Unique Stereoscope (3-D) Viewer

3-D is back! Movies, TV, comic books - you can even use Stereoscopes to view images on the Internet! These are sometimes known as ‘3-D viewers’ – and as a children’s toy ‘View-Master.’

One inventive customer called us to see if we had any loose lenses – he wanted to make his own Stereoscope. He was extremely happy when we were able to help him with his project – so happy, in fact, that he sent us one of the homemade wooden stereoscopes he’d made. We thought it was pretty impressive and decided to let other people know how to do this.

Instructions for making your own stereoscope viewer: http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/stscp/stscp.htm, http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Stereoscope. Please contact us to see if we have any loose lenses available and you too can make your own Stereoscope!

There are Stereographic clubs all over the world and competitions for those interested in making their own Stereo or 3-D images: http://www.stereoscopy.com/isu/memberclubs.html

Stereoscopes have been used and enjoyed by U.S. Presidents and British royalty - in 1851 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert observed one at the London Crystal Palace Exposition and were later presented with one for their own personal use. They come in many shapes and sizes and have developed over the decades to include ones that now can be used to view 3-D images on computer monitors: http://cprr.org/Museum/Ephemera/Stereo-Viewers.html, http://home.centurytel.net/s3dcor/sgraph.htm, http://www.ignomini.com/photographica/3dhandviewers.html

If you would like to know more about this unique hobby there are lots of web-sites but these will help you get started: http://www.stereoscopy.com/, http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/stereo.htm, http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/stereosc.htm, http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/stereo_history/text/historystereog.html, http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/research/r_virt_mm5.html, http://www.cinti.net/~vmmasell/Viewers.html