Enlarger, made by T.S & H?

[steven_e007]

Hi,

I won a battered old enlarger on ebbewatsit the other day. Mahogany quarter plate with a steel lamp and condenser housing, nice maroon leather bellows. A nicely built piece in it's day, it is now very rough; a rebuild project for a rainy day one winter I think...

Thing is, it is stamped T.S & H. Pat. 22469 (well, it has a printed white bone disk embedded in the woodwork, actually).
It's in Britain, so British companies are most likely. I've had a good Google, but can't turn anything up.

Anyone want to take a guess who T.S & H might be?

 

[diser]

The only thing I was able to find about this patent is:
November 1905 Great Britain - Negative holders which may be rotated for the removal of skew during printing
No information on the patent holder.

 

[Ian Grant]

Can you put a rough date to it Steve, I've one or two old books here in Turkey, and can have a scan through for you. The rest are back in the UK.

Ian

 

[steven_e007]

Well, it might do half plate with a suitable holder. It has a quarter plate holder at the moment with a 3.5 by 2.5" adapter in it... All for plates, obviously.
Hmmm.... don't suppose that dates it, really - could be any time after 3.5 by 2.5 was introduced up to 1950 something!

The construction is mahogany (I think) and brass with leather bellows - it is a horizontal design with a generous bellows extension and adjustable lamp to condenser distance, using concentric metal cylinders which slide inside each other. The condenser has a removable third element , presumably for adapting to different formats. The lamp housing has a chimney so I think we are talking spirit burner (which is missing). I'd guess (and it is just a guess) it could be 1900 to 1920s, maybe? After that I suspect they became mostly electric and probably vertical seemed to take over.

 

[steven_e007]

The only thing I was able to find about this patent is:
November 1905 Great Britain - Negative holders which may be rotated for the removal of skew during printing
No information on the patent holder.

Thanks, Diser - the plate holder does indeed have a curious 'circle within a square' layout with a lead screw to rotate it. At least that gives us a date.

 

[Ian Grant]

Sounds quite early, enlargers were already becoming quite a lot more modern by the mid 1920's llokng more lke the post war enlargers taht were once sold everywhere.

I have a 1910 book that may well have an advert in but it's rather full of adverts, the books well over 1200 pages of which more than 75% are adverts It maybe Monday or Tuesday before I get a good chance to browse it.

Ian

 

[Ian Grant]

I've just looked in the index and 19 enlarger manufacturers are listed, no T.S.& H. Nor is there an advertiser of that name.

But the Patent may be an individual and company. Houghtons could be the H, and they did make enlargers which were quite common.

Ian

 

[steven_e007]

Yes, the T,S * H namestamp is on the plate holder, possibly it applies to the patent rather than the enlarger manufacturer...

I'll get some images posted up in a few days time. No great panic, it is just a curiosity