AKELEY
GYRO HEAD
Akeley Camera, Inc., 175 Varick Street, New
York City Early-to-late 1920's
For use with an Akeley Camera and Tripod from the 1920's,
this is the panoramic portion and the ball-and-socket base for an Akeley Gyro Head. Photos below show the Tilting Arm assembly
attached, required to mount the Akeley Camera. This style head is believed to
be Akeley's earliest, probably introduced in the late teens prior to 1920 along
with the Akeley Camera. Its manufacture would continue into the mid-to-late
1920's until Akeley's Universal Gyro
Tripod replaced it in 1929.
The entire unit, having gyroscopic movements for both the
pan and tilt, incorporated a ball and socket design that permitted quick
leveling of the camera. I've referred to
it for brevity's sake, as a "gyro head". However, the correct names
as referenced in Akeley's price lists are "Panoramic Arm, with pan control
mechanism", Tilting Arm with tilt control mechanism" and "Ball
and socket with quick leveling unit and base".
Having a ball and socket mount, the upper portion of the
head was equipped with a bubble level. This arrangement permitted the camera to
be adjusted to 0 degrees horizontal, irrespective of the position or the
extension of the tripod's legs. The lower base's underside has the "Akeley
Camera, Inc." name molded in alongside "No. 95" which is stamped. The number "347" can also be found stamped on the cradle's top
surface.
Patent No. 1,300,805 dated April 15, 1919 covered the
design for the camera's tilting mount and the tripod's ball-mount adjustment
feature:
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Akeley cameras, lenses, tripods and other accessories are
rare today. All part of our early
cinematographic past that's rapidly vanishing.
Photos
showing the Tilting Arm (vertical tilting mount) that would have held the
camera in place, and its attachment to the Gyro Head:
1920's
Akeley Catalogue showing the Akeley Camera, Gyro Head and Tripod: