WBKB, Chicago Camera Mystery #2

On June 4, 2014 - TV History

WBKB, Chicago Camera Mystery #2…Anyone Have A Clue?

UPDATED 2021: At this Patent link we get our answer and see the inventor is Bill Eddy, WBKB chief engineer. https://patents.google.com/patent/US2315406

While we’re at WBKB in the ’40s, I thought we would try and identify these unique cameras. I had seen these photos a few years ago, but in all my research, have never seen anything even close to this design.

They remind me of something French made, but with WW II raging, I don’t see how they could be from Europe unless they were made before the war started there in 1939. The housing looks too sophisticated to have been home made. Anyone know anything about these cameras?



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4 Comments

  1. Dennis Gaffney June 4, 2014

    Where do you get this stuff!

  2. Mark Tipton June 4, 2014

    Assigned to Balaban and Katz…the big vaudeville impresarios.

  3. Troy Walters June 4, 2014

    Here is the link to the patent for this very camera as promised https://www.google.com/patents/US2315406

  4. Troy Walters June 4, 2014

    There is a patent for this camera complete with drawings on Google Patents when I get home I’ll find it and post the link