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If you are familiar with how a Kodak Cirkut camera works, they make a continuous piece of film as they drive around a lazy susan type platform with a spring wound motor. Kodak made them up to 16 inches so 16 inch by 9 or 10 foot long pictures were possible. However in 1913 in Tonopah Nevada where I live, a fellow named Sheelor came to town and had the foundry (which is still here) make a 22 inch tall Cirkut type camera. We have an image made with this camera in our local museum that is 22" X 12 or 13 feet long. The Tonopah Times Bonanza touted it as the worlds largest photograph in 1913. Sure that pinhole neg they made in a hangar is bigger but did they ever make a print? This one is the real deal. The original camera exists in Alaska. Ron Klein owns it. We plan on bringing it back to Tonopah for a Boomtown History event this August. It will be displayed in the Central Nevada Museum next to the photo it made 96 years ago.
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How about the Mammoth camera, a huge camera custom designed by the Chicago photographer and inventor George R. Lawrence in 1900 in order to photograph a complete train owned by the Chicago & Alton Railway.
The photographic plate measured 2.44 × 1.37 m (8 × 4 1/2 ft). A single, 2 1/2-minute exposure of the train was made, and three contact prints sent to the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where the picture won the ‘Grand Prize of the World for Photographic Excellence’.
Sam H.
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PE, if you're talking about the Coloramas, Kodak still has a section about this on their website:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/feat.../colorama.html
I know the original poster specifically ruled out "images for special occasions", but heck!, these were so interesting! Never saw one in person, but they must have been impressive.
Per the site, Norman Rockwell designed and directed the Sept '57 shoot, Ansel Adams did 14 of them (6 are shown in the website "gallery"), one of my favorites for scenics, Neil Montanus, and plenty more.
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Bill;
No, this was not the colorama. I was referring to a one-time project for the NY Worlds Fair in the mid to late 60s. I forget the year, but the paper was a special design with a special coating structure. It had an extra UV layer on top and also had some sort of special repellant overcoat to avoid water damage.
PE
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 Originally Posted by jimgalli
If you are familiar with how a Kodak Cirkut camera works, they make a continuous piece of film as they drive around a lazy susan type platform with a spring wound motor. Kodak made them up to 16 inches so 16 inch by 9 or 10 foot long pictures were possible. However in 1913 in Tonopah Nevada where I live, a fellow named Sheelor came to town and had the foundry (which is still here) make a 22 inch tall Cirkut type camera. We have an image made with this camera in our local museum that is 22" X 12 or 13 feet long. The Tonopah Times Bonanza touted it as the worlds largest photograph in 1913. Sure that pinhole neg they made in a hangar is bigger but did they ever make a print? This one is the real deal. The original camera exists in Alaska. Ron Klein owns it. We plan on bringing it back to Tonopah for a Boomtown History event this August. It will be displayed in the Central Nevada Museum next to the photo it made 96 years ago.
Do you still have your Cirkut?
Michael Cienfuegos
If you don't want to stand behind our troops, please feel free to stand in front of them.
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PE, ahhh... I vaguely recalled some older technical papers on Tone Reproduction where the "World's Fair print" was referenced.
In fact, one is by Bartleson and Breneman (1967), "Brightness Reproduction...". And they speak of the 1964-65 World's Fair, prints displayed "on the tower of the Eastman Kodak Company's pavillion...".
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Originally Posted by ann
Clyde butcher is making beautiful 4ft x 5 and 6ft prints. and if I remember correctly he may do even larger ones. Interesting method he has worked out to do so. There was an article in B&W magazine earlier in the year with more specific information regarding his darkroom and methods.
http://www.clydebutcher.com/96fallnl/darkroom.htm
I was at one of Clyde Butcher shows at Williamsburg, Va. a while back. I can't remember the sizes of the prints but they were pretty big, at least the biggest prints I've seen personally.
Jeff
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Originally Posted by mhcfires
Do you still have your Cirkut?
Yes, in fact just within the last couple of weeks I've solved most of my previous problems. I got an original Turner Reich lens so the negs are sharp now, and I had a stainless steel 14 inch X 92 inch X 4 inch deep pan made to develop the negs laying flat out. I guess I never had the dexterity to do the scroll thing and not have issues in the sky. With time limited and resources expensive, you don't want to mess around with banding in the sky all the time. So hopefully soon I'll have some good negs to brag over. Tonopah is a really neat place to use one of these.
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Originally Posted by jimgalli
Yes, in fact just within the last couple of weeks I've solved most of my previous problems. I got an original Turner Reich lens so the negs are sharp now, and I had a stainless steel 14 inch X 92 inch X 4 inch deep pan made to develop the negs laying flat out. I guess I never had the dexterity to do the scroll thing and not have issues in the sky. With time limited and resources expensive, you don't want to mess around with banding in the sky all the time. So hopefully soon I'll have some good negs to brag over. Tonopah is a really neat place to use one of these.
I have done the scroll thing with 122 size film, but it is nothing compared with the multiple feet from even a smaller Cirkut. Glad you got your banding problems figured out. Will be interested in seeing the results of your efforts. Much of Northern Nevada and Eastern California is a photographer's dream.
Michael Cienfuegos
If you don't want to stand behind our troops, please feel free to stand in front of them.
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Originally Posted by Mr Bill
PE, ahhh... I vaguely recalled some older technical papers on Tone Reproduction where the "World's Fair print" was referenced.
In fact, one is by Bartleson and Breneman (1967), "Brightness Reproduction...". And they speak of the 1964-65 World's Fair, prints displayed "on the tower of the Eastman Kodak Company's pavillion...".
Yes, Jim and Ed wrote an article about it and I believe that many people thought it was a large transparency. It seems that illuminating a print with a high light level can make it appear backlit and as stunning as a transparency.
We had that demonstrated in a classroom theater at Kodak.
PE
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