The spring back (in essentially the form we now know it) evidently dates back to at least 1896. Here is an especially lovely example:

http://www.fiberq.com/cam/roc/favrcm.htm

I have a back exactly like this, except that it had originally been integral with the camera backhouse rather than removable, as shown in this figure. (It had been surgically harvested, in two stages, before I got it.)

The same camera, a year later, had the same back but with the springs in a symmetrical arrangement (as is more familiar today):

http://www.fiberq.com/cam/roc/favrcc.htm

My guess is that this basic design probably goes back to at least 1890, perhaps to the late 1880s.

I suspect that the spring back was used on most of the early cameras offered by "the Graflex Organization", many of which had some form of the "Graphic" tradename (Graphic, Cycle Graphic, etc.) - all this well before the emergence of the Speed Graphic.

But do we know when it became fashionable to describe the spring back (at least in the sphere of products of the Graflex Organization) as the "Graphic" back?

Thanks for any insight anyone can give.

I thought the leaf spring back, either as a full leaf or a pair of half leaves, originated in the 1870s or 1880as the latest, but I can't figure out where I came up with that idea.

I can't put my hands on my 1904 F&S NY reprint catalog, If it referenced the term that would be about as far back as we could go. The Graflex back, or at least the first patent showing the Graflex back was filed in 1905, granted in 1907, and I would suspect that they wouldn't have a need to call the Graphic back anything until there were two backs. But logic was rarely a driving force and F&S.


I have a "Graphic" from around 1900.. this is something between a Graphic Sr. and a Graphic Jr. ---A very compact 5x7 glass plate camera that is about the size of a 3x4 Speed Graphic. And while it would use a Graphic Plate holder, there's no room for a flat spring. The RB Cycle Graphic from the same time period, does use a flat spring, and I'd want to call both of them a "Graphic back"



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2007-04-02 12:02 ]</font>

Hi, Les,

Quote:

On 2007-04-02 11:40, Les wrote: I thought the leaf spring back, either as a full leaf or a pair of half leaves, originated in the 1870s or 1880as the latest, but I can't figure out where I came up with that idea.

That makes sense.

Quote:

I can't put my hands on my 1904 F&S NY reprint catalog . . .

Fortunately, mine just arrived, and is still within reach!

In the cameras that evidently use the "spring back", no special term is used for it. (Of course if it was reversible, that was mentioned.)

Quote:

The Graflex back, or at least the first patent showing the Graflex back was filed in 1905, granted in 1907 . . .

In the 1904 catalog, the Graflex camera is listed, but there is no insight into the exact nature of the back. The listing refers to patents dated November 5, 1901 and December 16, 1902 - I'll dig those up shortly and see what they show, back-wise.

The familiar spring back configuration is clearly shown on the 1904 catalog illustration of the Reversible Back Graphic Special (one of the "double-ended garage" family of self-casing cameras).

Quote:

. . . and I would suspect that they wouldn't have a need to call the Graphic back anything until there were two backs.

Indeed, what I call the "World War (I)" phenomenon.

The 1904 catalog lists (as accessories) "The Graflex Plate Holder" and "The Graphic Plate Holder", with no mention of what they fit (just as if they were two different styles). One can see on the etchings of the two the well-known differences in the gender and location of the light-trap/locating rib.
However, the etching of the Graflex holder does not reflect the "groove" along the long edges that exists between the two "ribs". (Of course, that might have been the artist's lapse.)

Quote:

I have a "Graphic" from around 1900.. this is something between a Graphic Sr. and a Graphic Jr. ---A very compact 5x7 glass plate camera that is about the size of a 3x4 Speed Graphic. And while it would use a Graphic Plate holder, there's no room for a flat spring.

Interesting. What holds the plate holder against the back foundation? How does the focusing plate work? Is it swung out of the way?

Thanks so much for your insights.

Best regards,

Doug

Hi, Les,

Well, very interesting. The relevant patent refernced in the 1904 F&S catalog for the Graflex SLR is US Pat. No. 716,021, to William F. Folmer, issued December 16, 1902.

The back arrangement it shows is clearly what we would recognize as a spring back, replete with a spring mounted focusing plate (the nature of the springs not being shown) with a ground glass screen and a covering trap door. The back is also noted as being reversible, and there a light seal between the back and the camera case is shown.

My guess is that Folmer soon recognized that the use of focal-plane ground glass on an SLR is really unnecessary in most cases, and designed the Graflex back to eliminate the focusing plate that, in a spring back, is needed to hold the plate holder in place.

Best regards,

Doug