

PROJECTORS S-I SERIES Case Serial No 15500
(Closed)

PROJECTORS S-I SERIES Case Serial No 15500
(Open)

PROJECTORS S-I SERIES shipping box Serial No. 4821

PROJECTORS S-I SERIES
On the left side of the image we have Serial No. 4821 and on the right side Selerial No. 15500.

In both cases the projection objective is the same.

Variations in the bases, in terms of the ventilation of the circuits, closed in the most primitive (although it could have been modified) and open in the 15500.

The diagram of functions, included in the instruction manual, is very complete, since in addition to indicating the usefulness of each element, it gives us information on the innovations that the projector contained with respect to others that might exist on the market, for example the prism (5) that allowed the title of each projected image to be read.

Composition to be able to identify the elements that make the mechanism work, next to the cut-out of the Copyright date, note that it is from 1947.

The case was supplied with a Union of South Africa reel: No. 3029 ‘Natives of Zululand’. As shown on the envelope it was prepared to be viewed in a Lighted Stereo Viewer type hand-held viewer which has all the features of the standard model plus a built-in light powered by two batteries or a cable transformer.

Two of the 7 stereoscopic half-pairs showing people and their way of life, under the photographic gaze of the standard in the middle of the 20th century.
According to the first information gathered, View-Master dedicated to the UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA and to AFRICA, in the first period, from reel 3002 to 3810 and to the East in general from 4000 to 4872.

Diagram interpreted from the invention of William Biller Gruber (born in Munich, Germany 1903-died in USA 1965) according to patent 2,189,285 of the Series A STEREOSCOPIC VIEWING DEVICE of 06/02/1940. Application January 20, 1939, serial No. 25927.

