Kodak enlarger - about 1902s -1930s

At our local museum (operated by volunteers) we are doing a special exhibition of old photographic equipment and old photos from our local area - showcasing some of our town's earlier photographors ( Dungog, NSW, Australia). We have been loaned a kodak enlarger that had been used in our town by one of the late local photographers about the 1920s - 1930s. The photography buffs in the group are very excited about it - but for a visitor who has little photographic knowledge it needs to be expained how it works and why it was used. Have done lots of research on it in the internet but cannot find an explantion of why they were used and how they worked. (Dungog is a small country town and our library resouces are limited). (I have been shown how it works etc but some simple technical information would be useful to assit our visitors).

Help!!!! Cheers Maureen

If you have not already received an answer to why an enlarger would be needed, I can provide an short write up to help your museum. This is the first time I've logged into this website/forum.

I'd be happy to help, but this forum looks like it will provide all the help you will need.

Let me know if I can help.

Walt