Muybridge Racetrack camera

OBJECT TYPE: Camera
MANUFACTURER: Scovill Manufacturing Co. (attrib)
NATIONALITY: American
PLACE MANUFACTURED: US, PA, Philadelphia
INTRODUCTION DATE: ca 1884
PRODUCTION DATES: ca 1884-1885
PATENT DATE: March 4, 1879
FILM TYPE: dry plate
IMAGE SIZE: 3¼ x 4¼ in.
APPROXIMATE MANUFACTURED QUANTITY: 24
FUNCTIONAL TYPE: box
STANDARD LENSES/SHUTTERS: 15in. f/7.5
INTERCHANGEABLE LENS: Yes

NOTES:
  "All of Muybridge's work in Philadelphia was done in an outdoor studio
  with a black back-ground, 120 feet long, divided by white strings into
  5-centimeter squares. Opposite the background he had a battery of 24
  cameras. It is believed that the camera presented by Dr. Nitzshe to
  the Eastman Historical Collection is one of these. It bears the
  number 20 and accepts 3¼x4¼-inch plates. Its construction is simple,
  consisting of two telescoping sliding boxes. The lens is missing, but
  Muybridge stated that he used lenses of 15-inch focal lenth and 3-inch
  diameter, which accounts for the length of the camera and the ample
  lensboard.
  The cameras were placed behind curtain roller shutters actuated by
  rubber bands which, when the shutter was cocked, were tense. Each was
  released by an electromagnetically controlled catch. These shutter
  releases were synchronized with a circuit breaker operated by
  clockwork. A chronometer was put in the electric circuit that gave an
  exact record of exposure time, the interval between exposures, and the
  total elapsed time." (Newhall, 1950).

OBJECT IDENTIFIER: S4322.00001

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:
Newhall, Beaumont. "The George E. Nitzsche Collection of Muybridge Relics.", --Medical Radiography and Photography--, Vol. 26, no. 1, 1950. pp 24-26.//
Haas, Robert Bartlett. --Muybridge: Man in Motion.-- Berlekey: University of California Press, 1976. pp 112.//
Coe, Brian. --The History of Movie Photography.-- Eastview Editions, 1981. pp 47.//