Camera technology in 1899 was still in its infancy, but it was a time of significant advances. The changes started in the 1840s with the ‘Daguerreotype’ process discovered by Louis Daguerre. This technique involved treating a silver-plated sheet of copper then developing the image with chemicals post-exposure. Twenty years later, the Daguerreotype process evolved into the collodion technique, the wet plate process. The plates in this processing system were pre-coated, and it was faster, taking about fifteen minutes.
However, to develop the plates, both of these techniques required processing steps in safelight conditions. Consequently, any photographer not working in a studio would need to carry the chemicals and a portable darkroom — typically a small tent that the photographer would wear around the waist or having a covered wagon nearby — while taking photos. Needless to say, neither process was practical for a man taking photos on a bicycle.
The next progression in the mid-1860s was moving from the wet plate process to a dry gelatin emulsion plate process. These plates had an emulsion of silver suspended in gelatin, no longer requiring the processing chemicals, rather more exposure time — an excellent fit for landscape photographers. The dry plate process instigated the launch of the magazine camera, a large box that held 8 to 12 treated glass plates. This camera, known as the ‘falling plate camera,’ was designed to move the plates into the correct exposure position.
In 1897, the Western Camera Manufacturing Company of Chicago started producing magazine cameras housed in wooden boxes with a leather cover. The cameras would hold 12 plates ranging in size from 2½×2½ to 4×5 inches –– they called their camera the Cyclone. According to a local advertisement in the paper, the Cyclone was marketed as “easy photography thanks to the best lenses, best shutters to make a perfect picture with the least manipulation.” The company catalogue listed a complete assortment of Cyclone cameras verifying that the Western Camera Co. was the leader in manufacturing cameras and photographic goods.
The Cyclone camera was lightweight –– weighing 27 ounces, intended for use as a hand camera initially priced at $5.00 — considering inflation, it would be $160.00 today. The design of the original Cyclone was improved and modified with alternative versions for resale, including the folding cyclone and the Bicycle Folding Cyclone. The Bicycle Cyclone, as the name suggests, was intended to carry on bicycle outings, and because of the automatic shutter, it could take 12 pictures in 12 seconds. Compared to the other cameras available at the time, it was “compact and light” and could take vertical and horizontal photographs.
When Karl wrote to the Truro newspaper from Chicago, he proudly stated that after riding 1988 miles to get to Chicago, he had yet to ask for any charity or help, except for a bicycle luggage carrier and a bicycle camera. “I am to use nothing but the Cyclone camera made by the Western Camera Mfg. Co. of Chicago after this”, he writes.
And although Karl was keen to share that he hadn’t asked for anything along the way, the Cyclone Camera was yet another product provided to Karl providing free advertising for the Western Camera Mfg. Co. You’ll recall, Dear Reader, that Karl was gifted his woollen suit from Oxford Mill, Nova Scotia and his Red Bird Bicycle from Brantford, Ontario. He was indeed one of the first influencers.
In 1900 the manufacture of the magazine cameras slowly declined as there was competition from cameras that used photographic paper. The most popular of these new cameras was George Eastman’s Kodak camera which was affordable and small enough for the average consumer, and the film could hold up to 100 photos.
The Western Camera Mfg. Co. tried to compete with Eastman and merged with five other camera companies competing with the Kodak camera. The merger facilitated a few more years of producing the old Daguerreotype, and wet and dry plate cameras until Kodak bought out the company in 1903.
So what did Karl capture with his Cyclone camera? Sadly, Dear Reader, I don’t know. I have yet to find any reference to Karl taking a photograph or evidence of those photos or glass plates. It’s not until later in our journey, when Karl is in Australia that he references taking photos, but it’s not with the Cyclone camera. I’m hopeful that as we proceed in this journey, I may uncover the whereabouts of these photos.
Irrespective, as I travel 120 years after Karl, I’m grateful for the progression in camera technology that allows me to take thousands of images captured on a memory card slightly larger than my thumb. Considering that I have taken over 5000 images so far, I can’t imagine the limitation of having only 12 plates or transporting extra glass plates and a portable darkroom while I travel the world.