Blair Tourograph & Dry Plate Co.

Combination Camera, Variation 2

Blair-Foss catalog, 1890, p.10

5x8

Date Introduced: - ; Years Manufactured: c.1883-1894
Construction: rear focus via rack and pinion (two gear tracks on top of base rails); single swing or double swing (5x8 only); reverse by two tripod mounts; three-piece lensboard
Materials: mahogany body; cherry base; black fabric bellows; nickeled hardware
Sizes Offered: 1530=4x5 w/ 5x8 extension; 1531=5x8A w/ 6½x8½ or 8x10 extension; 1532=5x8B w/ 6½x8½ or 8x10 extension
Notes: The combination part of the name referred to the ability to have two plate sizes in a small package due to the Blair Patent Extension pieces.   The above camera is 5x8, and the Blair Tourograph & Dry Plate Co. Catalog, 1884, p. 8 states: "The 5x8(A) is the camera well known as our 'Triumph'".  The A model had a 13" focus capacity; there was a B model having a 14.5" focus capacity.  The dark-slides in the holders are metallic zinc, an option so stated in the 1884 catalog.  The Combination Variation 1 has friction focus rather than rack and pinion.  The 1895 catalog reference does not have this model in the main part of the catalog, but only in the Annex, used for discontinued models.
References:
Photographic Times 13, March, 1883, p. V
Blair Tourograph & Dry Plate Co. Catalog, 1884, p. 8-10
Photographic Lenses and How to Select Them, James W. Queen & Co. (Philadelphia, PA), 1887, back cover
Illustrated Catalogue and Price List of Photographic Apparatus and Supplies, Section A, Blair Camera Co. (Boston, MA), distributed by Oscar Foss (San Francisco, CA), 1890, p. 10
Anthony's Photographic Bulletin XXV No. 5, May 1 1894, p. xi
Illustrated Catalogue and Price List of Photographic Apparatus and Supplies, Blair Camera Co. (Boston, MA), 1895, p. 45

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