Item is a wooden, leather-covered Waterbury Improved Detective Camera. The design is a simple box format with film holders accessed through a door at the rear, and shutter assembly inside the front of box. On the inside of the plate holder door, a sticker reads "Caution, This film must be developed before Jan. 1st, 1900."

Item consists of a 16mm subminiature camera designed to resmble a cine camera. It has a f6.3 meniscus lens and guillotine shutter with a speed of 1/60 seconds. The camera has an aperture scale from f6.3 to 16, a manually reset frame-counter, and a two-piece sports finder. There is also a tripod socket that doubles as flash synch-contact.