Re: stereoscope parts

[John Roberts <roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 09:00:04 -0600
>From: china@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: stereoscope parts

>IN>Hi Kevin (and all stereotypes),

>IN>Re your question on finding replacement parts for an antique stereoscope:
>  >good luck! There were literally hundreds of styles and brands of viewers mad
>  >from the 1860s through the early 1900s, hardly any of them with
>  >interchangeable parts.

>Hello Mr. Burr,

>Although finding replacement parts would be great, I am actually looking
>for info. or a photo of an intact viewer so that my viewer can be
>restored (by rebuilding with new materials to match the existing).

>IN>It seems the crossbars/view stage are the parts most often missing, so you
>  >may have better luck finding a hood.

>I have the crossbar and view stage. It's the hood that is in fragmentary
>condition. (Sorry if my original post was unclear.)

>Kevin Yee

What were the original dimensions of your hood? I might be able to supply
some information.

I restored an antique stereoscope several years ago - perhaps some of the
techniques I used would be useful to others.

All that was left of the original stereoscope was the vertical wooden piece
with the lenses and the wooden slide bar - no hood, handle, or card holder.
I decided that my primary goal was to restore full functionality, with
appearance of secondary importance (though I wanted it to look "pretty good").

I used the hood of another stereoscope as a template, and made a new hood out
of white poster paper. (It included the inwardly curved top portion to allow
for the curve of the forehead.) I bent the paper to the correct shape, and
tacked it to the vertical wooden piece. I then used some combination of brown
stain and many coats of varnish inside and out to make the paper stiff and 
waterproof. (After the rest of the hood was done, I temporarily removed the
hood and finished the part that had been covered by the tacks.) Despite being
made of varnished paper, the hood has held up very well. It's slightly flexible
like leather would be, but was much cheaper and easier to work with. If someone
were to drop the stereoscope the varnish might crack, but it hasn't happened
yet, and dropping a stereoscope is a bad idea in any case. (If it did crack,
it would be easy to fix or replace.)

For the handle, I attached a medium-size dowel rod. (A more enterprising 
person could use a lathe to turn it down into a curved shape.) For the base,
I got a block of wood and mounted a short piece of a thin dowel rod in the top,
then drilled a small hole in the bottom end of the sterescope handle so it
could sit on the base when not in use.

The card holder was fairly tricky to make. I took a long thin piece of wood,
and filed a slot in the bottom to match the slide bar. I got a piece of sheet
metal, and cut it into a cross shape with rounded corners (all metal edges
sanded smooth). The wooden cross piece sits on top of the slide bar, with the
slot over the bar. The sheet metal cross is just under the slide bar, with
two of the extensions of the cross tacked to the underside of the card holder
bar across the slot to form a rectangular channel. The other two extensions
of the sheet metal cross press against the underside of the slide bar to hold
the card holder in place but allow it to be slid along the slide bar to adjust
the focus. Since I didn't want these pieces of metal to gouge into the slide
bar, I hammered the centers with a ball peen hammer (before attaching the 
cross, of course) to make the edges of the metal curve away from the slide
bar. By bending the extensions of the metal cross slightly before installing
the card holder on the slide bar, the tension can be adjusted.

I got two pieces of medium-gauge wire and bent them into long, thin loops.
I drilled small holes in the top surface of the card holder bar, and stuck
the ends of the wires into them. One wire loop was attached at each end of
the card holder bar. (The planes of the loops are parallel to the direction
of view when using the stereoscope.) The tops of the loops were then bent 
outward slightly. The loops of wire then formed two slots to hold the left and
right edges of the stereo card.

The vertical divider that separates the two views was also missing, so I made
a new one from a thin piece of wood.

All the new wood work was stained and varnished (the original slide bar had
not been varnished, and I left it alone - varnished wood sliding on varnished
wood tends to stick).

The end result was a fully functional stereoscope, that looks pretty good
(meeting the original design goals). With another 50 hours of work, I might
have been able to make it look like a fully authentic antique. :-)

John Roberts
roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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