You can go see one in person, it sticks through the floor of the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. There is lots of animation history in that building. If you just wanna see the camera the top part pokes into the gift shop which you don't need admission to go into
Huge recommendation for the Disney Family Museum! It greatly exceeded my expectations, and there’s a lot of focus on Disneys innovations during Walt’s lifetime.
I rode past the museum on a hop on/off bus tour during my first trip to San Francisco, and being a Disney Adult, went back to my hotel and looked up, prioritizing a trip before I left. I was blown away, and have made sure to go back every time I'm in the Bay Area. Highly recommended if you're remotely interested in how Disney went from two brothers to the empire it is today, and special mention if you dig behind the scenes stuff.
...and it's a hunk of steel that must weigh a few tons and is built to withstand an extinction-level disaster. I mean, even for the '30s, it seemed a little bit excessive. I understand it had to be somewhat heavy for stability and all, but I suspect it could have been made more lightweight.
> I suspect it could have been made more lightweight.
Perfection is the enemy of done.
Those are the kind of improvements that happen when many items are made. I suspect Disney only made a few, and thus what was more important was creating a working multiplane camera than lowering its weight.
I also suspect that the weight added a lot of stability which prevented shaking between frames.
