Tru-Vue, a subsidiary of Rock Island Bridge and Iron Works, was a manufacturer of stereoscopic filmstrips and corresponding stereoscope viewers, based in Rock Island, Illinois, from 1932 to 1951 and in Beaverton, Oregon, from 1951 until the late 1960s. [1]
The company is historically significant as a bridge between the stereoscopic cards of the 19th century and the View-Master reels of the mid-20th. [2]
The film strips, or film cards, were fed through a slide viewer similar to a View-Master, which was art deco or streamlined in style. The viewers were made of bakelite and available in multiple colors. When held up to light the images appeared in 3D. The films were based on attractive scenery, children's stories, travel, night life, and current events.
The company was purchased in 1951 by Sawyer's—the manufacturer of the View-Master—because Tru-Vue had an exclusive contract to make children's filmstrips based on Disney characters. [3] Tru-Vue moved at that time from Rock Island, Illinois, to Beaverton, Oregon, [4] near where Sawyer's had built a new plant, and for a few years was a subsidiary company of Sawyer's. [5] Eventually, it became only a brand name. Both View-Master and Tru-Vue products were manufactured into the 1960s by Sawyer's.
Competitors of Tru-Vue included the American company Novelview from the 1930s and the British manufacturer Sightseer from the 1950s. Forgeries of Tru-Vue are also known, including the British True-View from the 1950s that copied the style of viewers, filmstrips, and film boxes, and a True-View viewer made in Hong Kong during the 1950s that copied the shape of a Tru-Vue viewer but accepted opaque cards instead of films.
Beaverton is a city in the Tualatin Valley, located in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon, with a small portion bordering Portland. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area. Its population was 97,494 at the 2020 census, making it the second most populous city in the county and the seventh-most populous city in Oregon. Beaverton is an economic center for Washington County along with neighboring Hillsboro.
Stereoscopy is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word stereoscopy derives from Greek στερεός (stereos) 'firm, solid' and σκοπέω (skopeō) 'to look, to see'. Any stereoscopic image is called a stereogram. Originally, stereogram referred to a pair of stereo images which could be viewed using a stereoscope.
Silicon Forest is a Washington County cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. The term most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon. The high-technology industry accounted for 19 percent of Oregon's economy in 2005, and the Silicon Forest name has been applied to the industry throughout the state in such places as Corvallis, Bend, and White City. Nevertheless, the name refers primarily to the Portland metropolitan area, where about 1,500 high-tech firms were located as of 2006.
A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image.
Lenticular printing is a technology in which lenticular lenses are used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as they are viewed from different angles.
A 3D display is a display device capable of conveying depth to the viewer. Many 3D displays are stereoscopic displays, which produce a basic 3D effect by means of stereopsis, but can cause eye strain and visual fatigue. Newer 3D displays such as holographic and light field displays produce a more realistic 3D effect by combining stereopsis and accurate focal length for the displayed content. Newer 3D displays in this manner cause less visual fatigue than classical stereoscopic displays.
View-Master is the trademark name of a line of special-format stereoscopes and corresponding View-Master "reels", which are thin cardboard disks containing seven Stereoscopic 3-D pairs of small transparent color photographs on film. It was originally manufactured and sold by Sawyer's.
Reser's Fine Foods, Inc., an American corporation based in Beaverton, Oregon, manufactures and distributes fresh and refrigerated prepared foods. Over 1,000 products are available in the 50 U.S. states, Canada, Guam, Mexico, and areas of the Far East. Its prepared foods are sold in national grocery chains, independent outlets, and convenience stores. Oregon State University's football stadium, Reser Stadium, is named after the company, which is one of its sponsors. Reser’s is also a primary sponsor of Martin Truex Jr. and the #19 Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Cup Series. The company recalled 19 salad products distributed in 29 states in 2016 for possible listeria contamination. Reser's consistently ranks in the top ten privately held Oregon companies by annual revenue.
A polarized 3D system uses polarization glasses to create the illusion of three-dimensional images by restricting the light that reaches each eye.
