August Semmendinger (April 9, 1820 – August 6, 1885) was a manufacturer of

photographic Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed i ...

apparatuses and the inventor of the

Excelsior Wet Plate Camera The Excelsior Wet Plate Camera is a type of wet plate camera invented by August Semmendinger, one of the first manufacturers of wet plate photography. Excelsior cameras were manufactured in both New York City and Fort Lee, New Jersey starting in ...

. Semmendinger first made his cameras in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The second factory where he built his cameras was located in Fort Lee,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Early life

August Semmendinger was born on April 9, 1820. Records indicate he emigrated to the United States from

Bad Urach Bad Urach () is a town in the Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen, at the foot of the Swabian Jura, Swabian ''Alb'' (or Swabian Alps in English), and is known for ...

, Germany, arriving in the United States on July 6, 1849, aboard a ship named ''Columbia'' which had embarked from

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

. Arriving with Semmendinger was his wife Magdalene, and his one-year-old daughter, Alwine. After arriving in the United States, August lived in Lower Manhattan at 9 Elizabeth Street as a cabinetmaker. In 1855-6 he moved two blocks over to 40 Forsyth Street where his occupation is listed as a box maker. Shortly thereafter, August moved to 144 Elizabeth Street where he began to manufacture cameras.

Career

Semmendinger began making

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

s in 1859 and claimed to be the first to manufacture "photographic apparatus". Semmendinger made his cameras in New York City at this time at Nos. 410 & 412 West 16th Street. Semmendinger was also an early camera designer, and was awarded three United States

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s related to camera making. The first, Patent No. 27,241, was earned on February 21, 1860, for a "Photographic Apparatus" This invention was used to take successive exposures using the same wet plate. A second patent was secured on August 7, 1860, Patent No. 29,523, for an invention simply described as a "Camera." By the early 1870s, Semmendinger moved his family and business to

and purchased land just across the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

in Fort Lee. Here, Semmendinger was awarded his third United States Patent, No. 145,020, for Photographic Plate-Holders. This patent is for what Semmendinger titled his "Celebrated Silver Double Corners." Semmendinger's fourth patent was for "Camera-Stands", issued on March 31, 1874 (Patent No. 149,255). In the summer of 1874, Semmendinger displayed his "photograph camera box" at the Fifth Cincinnati Industrial Exposition. He soon thereafter won a bronze medal at the 43rd exhibition of the

American Institute of the City of New York The American Institute of the City of New York, or, The American Institute of the City of New York for the Encouragement of Science and Invention was a civic organization that existed from ca. 1828 – ca. 1980. The institute was an association ...

for his "Elevated Camera Stand with double Swing Back Camera Box". He was later an exhibitor at the 1876

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

in Philadelphia where he displayed his "photograph apparatus". By 1882, his factory on Gerome Avenue (formerly Eickhoff or Ichoff Street) was a leading Fort Lee manufacturing industry employer. Semmendinger's "Mammoth plate" wet-collodion camera saw use in remote landscape photography despite its weight and that of the glass plates it used. It was considered a "monster". Semmendinger's idea of utilizing that portion of the camera just under the lens and converting it into a sort of cupboard was thought novel.

Family

Semmendinger married Magdalene Kinney (b.c. 1829) and together had eight children: Theodore, Alvina, Roland, Guido, Clara, Aloise, August, and Pythagoras.

Death

August Semmendinger died in

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, th ...

, on August 6, 1885. His sons carried on the photography business after his death.

References

Patents

U.S. Patent 27,241
"Photographic Apparatus", filed February 21, 1860

"Camera", filed August 7, 1860 *[http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00145020&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526d%3DPALL%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsrchnum.htm%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526s1%3D0145020.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F0145020%2526RS%3DPN%2F0145020&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page U.S. Patent 145,020] "Improvement in Photographic Plate-Holders", filed November 25, 1873
U.S. Patent 149,255
"Improvement in Camera-Stands", filed March 31, 1874

External links

semmendinger-camera.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semmendinger, August 1820 births 1885 deaths 19th-century American inventors German emigrants to the United States Pioneers of photography People from Fort Lee, New Jersey People from Bad Urach