Category:W Butcher and Sons

W. Butcher & Sons had its roots in a Nineteenth Century "pharmaceutical chemists" business, which, with the development of photography as a hobby and a commercial activity, advanced from selling the chemicals needed for developing photographs, to making and selling their own camera equipment, makign some equipment themsevles, and importing other equipment from Germany. William Butcher Sr. and William Fredrick Butcher built up the camera business, which was split off from the "chemists" business in 1903

As well as "magic lanterns", The company is remembered in the toy business as being the manufacturers of the Primus Engineering metal and wood construction sets, an early competitor to Meccano. It also produced a magic lantern slides, and films.

In 1915, with WW1 making it difficult or impractical to import camera equipment from Germany, and it created a joint camera manufacturing business with fellow camera-maker Houghtons. W. Butcher finally merged with Houghtons in 1926 to form Houghton-Butcher. Shutting down the Primus Engineering construction set range (which seems to have happened some time around 1923-1926) may have been a rationalisation move in advance of creating the new merged camera manufacturing company.

The Primus brand

While the company used the Primus Engineering marque for their Meccano-like construction sets, they also used the Primus brandname on photography equipment.

Addresses

• "WILLIAM BUTCHER and WILLIAM FREDERIC BUTCHER both of 33 Tranguil Vale Blackheath in the County of Kent Dealers in Photographic Apparatus"
• W. Butcher & Sons Ltd – Camera House, Farringdon Avenue, London

External links

• Butcher & Sons Limited Company History (historiccamera.com)
• Antique & Vintage Photographic Equipment: Little Nipper, W. Butcher and Sons (redbellows.co.uk)
• Science and Society picture library: W Butcher & Sons. (scienceandsociety.co.uk)
• Photographic equipment for the Everest expedition (nationalarchives.gov.uk)
• Magic Lanterns, supplied by W. Butcher & Sons (luikerwaal.com)

museum collections

• W Butcher and Sons 1866 - 1926 (collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk)
• Item HT 25381.1 Projector - W. Butcher & Sons Ltd, Magic Lantern, 1913-1930 (collections.museumvictoria.com.au)
• National Museum of American History: Trade catalogs from W. Butcher & Sons, Ltd. (americanhistory.si.edu)

photography and moving films

• "Alice in Wonderland" slides, W. Butcher & Sons (collections.tepapa.govt.nz)
• LUCERNA – the Magic Lantern Web Resource: Organisation: W. Butcher & Sons, slide manufacturer and dealer (slides.uni-trier.de)
  • Magic Lantern Slides listing (slides.uni-trier.de)
• Production Company: W. Butcher & Sons 1909-1913 (bfi.org.uk)

books

• Percy Lund, Photography for Novices. The Primus handbook (W.Butcher & Sons, 1902)

patents:

• GB189618579A An Improved Optical Lantern 1896-08-22 / 1897-07-03 (espacenet.com)

• GB190505852A Improvements in and relating to Means for Making Photographic Plates 1905-03-20 / 1905-05-25 ()
• GB190617513A Improvements in Electric Arc Lamps 1906-08-03 / 1907-02-28 (espacenet.com)

• GB191210457A Improvements in and relating to Cinematographs 1912-05-02 / 1912-08-22 (espacenet.com)
• GB191314137A Improvements in and relating to Photographic Enlarging Apparatus 1913-06-18 / 1914-04-30 (espacenet.com)
• GB191323472A Improvements in and relating to Mechanism for the Linear Transmission of Power 1913-10-16 / 1914-02-19 (espacenet.com)
• GB191327270A Improved Means for Operating Photographic Shutter Releases from a Distance 1913-11-26 / 1914-02-26 (espacenet.com)
• GB191417596A Improvements in and relating to Switches for Cinematograph Arc Lamps 1914-07-24 / 1915-04-01 (espacenet.com)
• GB191423388A Improvements in or relating to Focussing Apparatus for Plate and Film Cameras 1914-12-01 / 1915-06-17 (espacenet.com)
• GB191509955A Improvements in and relating to Focal Plane Shutters 1915-07-08 / 1916-07-06 (espacenet.com)
• GB100385A Improved Constructional Model Wheel 1916-03-08 / 1916-05-11 (espacenet.com)

• GB165575A A new or improved photographic camera body or frame and method of manufacturing same 1920-04-15 / 1921-07-07 (espacenet.com)
• GB168728A Improvements in or relating to photographic printing frames 1920-07-02 / 1921-09-15 (espacenet.com)
• GB193986A Improvements in or relating to photographic cameras 1921-12-06 / 1923-03-06 (espacenet.com)
• GB194897A Improvements in or relating to roll film photographic cameras having rigid bodies 1922-02-14 / 1923-03-22 (espacenet.com)
• GB197180A Improvements in and relating to passe partout edge bindings 1922-04-26 / 1923-05-10 (espacenet.com)
• GB201719A Improvements in and relating to gramophone record cases 1922-06-27 / 1923-08-09 (espacenet.com)
• GB207637A Improvements in or relating to shutters for photographic cameras 1922-09-08 / 1923-12-06
• GB210717A Improvements in or relating to photographic reflex cameras 1922-11-02 / 1924-02-04 (espacenet.com)
• GB210531A Improvements in or relating to photographic reflex cameras 1922-11-02 / 1924-02-04 (espacenet.com)