A contact printer?

I believe this is a contact printer, but not like I have seen before:

 

Vintage Kodak Camera Equipment – Powers On Untested – Local Pickup | eBay

 

too big for my darkroom.

Yes it is. We had one like it in the studios 50 years ago.

Yours seems smaller though, ours had (IIRC 9) bulbs in a grid, each fitted with a dimmer. You could burn/shade/dodge (a little) with them.

Edited September 14, 2017 by chazfenn

It isn't mine, and I don't expect to bid on it, but it is at a nearby Goodwill store.

 

I did see a smaller one, that fit on a table, and not floor standing, once in a Goodwill store.

 

Too big for me.

When I first started in photography, 50 years ago, I had a little metal contact printer, also from Goodwill.

 

The door on top was held by two spring clips, and was hinged, such that you could open one side or the other, or both.

 

It came with some other darkroom supplies, which I still have, including a 4 oz measure and red Brownie safelight.

(At the time, Brownie safelights in the store were green and yellow.)

My first darkroom work was with an Ansco beginners kit with trays, red safelight (ortho film), and a metal box contact printer.

 

35mm was out there, but for slides and Leica/Argus C3 users.

Most of us were either shooting 620 or 120 film, so contact prints were big enough for snapshots.

Those "lamp-in-a-box" contact printers were complete overkill for most needs. I had a little black bakelite contact frame about 5"x4" in size that came with a set of red celluloid masks for 6x9, 6x6 and "bantam" negatives.

 

I initially used it - at about the age of 10 - for producing non-developed contact prints in sunlight. And later in a makeshift darkroom for "gaslight" paper prints under the 60w ceiling light. About 3 elephants exposure was usually needed IIRC.

We had a big one in high school, but the switchable bulbs are only useful if you're printing big negs. I do all my contact prints under the enlarger with a sheet of glass.

About 3 elephants exposure was usually needed

 

Somebody else who remembers 'Elephant Exposure' ! And to cope with Reciprocity Failure, you added in a Giraffe.

Elephants, Mississippi, Hippopotamus all worked fine.

If anyone is "thinking" about contact printing these days, might I recommend a 3/4 inch piece of Lexan cut to whatever size you want. Use the enlarger, yes, that old fashion piece of metal used to hold a light bulb & some form of optics. No glass to brake or "machinery" to go a-foul. Bill

I have always used chimpanzee. Who knew there was a veritable menagerie!

You guy's & your animals. . . what did I miss all those years when I used the enlarger timer?? Bill