Victor Portable Stereopticon 

Victor Portable Stereopticon

A Victor portable stereopticon, model 2 Victor slide projector was patented in 1913 by Victor Animatograph Co. and was manufactured in Davenport. Lowa.

Produced by the Victor Animatograph Co. of Davenport, the prototype was unveiled at Dayton, Ohio, in February 1912, vying with several other makes for the honor of the world's finest image projection device. According to company literature, their entry was the first truly portable, lightweight stereopticon and the clear-cut "victor." The Model 2, like yours, was patented May 27, 1913, and continued to be manufactured well into the 1920s.
It was designed to project images from glass plate slides, which could be purchased through Victor and competing companies. Different lenses were available in order to reproduce clear images of varying sizes at a "distance of throw" between 10 and 70 feet. Projections of up to 150 feet could be achieved with its high-powered model.

Alexander Ferdinand Victor

The man behind the device was Alexander Ferdinand Victor. Though virtually unknown today, his life is the stuff of which complete biographies are written. From a promising career as the traveling magician and illusionist "Alexander the Great" to inventing the first motorized clothes washing machine, Victor's creativity and ingenuity led to applications for 86 patents and the design of more than 150 different models of still and moving picture machines.
Victor either designed or was instrumental in the development of such things as the moving picture stereotrope, portable electric arc lamp and the 16 mm camera and projector. Furthermore, he singlehandedly championed the adoption of safety acetate film and various improvements in film size and design, which, above everything else that he accomplished, were crucial to bringing motion pictures to non-theatrical fields. His efforts spawned the 8 mm and Super 8 amateur home-movie industry and provided the means for a young Steven Spielberg and other aspiring directors to make their first films.

Progress Dig Deeper