J. Lancaster and Son


J. Lancaster and Son, optician and camera maker, of Irving Street, Birmingham.
Made wooden view cameras, among them several cameras for smaller plate formats. The 1/4-plate Lancaster Instantograph was one of the better known. A very special model was the Gem Apparatus of 1880, a camera with twelve lenses to shoot the same subject twelve times at once. Lancaster made its own lenses and had patents for shutters. Other products were magic lanterns. When Lancaster made metal cameras, they were special ones such asthe telescopic Patent Watch Camera in pocket watch format.