A set of Reels showing a part of the wide range of subjects that have been developed photographically during the first 40 years of the creation of the View-Master company.
VIEW-MASTER
(Technology, science and thematic diversity)
Ancho x alto x largo
Proyectores 11,5 x14,5 x11,5 cm
Maletín (exterior) 15,5 x16,8 x 21,5 cm
* Photographic lens corrected for optical aberrations in order to obtain sharp images right to the edges of the picture, resulting in the use of wide-open apertures and faster shutter speeds. The texts consulted seem to refer to lenses that may have been manufactured by Kodak.
VIEW-MASTER PROJECTORS SERIE S-I
U.S. Patent Office Reg. Serial No. 4821 and Serial No. 15500
Continuing with the idea of making possible lines of research within the FBS Collection, we will make the months of January thematic and, given that it is a time of Kings and toys, we think that a good option is the presentation of some of the elements belonging to the VIEW -MASTER family, which can be found in our collections.
We start this cycle with two pieces marketed by VIEW-MASTER, the S-I SERIES PROJECTORS, whose singularity is that they project slides in monoscopic system (2D), but they are only suitable for the disc (or reel) system. The instruction manual specifies that these are precision instruments for projecting full-colour View-Master images. Another peculiarity is that the brand’s reels were intended for 7 stereoscopic pairs and therefore either the photographs were repeated (complementary perspective for each eye) or the reels were adapted to monoscopic (2D) photographs.
We show you the projectors that we have accessible and locateable, at the moment, in both cases the firm that marketed them, Sawyer’s Inc., was awaiting patent confirmation.
We know that the system dates from 1947 because the copyright is printed in the user’s manual, and it bears that date, but also because in the book that Mary Ann & Wolfgang Sell wrote with Charley Van Pelt, ‘View Master Memories’, the latter presents his study on SAWYER’S VIEW-MASTER ‘THE FORMATIVE YEARS 1939-1959’ and, on page 130, shows the reproduction of the first cheque for $1,000 which Sawyer wrote to him on 11 September 1947 as a commission on sales of the S-I projector.
The Sawyer company acquired the exploitation rights of some inventors, and also bought patents, but we do not know of the invention of these projectors. However, since they were marketed after the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), it is possible that they were part of the package used by the Armed Forces to project photographs of strategic positions and weapons identification. This governmental relationship with the Sawyer/View-Master branch is referenced in some of the books cited.
But to contextualise the whole history of the View-Master, we must start with its inventor and how the patent for the reels that could be viewed with the viewfinder came about, which, after a period of production, became known as the A-Series Viewfinder.
The casual encounter between HAROLD JAMES GRAVES (1897 – 1975) and WILLIAM BILLER GRUBER (1903 – 1965) in July 1938, inside the Oregon Caves National Monument in the North Siskiyou Mountains, was the beginning of a collaboration that began in the same year and continued until Gruber’s death in 1965.
William B. Gruber, is the Americanised name (from WILHELM) of the German emigrant who devised, developed and invented the disc-mounted frame system for 7 stereoscopic pairs, patent 2,189,285 in the USA, known as the VIEW – MASTER system. He had photographic training very early, extensive knowledge of stereoscopy and the behaviour of Kodachrome colour films (manufactured by Eastman Kodak between 1935 and 2009), which he loaded into his twin Kodak Bantam cameras, with synchronised mechanisms, mounted on a sliding bar on a tripod.
The collaboration between Gruber and Graves resulted in the View-Master systems, in all their facets, developing into a story that has transcended the ages, surviving and building on the momentum of mergers and purchases, having as its parent the SAWYER ‘photographic finishing’ and postcard establishment, which had been generated in 1911 and incorporated as a company in 1914. The story of how Gruber’s relationship with Sawyer’s enterprise developed is roughly summarised in one of the attached pdfs.
For our part, we began our study of View-Master by considering the years between 1938 and 1966, as these were the years of its implementation – the take-off and maintenance of a system that was able to adapt to all sciences and technologies, especially the stereoscopic ones.
One of the exceptions is the S-I series projectors shown, which use the reels designed for stereoscopic vision, but give use to the stereoscopic pair in each of its segments, which are separate frames. This and other versatilities have ensured that View-Master has stood the test of time since 1939, always adjusting to successive generations of users and embracing new technologies, including in its response to virtual reality (VR) and immersive concepts that are continually evolving, right up to our recently launched 2025.
To learn more:
- Operating Instructions for the View-Masterr REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. Projector Two dimensional Model S-1. For full-color projection of view-master reels in two -dimensions. Copyright 1947 by Sawyer´s Inc. Portland 7, Oregon, U.S.A. Printed in U.S.A.
- W.B. Gruber, STEREOSCOPIC VIEWING DEVICE, Filed Jan. 20, 1939. Patente 2,189,285 – US2189285A Estados Unidos. Application January 20, 1939, serial No. 25927. 06/02/1940. La presente invención se refiere en general a la fotografía, y particularmente a un estereoscópico de visión estereoscópica.
- W.B. Gruber, STEREOSCOPIC VIEWER, Filed April 28, 1947. Patente 2,511,334 – US2511334 Estados Unidos. Application April 28, 1947, Serial No. 744,349. 13/06/1950
- W.B. Gruber, by Charles Shepard STEREOSCOPIC PICTURE PROJECTION APPARATUS, Filed March 2, l950. Patente 2,700,322 – Application March 2, 1950, Serial No. 147,305. 25/06/1955. En este expediente se citan referencoias de patentes de Estados Unidos (entre 1883 y 1943) más una de Gran Bretaña de 1908 y otra de Francia de 1925.
- David L. Bassett, M.D., A stereoscopic atlas of human anatomy. Section IV. THE THORAX View-Master reels 113 -122. Color photographs by WM. B. Gruber. Publisher by Sawyer´s Inc. Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. 1958.
- Robert N. Shaffer, M.D., F.A.C.S., Stereoscopic manual of GONIOSCOPY. Department of Ophthalmology, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, California. The C.V. Mosby Company. Saint Louis 1962.
- Wim van Keulen, 3D Past and Present, Publisher 3-D Book Productions. The Netherlands. View-Master International Group, Inc. Portland, Oregon. Reels made in Belgium 1980.
- Wim van Keulen, 3D imagics. A stereoscopic guide to the 3D past and its magic images 1838-1900, Publisher 3-D Book Productions. The Netherlands. View-Master Ideal Group, Inc., a subsidiary of Tyco Toys, Inc. Stereo Reels made in Belgium 1990.
- John S. Waldsmith, Stereo views: a collector´s guide with prices for vintage stereo views, tru-vues, view- masters, and other 3-D visual collectibles, Publisher in Radnor, Pennsylvania, 1991. págs 200 a 260.
- Mary Ann and Wolfgang Sell, View-Master Viewers an Illustrated History, dedicated to the memory of William B. Gruber, Publisher 3-D Book Productions c/o Harry zur Kleinsmiede. The Netherlands. View-Master Reels made in Belgium 1994,
- Mary Ann & Wolfgang Sell, Charley Van Pelt, View Master Memories, Cincinnati . OH USA; Registrered trademark of Fisher-Price, Inc, 2000.
- Juan José Sánchez García y Yolanda Fernández-Barredo Sevilla, Unos apuntes históricos, muy resumidos, del negocio familiar Sawyer. Pdf enero-2025.