Any ideas on what this might be?

[LeeHoggard]

Just came across this and wondered if anyone here knew what it was?







It has a glass back and three bulbs inside, I'm just curious as to what it is! Googled the manufacturer and found nothing. As it says on the 3rd picture, 'Manufacturers of Photoprint Papers & Drawing Materials', I'm sure it's well before my time, whatever it is!

- Lee

 

[Mike Wilde]

Might be a light designed to give even glare free illumiation to copying some smaller sizes of material under glass?

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

It's a "Nig".

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Probably used for this process:

"Blueprinting is the older method, invented in 1842. The drawing to be copied, drawn on translucent paper, is placed against paper sensitized with a mixture of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. The sensitized paper is then exposed to light. Where the areas of the sensitized paper are not obscured by the drawing, the light makes the two chemicals react to form blue. The exposed paper is then washed in water. This produces a negative image, with the drawing appearing in white against a dark blue background. In the diazotype method, the paper is light-sensitized with a mixture of a diazonium salt (used in the manufacture of dyes), a reactant, and an acid that keeps the diazonium salt and the reactant from reacting with each other. The semi-transparent original is placed on top of the sensitized paper, and a copy of the same size as the original is made by direct contact. Light destroys the diazonium salt. Ammonia gas or solution is used as a developer after exposure -- it neutralizes the acid and allows the remaining diazonium salt to combine with the reactant to create a blue dye. The chemicals on the paper acquire color only in the areas not exposed to light. This diazotype method produces dark lines on a white background, and is the popular method used today for reproduction of large-format drawings."

 

[AgX]

I assume something to make contact-copies with even exposure. Original and copy material are placed in contact on that bent glass.

 

[removed account4]

i wish i had a cyanotype machine!

 

[Hexavalent]

It's an old-fashioned display case for darkroom snacks (bread, muffins, cookies).

 

[mesantacruz]

^^ haha...

 

[Gadfly_71]

I'm gonna agree with Rich on this. Definitely looks like it was used to duplicate engineering drawings.

I worked as a blueprint machine operator in the late 1980s/early 1990s and the machines we used were larger and much more complex but the basic principle was the same. Modern units would also have some sort of ammonia vapor system for developing the diazo materials. Diazo was (is?) offered as blueline, blackline, or brownline on white paper or you could get vellum materials as well (for making dupes to make more dupes). Unlike traditional cyanotype material, diazo is yellow until exposed and processed.

A powerful UV lightsource is required so your unit might work for doing alt process contact printing. That said, keeping everything in registration while checking exposure may be frustrating to say the least.

 

[LeeHoggard]

Thanks guys, was just one of those things, I was too curious to just accept that I couldn't know what it was! A friend of a friend came by it and wanted to know if it was worth anything.

It's an old-fashioned display case for darkroom snacks (bread, muffins, cookies).

Haha I hope everyone else is wrong and that's actually what it is, that's what I'd use it for anyway!

 

[AgX]

But beware of that muffins being burnt when switching on the illumination...