No. 2A Cartridge Premo in the house!

[jay moussy]

Spouse found a No. 2A Cartridge Premo (not a folder) at a church sale, with its original box. I think she paid 2 dollars more than its original price!

Great shape for a 100-year old cardboard body, with bright viewfinders.
The design is new to me: the film-holding core body slides out off the side of the camera, unlike traditional box designs, and film spool holding metal flanges swing out, curiously.
I need to look very carefully at the light seal situation, as the matting side panel is quite large.

EDIT to add: The carrying case flap reads "Eastman. Successor to Rochester Optical..", just as I read in Premo references.

 

[Tel]

What a great find!

 

[Eric Rose]

Pics!!

 

[jay moussy]

Pics!!

Yes, it is actually worthy of pics, as the side loading is new to me.
Funny, when spouse left a message about finding a "Premo" camera, I thought she was bringing me a folder using plates!

One question is why "Premo", when the "Brownie" box product line was already well developed?
On the surface, It seems that the name Premo was kept for a while, after the acquisition of Rochester Optical Co. which owned the product name. Correct?

 

[Tel]

Highly recommend Reese Jenkins' Imagea and Enterprise. An excellent detailed history of the early years of the film industry. Eastman spent many years and much money buying up his competitors.

 

[jay moussy]

@Tel thanks, I found the book in my extended public library network, to arrive soon!

Reading about that period leads to discoveries: the red frame-count window and the film backing paper were invented in Boston (Samuel Tuner, Boston Camera Mfg Co., if my sources are correct).
Just as with automobiles of the day, there were so many camera makers back then. Every major city had one or more!

 

[jay moussy]

Here is what it looks like:

 

[Eric Rose]

Very cool!! Thanks.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Likely the Premo name was kept for some time after the acquisition by Eastman because even then, the value of name recognition was known among astute businessmen (and George Eastman was surely that).