Titanic Photographic Paraphernalia
Mysterious items of photographic equipment recovered from the Titanic's debris field include a sliver of nitrate film.
Titanic Photographic Paraphernalia
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Mysterious items of photographic equipment recovered from the Titanic's debris field include a sliver of nitrate film.
Mark VII
Member
Thank you Philip, for this fascinating thread! I combine my interest in Titanic with my passion for analog photography, and I have a collection of antique cameras that I use in practice. The work of Titanic passenger Francis Browne is the main inspiration for my interest in analog photography, and I have collected most popular cameras from between 1909 and April 1912.
Based on this experience, I have a few questions and observations regarding the artefacts associated with photography that have been found.
1. Could the dimensions of the items be provided? With the lack of dark room enlargers, in pre-war photography everything revolved around film format. A film spool can thus be identified by a size that corresponds to a popular film format in the 1910s.
2. Dimensions also help to identify other objects, such as the one currently associated with a shutter. I can say with near certainty that this is not the case unless the object is smaller than 1 centimeter. The object reminds me more of the locking levers of a pre-war tripod, but again, size matters.
3. The nitrate film is fascinating for more than one reason, not least because there has been discussion on this forum about the state of negatives on the bottom of the ocean, exposed between the last stop in Ireland and the sinking, and whether there might be more photos of Titanic passengers than those by Browne and Odell, who got off in Queenstown. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is ‘no’ if the state of this negative is representative of any yet-to-be-found negatives. Whether exposed or unexposed, the found negative will unfortunately not yield new photos of the Titanic. However, the format of the negative is interesting. Based on that, one could determine the kind of camera used and possibly the other objects found. By the way, the found negative indicates medium (120) or large (4x5) format photography because roll film has till this day no sprocket holes. Although safety film was invented in 1909, nitrate film was common till WWII.
4. The other objects seem to be parts of a so-called technical camera. The square plates with a round hole in them were made to attach a lens to the - now long-gone - bellows of the camera, and if I'm not mistaken, the other square and rectangular plates are part of the camera body. With a bit of luck, there might still be some text visible on the rectangular plates that usually indicates the manufacturer and model. Hint: look for the word “Kodak”.
In short, give me the dimensions, and I can probably say more about the artifacts.
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>>>Could the dimensions of the items be provided?
I can certainly try to find you some more detailed info if that will help.
I can certainly try to find you some more detailed info if that will help.
