Ernemann Archimedes
The great Greek mathematician Archimedes famously left his mark in history with his calculations and theories involving everything from the area of a circle to the displacement of water. He was also an accomplished inventor and mechanical engineer as well. Perhaps it is due to these latter qualities, as opposed to his mathematical achievements, that the German camera manufacturer, Ernemann, chose to design and name a camera after him.
The Archimedes was introduced sometime in the first decade of the 20th century. It is a box-style, large format camera meant to use either 9x12cm plates or film. In addition to its categorization as a large format box camera, it also is a magazine-style camera. This innovation, popularized in the late 19th century, allowed photographers to load multiple plate holders into their cameras. After each image, the exposed plate could be released to fall forward into a holding area and the next plate in the stack would be pressed forward and into place behind the lens, preparing the camera for its next image without the photographer needing to reload the camera in the dark, or change film holders! This made such cameras as the Archimedes faster to shoot and much more convenient to carry around.
As cool a feature as this is, it is perhaps not the Archimedes' most impressive ability. The feature that truly steals the show is the camera's rise/shift function. The entire front section of the camera can be slid on a rail, allowing a rise function when the camera is held in portrait orientation, or a shift function if it is rotated to a landscape orientation. Ernemann claimed it was the first camera of its type to have such a feature and, if true, would represent quite a mechanical design achievement for the time, aptly earning the camera's Archimedes name.
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