Anthony and Scovill Ansco No. 1 / No. 2 / No. 3
Produced by Anthony & Scovill between 1903 until 1906, the Ansco is a large format box camera and the first to bear the Ansco brand name. In fact, if you ever found yourself wondering where "Ansco" came from, it was this line of cameras. Originally just a shortened form of ANthony and SCOvill to name a model of camera, the company would eventually adopt the name altogether. But that was many years down the road from this Ansco.
There were three Ansco box cameras, all produced concurrently, with size being the distinguishing factor. The Ansco No.1, for example, made 3.5" square images on 101 roll film. The Ansco No. 2 used 118 film to produce 3.25" x 4.25" images and the No. 3 used 103 roll film to make 4x5" images. Other than this the cameras are near identical.
The capabilities of the Ansco are pretty much what you would expect of turn-of-the-century box cameras. The shutter was a simple metal disc that used a "flip-flop" type mechanism. A pair of buttons on the side of the camera allowed the user to press either the top or the bottom button to trigger the shutter once. That button would then stay depressed and its opposite would then be pressed to trigger the shutter for the next exposure. A rotating dial allowed the selection of three different apertures and another switched shifted the shutter speed between an "Instant" or "Time" exposure mode. The lens was a simple, fixed focus, meniscus achromatic optic.
The Ansco name would go on to adorn many a box camera in later years. In fact, Agfa Ansco also had an Ansco No. 2 box camera produced right before WWII that used 120. This Ansco No. 2 is the grandfather of all of them though.
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