2026-07-04 Brockway Slide Viewer

This Brockway Slide Viewer was one of two I spotted on the shelves of a thrift store. Sitting calmly on the shelf it looked a lot like the office equipment around it. Or similar to a card shuffling machine, except they are larger. Maybe a stubby but wide tape dispenser or some kind of paper punch.

From the side you can see where the slides would have been fed in. Later I learned that this little jewel of a slide viewer takes a slide changer. In the pictures I have seen of the slide changer it is a simple metal plate with two clips for slides to be mounted side-by-side. Load one side up in the protruding holder and then push it into the viewing stage while the other slide holder slot slides out to be loaded. After that first round you have to take the slide that emerges out to reload the holder for a return trip.
Projectors were made with the same slide changing system. It is slow, but the slides get changed without blinding flashes of light from an empty slide stage. Of course electric changed slide systems involving magazines of slides would come along eventually.

The whole bottom plate is held on by two metal clips on each side. You can see two of the clips just above the silver metal rivets about one third of the way in from each end.

With the bottom off you can see the two D size batteries that power the slide viewer. The metal plate in the middle is held on by two short screws you can remove with your fingers or a small slotted screwdriver. Remove the plate to access the two flashlight bulbs that illuminate the viewing stage. Looking for this slide viewer on the internet you often get listings for the viewer in original box complete with spare bulbs.

The slide viewer’s manufacturer’s name is Brockway.

The almost addictive attraction to the viewer comes when you gently press in on this release. The viewer will spring open and the light comes on.

The clever designers use the metal frame holding the viewing lens to complete the circuit from the batteries to the two bulbs. As soon as the viewer is slightly closed the circuit is broken and the lights go off. Because of the two D-cell batteries, the viewer with batteries loaded weighs 650 g / 23 oz. (the batteries weigh 284 g / 10 oz.).
Both slide viewers seemed to be exactly the same, but one viewer had the two batteries in it and lit up when opened. They were priced the same, so I took the one I knew worked!

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