The Alliance company was set up by the leading wholesalers in Britain to produce roll-film cameras and film, it was in existence for only two years from 1902. Houghton advertised box and folding cameras under the Scout name which were produced by Alliance but otherwise not much is known to be produced by Alliance. Cameras bearing the Alliance name are rare.

The Scout box camera was sold in two sizes, for 2 ¼" x 2 ¼" and 2 ¼" x 3 ¼", when introduced in 1902 the smaller model was known as the No. 1 and the larger No. 2, the following year designations of A and B respectively were used. The model B was fitted with two brilliant finders the model A had a single ground glass finder though the earlier model No. 1 did not have a finder.

The No. 1 Scout must have been produced to compete with the No. 1 Brownie from Eastman, the price was the same at 5/-.

This example appears to be unused, it is fitted with a take up spool made of wood with red/brown end pieces made of fibre.