Unusual Equipment, applications and stories.
In addition to the conventional cameras which began to be produced from the 1860s, there were some which were, to say the least, novel:
Frederick Boissonas, a German, used a large camera to photograph close-ups of the Acropolis in Athens, in 1913.
The largest camera in the world.
In 1900 the Mammoth camera was used to photograph trains in America. Weighing
600 Kg., it took fifteen men to operate the brute. 
George R Lawrence set it up and pointed at a brand-new train standing in the distance. The Alton Limited was the pride of the Chicago & Alton Railway Lawrence had been asked to make the largest photograph possible of it, sparing no expense.
It reputedly cost five thousand dollars to build this camera - a huge sum in the 1900s.
The picture size was
4.5 x 8 feet. Whether the prints still exist, or how the development took place, I have as yet been unable to ascertain!
Edmond Bloch, from Paris, designed a Photo-Cravate in 1890; this was operated using a pneumatic bulb in the hand.
Several walking canes (e.g. the Ben Akiba) had small cameras inserted into their handles.
Cameras disguised as binoculars were also produced. On show in the RPS Museum is Nicour's Photobinocular, dated 1867. The left-hand side contained the camera, the right the viewfinder.
Samuel McKellen patented a detective camera, shaped like an attache case.
Cameras were disguised as parcels, or books. The Taschenbuck, shaped like a book, became quite popular, selling for £7 10s (£7.50)
Famous was Stirn's Detective camera, made from 1886, and costing less than two pounds. This was worn under a waistcoat, with the lens protruding through a button-hole.
The Ticka camera, made from 1906, was shaped like a large pocket watch
There were even cameras designed to look like a pistol. One, dated 1862, was the Thompson Revolver. It was fitted with an f2 Petzval design, which permitetd instantaneous explosures in good light. Another example was Skaife's "Pistolgraph." He once aimed this at Queen Victoria, and was immediately surrounded by the police, and he was forced to open the pistol to satisfy the police that this was not an assassination attempt.
There were other unusual applications. One camera was mounted on a kite, another on a rocket, whilst a Dr. Neubronner perfected a camera to be mounted on a homing pigeon.
Photographers using the Collodion process had a particular difficulty when on location, as the sensitising, exposure and development had to be carried out whilst the plate was still wet. Some used tents as makeshift darkrooms, but a more up-market darkroom was a converted hansom cab, such as one used by Thomas Annan. An example of a converted perambulator is described in the "Photographic News" for 29 April 1859.
Perhaps the most unusual method of enlargement was the use of Cristoid film, in use at the turn of the century. This being all gelatin, it swelled when it was developed, and therefore produced a larger photograph without the need for enlargement. It is claimed that Alvin Langdon Coburn experimented with this film, his "ten by eights" finishing up as twelve by tens!
In 1856 the King of Naples forbade the practice of photography in his dominions. The reasons are not given, but it is possible that he or his subjects associated it with the evil eye!
"Watch the birdie!" The Museum at George Eastman House displays a little brass bird over a camera. The legend reads:
"Birdie, 1870s. Nineteenth-century photographers used many devices to try to get the attention of their subjects. This birdie not only tweeted, but also fluttered its tail when the photographer squeezed the air bulb attached to the slender pipe. The phrase 'watch the birdie' originated with this item." (1)
(1) I am grateful to Claudio Simone, of George Eastman House, for this information.
The following appeared in the St Catherine's Journal, Ontario, 10/9/1859:
"An Irishman in Oswego [New York] who had been two or three times, unsuccessfully, to an artist to take a dagguerreotype (sic) of his dead child, actually stopped the funeral procession, last Saturday, and taking the coffin up into the daguerrean gallery, insisted that the likeness should be taken. It was done, and the procession moved on, after standing some time in the street."
A photograph taken in 1842 has sold for a world record £565,250 at auction.
The photograph of the Temple of Jupiter at the Acropolis in Athens was taken in 1842 by the French artist and historian, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey.
It was expected to fetch up to £120,000 but attracted rival telephone bids that pushed the price up during the auction at Christie's in London.
The image, known as a Daguerreotype after the inventor, was taken using an early photographic process with the image made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plate.
The record sale was among 86 photographs taken by Girault de Prangey, which raised £3.7 million. They featured some of the earliest surviving photographs of Greece and the Middle East, which the artist photographed on his travels.
Story filed: 16:49 Thursday 22nd May 2003
In 1906 a Mr. S. L. Rothafel dipped cotton material in rose essence, and hung this in front of an electric fan at a cinema in Pennsylvania during the showing of a newsreel. We have no record of how successful it was. Rather disastrious was the production of a play in Broadway in 1945, whenn the usherettes, programmes and upholstery were sprayed with French perfume. Sadly, the audience went to sleep, the actors became sick, and the experiment was abandoned!
In early 1960 "Smellovision" was launched with the screening of a film called "Scent of Mystery." The smells were piped to each seat in the auditorioum, programmed by a track on the film. The smells were said to include new bread, garlic, conffee, organges and sea breezes. A review quoted an etrepreneur as saying "I am scared that too many of the opposition will turn up at the premier armed with Airwicks!"
(Smellies are still planned. see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4903984.stm