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The Brownie Camera-2

   For photographing, both models were aimed with the help of two intersecting sighting lines, inscribed on the top of the camera. Their angle equaled the angle of view of the lens. In July, yielding to the demands of a proper viewfinder, Kodak announced an accessory waist-level viewfinder, to be shipped in August. It was designed to be attached to the top of the camera at the front, and cost an extra 25 cents. 9 The original Brownie model, and to some extent its successor, represented the convergence of two types of cameras design of the mid and late 1890's. The first was in the tradition of the cheap box camera which used single glass plates, either 2 x 2 in. (5 x 5 cm) or 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 in. (6 x 6 cm). Such cameras were of a flimsy cardboard construction, had a box-type of back, and a shutter whose exposure speed was controlled by time used to move the lever, and had a lens of generally poor quality. Examples of this type of camera are Zar Pocket Camera (Zar Camera Co., later Western Camera Mfg. Co., Chicago) of 1896, 1897 10, the Alvah Camera (Sears Roebuck and Co., Chicago). c. 1898 11, and the Vive Souvenir Camera (Vive Camera Co., Chicago), c. 1898 12. The first of these used 2 x 2 in. plates and the last one 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 in. plates.
   The second camera type whose design features were incorporated into the Brownie was that of the Pocket Kodaks. These little cameras had been introduced in 1895. 13 They were sturdily constructed of wood and had a decent quality lens. The two-stroke shutter of the 1895 model Pocket Kodak had been replaced in 1896 with the already proven type of shutter used in Kodak's Bulls-Eye cameras. 14 Though employing a shutter of the same general type as that used in the Pocket Kodaks, the Brownie was of simpler construction, and thus much cheaper. It also took larger pictures than the Pocket KodakÕs 1Ñ1/2 x 2 in. format. There is indeed no doubt that the Brownie was intended as a successor to the Pocket Kodak in the Eastman Kodak line; in the year the Brownie was introduced, manufacture of the Pocket Kodak was discontinued. 15
   A firm believer in the protection through patents of innovative camera features (he recognized them as distinct business assets), George Eastman cited four U.S. Patents, by printing them inside the back of the camera, in the original and improved 		Brownies of 1900. 16 These were basic patents from Eastman's vast repertory, one being for the 1885 roll holder, one for the shutter used on the 1895 Model Pocket Kodak, one for the roll-film camera mechanism (acquired from David Houston, Hunter, ND), and the last for the rotary Bulls-Eye shutter. 17 Only the rotary Bulls-Eye shutter related specifically to the Brownie. This is shown by the fact that by 1903 the first three patents had been dropped from the listing inside the Brownie and two others, patents issued after the introduction of the camera, were added. 18 Of these two, the first was for a clip to keep the film rolled tightly on the spool 19 and the second for such essential features of the early Brownie as the detachable film wind knob, the metal plate to fasten the camera's back, and the internal removable box which held the film. 20 Both patents, secured by Frank Brownell and assigned to Eastman Kodak Co., had been applied for on 25th July 1900.
   The structural origins (fig.3-5) of the Brownie are easily traced, but the camera's name presents some problems, and different theories have been advanced at various times. The most endearing, but historically tenuous, belief is one that maintains that the camera was named after George Eastman's dog, Brownie. There seems to be no evidence that supports this notion, and it is not even certain that George Eastman had a dog named Brownie. 21
   The second theory is that the camera was named after Frank Brownell, exclusive manufacturer of cameras for Eastman Kodak until Brwonell's operation was bought out by Kodak in 1902. 22 This theory seems unlikely for, although Brownell was an able inventor, holding a number of patents for features employed on Kodak cameras, there was little affection between him and Eastman. In fact, in the mid 1890's Eastman wrote: 'I am still spending a good deal of time at Brownell's. I am trying to get him to come down early in the morning. He says he works late at night but that does not make up for his being two hours late in the morning. He promised me today he would brace up. I do not understand him at all.' 23 Almost every move Eastman made in business was carefully calculated and one would seriously doubt he would give a camera name, a potentially important step, to honor a man whom he obviously did not admire.

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