo litho or rotogravure engraved plates for printing. They are bench mounted with flat planed lenses for high-resolution analog print negs to make a monotone, duotone or continues tone printing plates

rochephoto

This is a Stat or Repro camera used to make specifically sized photo litho or rotogravure engraved plates for printing. They are bench mounted with flat planed lenses for high-resolution analog print negs to make a monotone, duotone or continues tone printing plates

MrPhotog

You might ask at any art schools in the area, too. These are still used by art students in photography (occasionally), and are really good for making the large negatives, ( high contrast and continuous tone) used in making silk screen stencils, platinum and palladium prints, iron prints (blue prints) and gum prints.

The ‘alternative process’ photography used by a dwindling number of photo artists uses many photo sensitive materials which are not very sensitive at all. Making prints could require minutes of exposure to high intensity UV light or direct sunlight—much more light than an enlarger can provide— so the only way to do it is to have a big negative in a big frame pressed against a big sheet of film, paper, or stencil material so it can’t move during a long exposure.

Art schools frequently have studio spaces and might be able to carve out a spot for your camera.

Taking a tax write off on your donation to a school or museum might be worth more to you than selling it. Tell them your donation is worth $4000, but they have to remove it.

StevenBrownPhoto Loc: Excelsior, MN

High school dark room had one. Used it to copy photos and other documents. Take up a lot of space.

User ID

No. It is absolutely useless scrap, except possibly the lens
but very likely that is also useless. Walked away from one,
a Brown [maker] 30x40, all metal, in operating condition.
Didn't even feel like salvaging the 300mm Zeiss. Whatever
fantasy one may have about it's value to "artistes", it will
be easier and cheaper to build the "artiste" camera from
scratch. These Process Cameras are instalations, not at all
a repurpose-worthy unified device.

OTOH, I do have a very livable pension, due in great part
to my time running the Brown :-)