1940s

FIRST U.S. COMMERCIAL TELEVISION LICENSE - 1941.   On July 1, 1941,  NBC was the first to have commercially sponsored broadcasts.  CBS, DuMont and others followed that Fall.   NBC began with a 10 second "Bulova"  watch commercial.  This first commercial, a simple picture of a clock and a map of the United States with a voice-over proclaiming, "America runs on Bulova time,"  gave the network a profit of $7.00! http://www.tvhistory.tv/  , http://www.bulova.com/

AGFA / ANSCO READYSET SPECIAL - 1941. Bellows type cameras continued to be common up through the 40's. The Readyset Special was produced by the AGFA Ansco Corporation, Binghampton, NY. It is not necessary to spend a lot of money to have a nice camera collection. The above camera was purchased for less than $20 in like-new condition.

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/ansco_pd16/ansco_pd16.htm

HOUGHTON ENSIGN FUL VUE - 1946. Houghton cameras date back to 1834 when George Houghton joined Antoine Claudet as a glass seller. After the announcement of the Daguerreotype process in 1839, Claudet secured a license directly from Daguerre and spent most of his time operating his own studio while Houghton began selling Daguerreotype requisites. The firm came together for manufacturing purposes with W. Butcher in 1915 and they merged as Houghton-Butcher Ltd. and a selling arm, Ensign Ltd, was set up in 1930. George Houghton's sons and grandsons continued in the business until the firm disappeared in 1961. The Ensign model of 1946 was of an unusual design and made entirely of metal. Many such unique cameras can be purchased at very low prices in excellent condition for those looking for an educational hobby to pursue. Now is a good time to begin camera collecting as the advent of digital photography has brought untold numbers of film cameras onto the market. Searching for the word camera on eBay under the drop-down menu of cameras and photo elicits more than one hundred thousand items!

http://www.ozcamera.com/ensign.html

http://licm.org.uk/livingImage/IndexRoom.html

ANSCO SPEEDEX 4.5 - 1946. At the beginning of the 1900's the Ansco trademark was found on many excellent large-format bellows cameras made for professional use, in addition to a range of smaller medium format pocket folding cameras which used the 116, 616 and 818 film formats.   After a merger with Agfa in 1928, Ansco products began to include U.S versions of several Agfa models, which in North America displayed the Agfa-Ansco trademark.    For most of the 1950's, a good number of Ansco's better 35mm and medium format cameras were imported directly from Germany and were for the most part relabelled Agfas. As a camera collector I never cease to be amazed at the condition of numerous readily available vintage cameras. The above Ansco with leather case was purchased in virtually mint condition ($44) despite being sixty years old. Would that we could all be such condition at that age!  

http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~yue/misc/AnscAgfa.html

WHITTAKER MICRO 16 - 1946. If you're into spy cameras, the Micro 16 should be in your collection. The Whittaker Micro 16 is smaller than a pack of cigarettes at 2 ¾" x 1" x 2", yet this all metal subminiature is heavy at 8 3/8oz. It was made in Los Angeles, California by the Wm. R. Whittaker Co. Ltd. The firm was owned by William and Robert Whittaker, makers of aircraft parts. The camera was designed to fit into a cigarette wrapper and hundreds where sold to police departments and detective bureaus throughout the United States. Numbers on the counter show through the small hole in the back of the camera. The above camera in excellent condition was purchased on eBay for $17.

KEYSTONE K-25 CAPRI– 1946..  Keystone Mfg. Co., Boston, began to sell their equipment through Paramount Mfg. Co, Warren Mfg. Co. and Sears Roebuck.  This is the type of movie camera most amateurs had to deal with for many years – windup power supply, guess at the correct f/stop and depend on the fixed-focus lens to obtain a viewable image – a feat seldom accomplished by most.  No wonder amateur movie makers were delighted with cameras such as the electronic Yashica Super 60E (1968) that came onto the market in the 60’s.  Keystone was bought out in 1965 by Berkey. Subsequently, in 1991, Keystone stock and brand names were bought by Concord Camera Corp. Avenel, NY, USA.  http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/cinelisb.html 

