What the Heck IS This Thing #3

The Lovettsville Museum has quite a few farm and household implements from the 19th and early 20th centuries, which have been grouped together as a look-and-touch interactive display and guessing game of “pre-digital era” technology, with answer cards attached.  Many of the objects truly amaze and confound today’s youngsters, who love to pound the keys on our prehistoric computer, aka our 1913 Underwood typewriter from the old Lovettsville Post Office (today’s Thaiverse Restaurant).  For your consideration and puzzlement, presented here is one of the mystery objects in our exhibit.

 

Can you guess what this object is —

and what it does?  

(Hint: the answer is at the bottom of this webpage)

 

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ANSWER to the “What the Heck IS This Thing #3?” Game


This is a vintage Brownie 2 Camera from the early 1900’s.

The Kodak Brownie Number 2 is a box camera that was manufactured by the Eastman Kodak Company from 1901 to 1935.  There were five models of the Brownie Number 2 camera, A through F, and it was the first camera to use 120 film. It also came with a viewfinder and a handle. The Brownie 2 was made of a choice of three materials: cardboard, costing US$2.00, aluminum, costing US$2.75, and a color model which cost US$2.50.  The Brownie 2 at the Lovettsville Museum is a beautiful red color model Brownie 2.  It was a very popular and affordable camera, and many are still in use by film photographers. Note that the user held the camera at waist height and looked down into the viewfinder.  Each roll of film contained just 6 frames (6 photos).  It was necessary to take the film to a camera shop or drugstore for chemically developing and printing on photo paper, which took a few days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(camera)

Brownie camera lady

brownie camera advertisement

Brownie camera advertisement large

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Visit our “What the Heck IS This Thing?” mystery objects exhibit and guessing game, on Saturdays between 1:00-4:00 at the Lovettsville Museum, 4 East Pennsylvania Avenue, next door to Lovettsville Town Hall.

If you enjoyed this post, please support our mission to protect and preserve the history and heritage of Lovettsville, the German Settlement, and our unique corner of Loudoun County, Virginia, by purchasing a membership or making a financial contribution.

The Lovettsville Historical Society, Inc. is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to the Society, and membership dues, are tax-deductible under the Internal Revenue Code.