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Wellcome Photographic Exposure Calculator

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A couple of weekends ago we dropped in at the Bloomsbury Ephemera, Postcard and Book Fair, and picked up this wonderful little piece of print: The 'Wellcome' Photographic Exposure Calculator - Handbook and Diary 1939.

 

cover

 

inside-front-cover

 

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wellcome_title

associated-houses

It's a wallet sized handbook packed full of information for photographers. It's divided into three sections - up front there's a section on developing and printing your photographs (using Wellcome's branded chemicals of course) - this is followed by a notebook and diary section, and then there's a final section which details the specifics of getting the right exposure using the exposure calculator inside the back cover.

It's quite a treasure-trove.

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general trade mark

 

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foreword

 

There's a great bit advising budding photographers on how to sell their prints:

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selling photographs

 

There's also a page detailing the full kit needed for a photographic tour:

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things you may need

 

The notebook section is just delicious, printed on a now-yellowed glassine-style paper:

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No of negative

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memoranda

personal-notes

Just lovely stuff.

The diary section of course has added poignancy given that 1939 was the year that war broke out in Europe.

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The inside back cover features the exposure calculator (as well as a great promotional tag for Tabloid / Rytol developer tablets, glued around a printed ribbon). The preceding pages of light tables are perforated so that you can tear them off at the end of each month - keeping the most up-to-date information easily to hand. Brilliant.

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exposure calculator

Marvellous.

 

posted: 9 June 2015
categories: Ephemera
 
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