William Gruber put the magic of stereoscopic photos in our hands. BY BOB KNETZGER MASTERING 3D VIEWS
Wouldn’t it be fun if you could take your own family pictures
in thrilling 3D? That’s what William Gruber thought back in 1939.
Although stereo photography had been around for years, creating your own 3D photos was more than a little complicated.
It required special cameras and lots of
technical know-how to “fuse” together two
images to create a deep 3D space. That was
fine for hardcore hobbyists, but what about
the average person? For them, Gruber cleverly
combined several elements to create View-Master, a system for making and viewing
3D photos.
Gruber realized that the then-new
Kodachrome 16mm film could be used for
more than just movies. The long strip of film
could be cut into tiny, individual frames — an
economical way to make millions of vibrantly
colored transparencies.
Gruber laid out the frames as stereo pairs
in a ring around the edge of a flat disc. The
intraocular distance (the distance between
your eyes) determined the disc’s diameter
at 3 inches. A disc that size (called a “reel”)
was just big enough to hold seven pairs of
16mm frames of film. Voilà! The View-Master’s
sequence of seven images per reel was born.
The first View-Master (V-M) viewer was
made of brittle phenolic plastic with a split
hinge that opened to change reels. As you
pulled down on the lever, the reel swiveled
on a center pin, swinging the next image into
view with a snappy sound. That “tug, swirl,
clack — wow!” is the well-known and beloved
V-M 3D viewing experience. (To this day, V-M
reels are still made with that same punched
center hole, even though it hasn’t been used
in viewers in the last 60 years! How’s that for
backward compatibility?)
Forget Grandma’s clunky black and white
stereopticon cards. With the V-M, everyone
could easily view colorful 3D pictures anywhere. V-M went on to make and sell more
than 1. 5 billion reels with images from around
the world — scenic wonders, coronations, animals, fairy tales, and more. Like the ad says,
“The breathtaking beauty of View-Master
pictures is a new and delightful experience.”
But how to take your own 3D V-M pictures?
The second part of Gruber’s system was the
early 1950s-era View-Master Personal Stereo
Camera (Figure B). It used Kodachrome slide
film for brilliant color and smooth, grain-free
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