Demon Camera No. 1

American Camera Company

399 Edgware Road

London, England

Ca. 1889

Ex-collection Peter Coeln

The Demon Detective Camera was made in England by the American Camera Company circa 1889. (O’Reilly's Patent No 10823.) This small metal camera is the Demon No. 1 for 2 1/4 inch plates with a simple achromatic lens. Its flap and shutter are positioned in front of the lens. A larger model (No. 2 size) for 3 1/4 inch plates was introduced in 1890. The intricate design on the rear of the camera was designed by W. Phillips of Birmingham, England and is far more interesting than the conical front. The Demon was intended to be inexpensive and simple to use with 2 ¼ inch square plates. It was priced at 5 shillings (25p) when first released. It was designed to be concealed within the user’s garments, and an advertisement of the time boasted, “No movement is too rapid for it – the racehorse at greatest speed, the flight of birds, even the lightning flash itself”. Perhaps a little too boastful for such a simple camera. NOTE: In addition to collecting antique cameras, I’m also a novelist and have written and published ten adventure stories, to date. Six of those stories comprise my “Clay Arnold Series”. In that series, my hero, Clay Arnold, is a world-class photographer who becomes an avenging vigilante after his fiancee is murdered by right-wing terrorists. Clay’s weapon of choice is his antique Demon Detective Camera which he modified into a highly-charged electrified camera that he uses to “zap” his nemeses.