Re: R.B.Cycle Info - Follow-up

[Leonard Robertson <Leonard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 07:31 AM 3/20/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>Leonard Robertson wrote:
>
>>  Scott,
>>
>> I'm intrigued by the 12" and 24" scales on the bed. The common lenses
>> on #8s were an 11"-18" double-convertible or a 10 1/2"-18"-24"
>> triple-convertible. You may have a body that came with a special order
>> lens. You might look on the left side of the bed for a couple of nail
>> holes that held a third focusing scale (if the lens was a triple).
>
>You may be right..there look to be a total of four small holes that
>might well have been nail holes, but have since been filled in.

My 6 1/2 X 8 1/2 RB Cycle Graphic from my #8 Cirkut Outfit has a 10
1/2"-18"-24" Turner-Reich triple-convertible lens. The right side of the
bed has two focus-gear scales, for the 10 1/2" and 24" lenses. The left
side of the bed has the 18" focus scale toward the rear (1 13/16" between
nail heads), and a front scale with a single line labeled D (7/16" between
nail heads). This D line is the index mark for positioning the front
standard when the camera is opened and extended. If the nail holes you
mentioned on your camera have a similar spacing, it may indicate your lens
was originally a triple. Another thing you might look for is any extra nail
holes on the right side of your bed. If there don't seem to be  any, it
would indicate the 12" and 24" scales are original to the camera.

If anyone knows of a 12"-24" double-convertible or a something-12"-24"
triple, you might post the information. 


>> Finally, if you open the front door and look up inside the top of the
>> body, you may see a serial number stamped into the wood. I'm curious
>> what the number is. It may help date the camera.
>
>It looks to be 87340.

Richard Knoppow on the rec.photo.equipment.large-format USNET newsgroup
just posted a list of Graflex serial numbers, with the note the company had
a rather strange system. Go to Dejanews.com and search "Graflex Serial
Numbers" if you want to see the complete post. The list gives the dates of
#47,000 to 87,976 from 1915 to 12/5/1918. However, Jim Johnson's Cirkut
number list shows #8 Outfits with 87xxx numbers dated from 1921 to 1924. It
seems likely F&S might have set aside a group of Cycle Graphics for use
with Cirkut Outfits and they weren't sold right away.


>I got the camera as part of a studio that I bought out.  They had been
>working with Cirkuts for many years, and retained both a # 8 outfit and
>a # 10 camera, which I rent from them to do groups.  At one point they
>had two 10s, at least one 8, and a 16.

If the studio has an extra gearhead you can talk them out of, you might do
so. The #8 Cirkut Attatchment, gears, tripod legs, etc. will be fairly easy
to find, but not the gearhead.

Leonard