Beckers stereoscope

[P3D Richard A. Wood <akrare@xxxxxxxxxx>]

One of the belts broke on my Beckers table top stereoscope.  You need to
take the Beckers apart, it's not hard to do.  I got some material from a
fabric store (white reinforced border material, I'd guess you call it.  It
comes on rolls like ribbon).  It was twice the width needed, so I folded it
in half, making a belt about 3/8 inch wide.  I then opened all 200 of the
wire clips (2 on each view holder).  Out fell tiny wood spacers.  I bent
the prongs out to take the old webbing belt off, and put back the new.  Use
needlenose pliers to close the prongs on the new belt, keeping each view
holder tight up against the last. The trick is to sew the new belt back
together with the right tension, so check to see how tight the old belt is,
if one is still intact.  I'd replace both belts.  It took the better part
of a day to do this, but it works fine now.  Keep the Beckers full of
views, to distribute the weight evenly.
Alexander Beckers was an interesting man.  He was a daguerreotypist as
early as 1842.  According to the wonderful book by William Welling,
PHOTOGRAPHY IN AMERICA: THE FORMATIVE YEARS 1839-1900, Beckers designed the
revolving stereoscope to help prevent the glass stereoviews of the day from
breaking.  He patented a revolving stereoscope in 1857.  In 1858 he ended
his career as a photographer to manufacture stereoscopes.  He made a lot of
them as they are not rare, but the price on a nice Beckers today is often
upwards of a thousand dollars US.  I'm sure Paul Wing's new book on
stereoscopes will have a lot of information on Alexander Beckers.  I
decided to post this to the list; others may have to replace their Beckers'
belts someday.  Dick Wood



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