Replica Friese-Greene Stereoscope Camera
- Made:
- circa 1950; (circa 1890) in Science Museum
- maker:
- Science Museum, Workshops
Replica of stereoscopic cine camera made by Science Museum Workshops about 1950. Copy of 1950-174, original invented and used by William Friese-Greene and made by William A Légé and Company Limited about 1890.
The original camera was patented by Friese-Greene (1855-1921) in 1893, but is based on a similar design by Frederick Varley, patented in 1890. It has many of the characteristics of the successful moving picture cameras of 1896, but was unable to take photographs at sufficient speed to produce a true moving picture effect. It is in the Science Museum collection, object number 1950-174.
In 1889 Friese Greene and civil engineer Mortimer Evans designed a sequence camera using 'a roll of any convenient length of sensitised paper or the like', capable of taking four or five pictures a second. Brian Coe has suggested that these were to be printed up as lantern slides for the double-lantern projector. There is no record of a successful film projection at this time; the claimed demonstration at the Chester Photographic Convention in 1890 was a failure. That same year Friese Greene used a stereoscopic sequence camera made by Frederick Varley, but once again there is no record of successful projection.
