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Member LoginAkeley Tripod
Carl Ethan Akeley, inventor & manufacturer of the Akeley Camera, developed the Akeley Tripod. Carl Akeley was also a big game hunter & a wildlife photographer.
In the twenties & thirties the tripods in use were of the slip head variety which operated with two flat surfaces rotating on one another for the pan & a similar arrangement for the tilt. Although this acceptable in normal circumstances, when it was necessary to pan with running & moving subjects it was obvious that this was not good enough with the long lenses used in wildlife photography. To make smooth controlled pans & tilts Akeley invented the Gyro Head which consisted of a complex arrangement of gears & fly wheels housed in a bowl base with a tilt mechanism on top which was also gyro controlled. All the shafts & gears were on ball bearings to insure ease of action.
The pan used three speeds as well as a facility for a slip head. By use of a second knob on the control shaft the same control could be obtained for the tilt.
If further control was needed a separate shaft was provided for use with a hand crank (exactly like a camera handle) for both pan & tilt. One revolution of the pan crank handle gives one degree of rotation of the head.
The legs of the tripod were made from selected thoroughly seasoned maple & fitted with a patent quick locking device that clamps & releases the legs by a quarter turn of a single grip. This grip acts as a rigid brace & supplies a tension that greatly increases their natural rigidity.
When the Miller Hydraulic Tripod was developed in the forties the Akeley fell into disuse for several reasons. The size was too much for 16mm cameras & with television bringing about multiple channel press conferences; the noise of the gyro train was unacceptable.
The tripods continued to be used for sporting & documentary coverage until the early sixties when they disappeared into museums & private collections.
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 12 - March 2001