The Acme View Camera can be found in catalogs and advertising approximately from 1884 through 1888, although there was a similar Scovill tapered bellows view camera during the wet plate era (see American Optical New Camera Box).   It was referred to as one of a number of names: Back Focus Cone View Camera, Acme View Camera, Reversible Back View Camera.  Despite its workmanlike design, it was highly finished in the American Optical way, showing French polish on the wood, draw file finish on the hardware, and screw slots that were laboriously aligned along the length of each brass part then filed down perfectly even with the part.

      During the Scovill Mfg. Co. era (<1889), sometimes, this model's labels read: "American Optical Co., - Scovill Mfg. Co., N.Y. Prop't'rs" but sometimes they read simply "Scovill Mfg. Co., N.Y.".  During the Scovill & Adams Co. era (1889-1901), the labels merely read: "The Scovill & Adams Co. - New York".  Since the high quality construction and appearance of the camera is constant, regardless of era, it is likely that the camera was always manufactured in the New York City factory of American Optical. 

     There are three variations and one variation that has a different name (all are variations in the way plate holders are inserted into the back):

Acme Reversible Back View Camera Variation 1:  This is the camera as shown in the advertising, including a ~2" thick removable, reversible back.  To take a photograph, the back's ground glass frame is slid out and replaced by the plate holder.  All examples are marked Scovill or Scovill & Adams, and therefore thought to have been made in Scovill's New Haven, CT factory, formerly the Samuel Peck & Co. factory.

Acme Reversible Back View Camera Variation 2:  This variation also has a removable, reversible back, but it also has an interior ground glass frame that is released via a lever.  The plate holder would then be inserted into the hole vacated by the ground glass frame.  This variation is assumed to be c.1885, since this same back is pictured in 1885 advertising for the American Optical Co. Ripley Camera.  It may, therefore, be the first variation of the Acme chronologically.  But why then would the advertising engraving show the Variation 1?    It could be that Variation 2 was a very short lived, expensive to produce version of the Acme, the Variation 1 being the original version made before Variation 2, but also made after Variation 2 well into the Scovill & Adams Co. era.

Acme Reversible Back View Camera Variation 3:  This variation has yet a third variation of removable, reversible back, which, in this case, has spring back that, unlike Variation 1 and Variation 2, does not have to be removed to insert a plate holder - a very handy improvement.  It has a complex set of four springs that can be set open, allowing the plate holder to be easily slid under it, then released to tightly hold the plate holder in place.  This type of back is also seen in other end American Optical cameras of the Scovill & Adams Co. era.

     There is a fourth camera, which could be considered a variation in the Acme spring back, except that it was advertised after a gap in production, and was given the name: