BoxCameras.com - Scovill Manufacturing Co. 'Waterbury Detective Camera', 1888

The Scovill Waterbury Detective Camera of 1888 was essentially a large black cube. In an era where photographers used large, cumbersome apparatus, the Waterbury Detective was quite lightweight by comparison, and not at all similar in appearance to field or studio cameras of the time. Its exterior is polished, ebonized wood, although it was also available clad in leather. It made 4 x 5 inch exposures on glass plates, and had the capability for either scale or ground glass focusing. The curved, metal latch on the left of the picture was attached to a string which set the shutter for exposure. Just above this latch was the shutter release button. The shutter had the provision for either Time or Instantaneous exposures.
	The image on the left shows the Waterbury Detective with a sliding wooden front panel removed. The string-set shutter was entirely enclosed within this panel. At the bottom center of the picture, you can see a small lever which is at the lower front right of the camera. This lever pointed to a numbered distance scale for focusing without the ground glass. In the image at the bottom of the page, you can also see that there is a lever underneath the camera for more clandestine focusing, for when the camera was being carried under the arm as one would a parcel or case. This was, after all, a camera designed to take photographs without attracting the subject's attention.
The rear of the camera (with another sliding wooden panel removed) shows the ground glass. For landscape, or more formal work, the photographer did not need to rely on the focusing scale, but could rather use the ground glass for sharp focus with the brass bound Scovill lens.
	This view of the bottom of the camera shows two unique features: first, the aforementioned focusing lever, and second, the provision to carry an additional plateholder. There are two pieces of metal, top and bottom (as shown in picture) which would allow a plateholder to be carried snugly inside the bottom of the camera. This was a novel idea for 1888 when most detective cameras either didn't have the provision for carrying additional plates, or were made unnecessarily bulky to allow the addition of more plates behind the ground glass.
An generic advertisement for Scovill & Adams, but the woman is clearly holding a Waterbury Detective Camera!