The Sunset Transit Center is a TriMet bus transit center and light rail station on the MAX Blue and Red lines in Beaverton, Oregon. It opened for MAX in 1998 and is the 5th stop westbound on the Westside MAX. This is the first stop after the Robertson Tunnel under Portland's West Hills. Sunset TC is the second-busiest station on the Westside MAX line, with a weekday average of almost 6,000 daily riders in 2012. Though the station has a Portland address, it primarily serves residents of the communities of Cedar Hills, Cedar Mill, and Beaverton.
The View-Master factory supply well in Beaverton, Oregon, was evaluated for public health effects by the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) under a cooperative agreement with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Workers there were potentially exposed to the industrial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a probable human carcinogen. At the factory, which closed in 2001, it had been estimated by ODHS that up to 25,000 workers may have been exposed to TCE via the factory's drinking water, which was drawn from a well on-site. However, further investigation showed that the actual number of employees who can be identified from employment records for the site is approximately half that number. In addition, the number of employees identified as having worked at the site for more than five years is likely to be less than 1,000. The site is now considered safe.
A slide viewer is a device for looking at film transparencies or similar photographic images.
The Beaverton Valley Times, also known as the Valley Times, is a weekly newspaper covering the city of Beaverton, Oregon, United States, and adjacent unincorporated areas in the northern part of the Tualatin Valley. Owned since 2000 by the Pamplin Media Group, the paper was established in 1921. Currently based in neighboring Portland, the Valley Times is printed each Thursday.
The View-Master Personal Stereo Camera was a 35mm film camera designed to take 3D stereo photos for viewing in a View-Master. First released in 1952, the camera took 69 pairs of photos on a 36-exposure roll of 35mm film, taking one set while the film was unwound from the canister, and another set while it was rewound. Although focus was fixed, the camera supported both variable aperture settings and shutter speeds.
The 3D Center of Art and Photography was an American nonprofit educational institution in Portland, Oregon that opened in 2003. It was the first museum in the United States dedicated to stereoscopy. From 2003 to 2011, the Center was located in a small leased storefront on NW Lovejoy Street that presented exhibits open to the public.
Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (ESI) is an American high technology company headquartered in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, specifically in Beaverton, Oregon, since 2021, but from 1963–2021, it was based in the unincorporated Cedar Mill area just north of Beaverton. ESI is a developer and supplier of photonic and laser systems for microelectronics manufacturers. Founded in 1944, it is the oldest high-tech company in Oregon. Along with Tektronix, and later Intel, it has spawned numerous technology-based companies in the Portland area, an area known as the Silicon Forest. From 1983 to 2019, shares in the company were publicly traded on NASDAQ, under the ticker symbol ESIO.
Wiggle stereoscopy is an example of stereoscopy in which left and right images of a stereogram are animated. This technique is also called wiggle 3-D, wobble 3-D, wigglegram, or sometimes Piku-Piku.
Elephants Delicatessen is a local delicatessen and catering chain based in Portland, Oregon, in the United States, established in 1979. There are eight store locations.
Stereo photography techniques are methods to produce stereoscopic images, videos and films. This is done with a variety of equipment including special built stereo cameras, single cameras with or without special attachments, and paired cameras. This involves traditional film cameras as well as, tape and modern digital cameras. A number of specialized techniques are employed to produce different kinds of stereo images.
Sawyer's, Inc. was an American manufacturer and retailer of slide projectors, scenic slides, View-Master reels and viewers, postcards, and related products, based in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1914 as a photo-finishing company, Sawyer's began producing and selling View-Masters in 1939, and that soon became its primary product. It later diversified into other photographic products, mostly related to film transparencies, and established manufacturing plants in Europe, Japan and India. By the early 1960s, Sawyer's was the nation's second-largest manufacturer of slide projectors, and by 1965 slide projectors had surpassed View-Master reels and equipment as a percentage of the company's annual sales. In 1951, the company moved from Portland proper to the unincorporated Progress area in Portland's southwestern suburbs. In 1966, Sawyer's was acquired by New York-based General Aniline & Film (GAF), and its product lines and facilities were taken over by GAF. It was a subsidiary company of GAF until 1968, when it became simply a division of that company, renamed the GAF Consumer Photo Division. For several years thereafter, GAF used "Sawyer's" as a brand name for its slide projectors.
Media related to Tru-Vue at Wikimedia Commons