THE FIRST TRANSISTOR - 1947.   Bell Laboratories invented the transistor in 1947.  In 1956, the Nobel Prize was shared by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Labs for their work in developing the transistor. 
http://www.bell-labs.com/history/physicscomm/#quantum_mechanics

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       Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain                       The First Transistor
                                                                            Click for Enlarged View

ZENITH COMET - 1947. The Zenith Comet is known primarily for two things - cheapness of construction and weirdness of function. The quality of construction would be an embarrassment even to the Russians. The Comet shown above was made by the Zenith Camera Corporation in Chicago, but others were apparently manufactured in Webster, NY. The focus has two positions: under ten feet and over ten feet. If the subject is less than ten feet away the lens is left all the way in. If the distance is over ten feet the lens is pulled all the way out. The shutter is cocked by turning a small knob on the front of the lens and then snapped by pushing a button, also on the front of the lens. The viewfinder is located such that it is necessary to look through a peephole in the rear door of the camera in order to frame the subject. The Comet was apparently produced for a number of years with little modification. The one shown above was found new in its original box in a store that closed in 1948 and was not reopened until the 80's. One difference in later models is the inclusion of increment marks on the side of the lens. There is no need for such marks on this early model as it moves only 1/8 of an inch! A second difference between late and early models is the design on the box. A third difference is that later models had a lever on the right side of the lens that allowed the user to select either f/11 or f/16.

www.merrillphoto.com/ ZenithComet.htm

INSTANT PHOTOGRAPHY - 1947.  On February 21, 1947, Edwin Land demonstrated instant film at the Optical Society of America meeting in New York City. http://www.polaroid.com/us/index.jsp

CABLE TELEVISION - 1948.  Cable television, first called "community antenna television," was launched in small towns in Pennsylvania and Oregon as local electronics entrepreneurs constructed antennas on hilltops to transport distant television signals to areas with little or no over-the-air television reception:

(1) John Walson, an appliance store owner in the small town of Mahanoy City in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

(2) Ed Parsons sold electronics equipment and ran a radio station in Astoria, Oregon.  On Thanksgiving Day, 1948, the Parsonses watched KRSC’s inaugural broadcast even though the TV station was 150 miles away in Seattle.  Parsons had found he could pick up a usable signal on the roof of the John Jacob Astor Hotel where he lived.  He set up an antenna there and strung a cable from it to his living room.  When Parsons installed a set in the hotel lobby, it attracted so many gawkers that guests could not reach the registration desk.  Then he put a set in a store window across the street and brought the signal to it with coaxial cable - the first recorded use of coaxial to carry television.
http://www.todayinsci.com/

KODAK TOURIST CAMERA - 1948. Very enjoyable collections dedicated to a single brand of cameras or series within a single brand can often be built at minimal cost. Kodak has produced hundreds of models over the years and most are still available in collectible condition a low prices. The Kodak Tourist Camera shown above was purchased in like-new condition with original manual in excellent condition and original box in good condition for only $20. Film: 620 2¼x2¼. Lens: Kodak Anaston F:6.3, 105 mm. Shutter: Kodak Flash Diomatic.

http://www.krphoto.com/kodaktourist.html

  XEROX MODEL A - 1949.  The first commercial copiers produced by Xerox were large and difficult to operate. Introduced in 1949, the Model A required multiple manual steps to produce a single copy.  The engineers at Haloid read Carlson's manual about the copying process and followed it step by step.  An early Haloid (Xerox) brochure described thirty-nine steps for making good copies on its first commercial copier which was sometimes called the Ox Box.  Click on image to see enlarged view.  http://www.timeline.aps.org/

FEDERAL 16-A - 1949. Federal of Brooklyn, a well-known manufacturer of enlargers at that time, marketed the model 16-A, a unique enlarger designed to copy negatives from 8mm or 16mm film onto 127 film so that prints could more easily be made with commonly available enlargers.

1940s