I am trying to locate suppliers and/or manufacturers of disposable
periscopes. You may remember disposable periscopes from your childhood
or sold by vendors at street parades and mardi gras. Traditionally
they were made from cardboard, with mirrors fixed top and bottom. The
purchaser would fold the periscope together and then immediately use
it.

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Request for Question Clarification by angy-ga on 27 Mar 2003 00:57 PST

The only one I've ben able to locate is part of a kid's science kit -
is that of any interest?

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Clarification of Question by zedman-ga on 27 Mar 2003 02:23 PST

No, i've already found many references to the childrens science kit
periscope. This is not a suitable product. I am after a periscope that
can be sold at street parades, sporting fixtures and concerts. It will
need to be easily assembled by the buyer on the street, just after
purchase, and can be as easily thrown in the rubbish bin after the
event. I guess the length of the periscope should be around 50cm, with
the viewing window about 10cm wide. Maybe bigger on both dimensions.
There was a model that would fit perfectly shown in an old movie, a
scene in a Paris street parade, but I cannot remember the film name -
it would only take me 24 hours to get this information if you need it
though.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 27 Mar 2003 12:20 PST

This looks like ti comes close, but I'm not sure it's really what you have in mind:

http://www.calpots.com/toy_store/toy_store.html

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Clarification of Question by zedman-ga on 27 Mar 2003 16:23 PST

Please see the comment below from denco-ga. The Kodak periscope
denco-ga found is EXACTLY what i am after. I need to know what
manufacturers or suppliers have these units. Does not have to be Kodak
- i am sure we could find smaller firm/s that manufacture these (and
i'd bet they would be chaper too!).

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 24 Apr 2003 23:04 PDT

Howdy zedman!

If my last comment will do as an answer, I can post it as such.

Thanks!   denco-ga

For anyone working on this; here is an image of the type of
periscope that I am pretty sure zedman-ga is looking for:

http://www.vintagephoto.tv/kperiscope.shtml


Looking Forward, denco

Search criteria

parade periscope

Howdy zedman-ga!

I know this is not exactly what you are looking for (I am still
working on that as well...) but the price is right!

The K-READ Company of Austin, Texas has:

http://www.kread.com/Inventory/500%20Fun/Novelty-Fun.htm

Periscopes - See everywhere with these toy periscopes, 13" tall
RPER500  9 doz  Set of 12 for $15.00


Looking Forward, denco

denco-ga,

Your right, the price is OK, but not the style I want. The Kodak model
you found is perfect, and exactly what i am after.

My intention is to sell the periscopes at street parades & sporting
matches, that is why the Kodak version is so good. I guess the
manufacturer would provide them flat (pancake) and I would need to
assemble them, or get each buyer to assemble them.

Maybe if we could find the design and I could take that to a local
manufacturer - I was going to do that with a complete unit if I could
source a bulk manufacturer anyway. But lets keep trying.

Good work so far.

zedman-ga - The Kodak periscope at vintagephoto.tv is in my
collection.  If you like, I can take measurements and photos that you
could use to design your own periscope.  The periscope comes flat,
with the mirrors attached.  It assembles by pressing a few flaps into
place.  The Kodak mirrors are actually heavy glass!  You'd probably be
better off finding a lightweight metal mirror.

Howdy zedman!

Tracked down a company that manufactures cardboard periscopes, but
it is for one the various science kits.  That said, they appear to
be capable of doing most anything desired with corrugated materials.

http://www.bicknellfuller.com

Bicknell & Fuller Corrugated Packaging
4 First Avenue, Peabody, MA 01960
(800) 422-6948

info@bicknellfuller.com

Dave Purcell at Ext. 7811 has the account for Delta Education and
handles the cardboard periscopes for them.  The Delta Education
part number is 42-160-8122.  Delta Education sells them for $2.10,
so that might give you an indication of pricing.

I have not been able to find the above periscopes listed or pictured
at The Delta Education site at:

http://www.delta-education.com/

In worse case, if you were unable to use that design, I would think
that Bicknell & Fuller could use the specifications that camera-ga
has offered, to produce exactly what you desire.

In addition, perhaps for inspiration of designs, there is the United
States Patent site at: http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm
where you could look at such periscope patents as: 3,357,777

Search strategy: Made a series of phone calls and emails after
looking at web pages found through a search on:

corrugated cardboard periscope

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=corrugated+cardboard+periscope

Hope this Comment helps you and apologies on the time taken.

Looking Forward, denco-ga