Object of the month

VIEW-MASTER

January 2025

VIEW-MASTER

(Technology, science and thematic diversity)

Author:
Sawyer's Inc. Portland 7, Oregon, U.S.A. and design by Stereocraft Engineering Co.
Dating:
1947
Dimensions:

Ancho x alto x largo
Proyectores 11,5 x14,5 x11,5 cm
Maletín (exterior) 15,5 x16,8 x 21,5 cm

Inscribed:
Metal plates, screwed at the bases, with designation data, serial numbers, manufacturing and design identification, together with electrical specifications for voltages and wattages.
Type of object:
Precision instrument specifically designed to project full colour View-Master images.
Technique:
Monoscopic projector with hot extruded metal body; Sawyer's View-Master Anastigmat* F/3.0 coated lens optics, double condenser system (prevents film overheating) and an adjustable reflector. Reel drive mechanisms for 7 stereoscopic pairs or 14 monoscopic views in 16mm film format, or 35mm when using the View Master die cutter. Image identification system and pointer.

* 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.

Material:
Metal, plastic, electrical circuit wiring, 75 watt bulb lighting system, plastic.
Property:
FBS Collection

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: