These boxes are usually made for use with four or more lenses in a
block, by which at one exposure as many pictures are made as there
are lenses.
The size represented by Figs. 1 and 2 is usually employed for work
in tents or portable houses, on fairgrounds and places of resort at
the seaside and elsewhere during the summer season.
Fig. 1 shows the front, with the method of attaching the four
lenses, which are of the 1/4 size, and they make four pictures on a
5×7 plate.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. CLIMAX.]
Fig. 2 shows the back of the same box with the ground glass
reversed, and the plateholder partly pushed into position; there are
shown also the openings through which the various sizes of pictures
are made. This box can also be used with one lens for making two
cartes de visite or one cabinet on the 5×7 plate. [p102] The same
style may be had with the ground glass hinged to the box.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. CLIMAX.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
This same style of box is made also of larger sizes, to be used with
one or more lenses, of which Fig. 3 represents the size for 8×10, by
which with one lens can be made 4 cartes de visite or 2 cabinets on
8×10 [p103] or 7×10 plates, and with 4 lenses 8 cartes de visite
on the same size plate, or with 9 lenses 18 large gems are made by
two exposures.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. N CAMERA, REAR VIEW.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
For gallery work, however, the Figs. 4 and 5 represent [p104] the
most useful form of multiplying camera, as by their aid everything
that would be called for in a ferrotype gallery can be made.
With one lens can be made on 8×10 plate: 2 cabinets, 2 cartes de
visite or 1 large picture. With 4 lenses can be made on 8×10 plate
by 2 exposures: 8 cartes de visite, and on 5×7 plates by one
exposure, 4 cartes de visite.
With 9 1/9 lenses on 7×10 plate can be made with two exposures: 18
gems; with 4 exposures, 36 gems; and with 8 exposures, 72 gems; on
5×7 plate with 1 exposure, 9; 2 exposures, 18; and with 4 exposures,
36 gems.
The carriage and plate holder of these boxes move vertically and
horizontally, thus giving the operator the power of making a great
variety of sizes and of using any size of plate from 1/4 upwards to
8×10. On the 1/4 plate can be made with one exposure, 4 1/9 gems; 8
of the next smaller size by 2 exposures; and 16 of the smallest
size, by 4 exposures, thus bringing into use only 4 of the 9 lenses;
the second size is made by placing the lenses horizontally, also the
openings in the back of the box, the plate also is laid on its side
in the holder.
These boxes are finished in a variety of styles, plain or
ornamental, and are fitted with holders for negatives as well as the
usual rabbeted holders for ferrotypes, and by their use all the work
of a small establishment might very easily be done, as all the sizes
of ferrotypes are made from 16 gems on 1/4 plate to 72 of the same
size on 7×10 plate, and by one lens everything, positive or
negative, from 1/4 to 8×10 size, are made without difficulty. [p105]