849
Doublet. The design was superseded by the Rapid Rec-
tilinear. Ross also introduced the Actinic Triplet, similar
to Dallmeyer’s Triple Achromatic lens. In Germany
Voigtländer marketed a patented portrait lens in 1878,
based on the Petzval design.
While the corrected symmetrical lens designs were
the most important technically and commercially there
were a number of design for symmetrical lenses that
were not corrected for aberrations. The resultant lenses
were generally very wide-angle. The fi rst of these was
Thomas Sutton’s (1819–1875) water-fi lled panoramic
lens which was patented in 1859 and gave a fi eld of
view of around 60 degrees. More successful was the
American optician C.C. Harrison’s Globe lens, patented
by Harrison and J. Schnitzer in 1860. The lens was made
by a number of European manufacturers and remained
popular throughout the century. Emil Busch’s Pantoskop
of 1865 was made in seven sizes. In the same year C.A.
Steinheil patented the Periskop which was partly cor-
rected although it did not become popular.
The next signifi cant improvements in lens design
were to take place from the 1880s.
Michael Pritchard
See also: Dallmeyer, John Henry & Thomas
Ross; Kodak; Bausch & Lomb; von Voigtländer,
Baron Peter Wilhelm Friedrich; and Petzval, Josef
Maximilian.
Further Reading
Eder, J. M. (translated by Edward Epstean), History of Photog-
raphy, New York: Columbia University Press, 1945.
Kingslake, Rudolf, A History of the Photographic Lens. London:
Academic Press, 1989.
——, “Pioneers of Photographic Lens Design and Manufacture”
in Pioneers of Photography. Their Achievements in Science
and Technology, Springfi eld, SPSE, 1987.
Ray, Sidney F., Applied photographic optics: lenses and optical
systems for photography, fi lm, video, electronic and digital
imaging. Oxford: Focal Press, 2002
Taylor, W and H W Lee (1935), “The Development of the
Photographic Lens” in Proceedings of the Physical Society,
47(3), 502–518.
LENSES: 3. 1890s–1900s
If the period of 1860–1880 was dominated by the
rapid rectilinear lens, then the period 1880–1905 can
be summed up with two designs, the anastigmats and
the triplets.
The rapid rectilinear design had one major failing
in that it suffered from anastigmatism. From 1884 new
types of optical glass with high refractive indices which
were being developed by Dr. Otto Schott of Jena. By
1886 his company, Abbe and Schott, had developed
new glasses containing substances such as barium, and
the new barium crown glass was incorporated into a
number of lenses including Voigtländer’s Euryscope
lens of 1886. Barium glasses were to allow signifi cant
new lens designs to appear.
The fi rst true anastigmat lens was designed by H.L.
Schröeder and J. Stuart, and patented on 7 April 1888
(BP no. 5194). Schröeder was working for the Ross
company that manufactured the lens as the Ross Con-
centric. It used barium crown glass and a new fl int glass
and it showed minimal signs of astigmatism or fi eld
curvature. The lens had an aperture of f/16 and was sold
for many years.
In 1890 the German optician Dr. Paul Rudolph
(1858–1935) designed a new lens for Carl Zeiss of
Jena which offered a wider aperture and further correc-
tions. It was an asymmetrical design also making use of
barium glass. The lens was sold as the Anastigmat and
from 1890–1893 various series of the lens were offered.
With the loss of their rights on the name ‘Anastigmat’
the lens was renamed the Protar in 1900. The lens was
made under license from Zeiss by Ross in London,
Krauss in Paris, Bausch and Lomb in Rochester, and by
others elsewhere. Sales of over 100,000 were claimed
by 1900. A wide-angle version was still being sold in
the 1930s. Zeiss’s Double Protar lens, a convertible
design, of 1895 offered the photographer a choice of
three lenses in one.
Other companies were quick to introduce their own
variant designs. In 1895 H.L. Aldis who was work-
ing for Dallmeyer designed the Stigmatic. Emil von
Hoëgh’s (1865–1915) patent of 1892 for a symmetrical
lens was made as the Goerz Double Anastigmat and
had an aperture of up to f/6.8. After 1904 this lens was
known as the Dagor and remained popular well into the
twentieth century. Von Hoëgh was made principal lens
designer at Goerz.
The fi rst wide-aperture anastigmat design was the
Zeiss Planar of 1899 which had a maximum aperture
of f/3.5.
The second signifi cant lens design of the period
was the triplet. On 25 November 1893 H.D. Taylor
(1862–1943) was granted a patent for a triplet lens
which consisted of three single spaced glasses. This was
a signifi cant departure from current lens designs. The
lens was sold from 1893 by Taylor, Taylor and Hobson
as the Cooke lens, the name in deference to Taylor’s
employers Thomas Cooke of York. The lens was simple
and of low cost and with an aperture of f/6.3. In 1935
Taylor and Lee of Taylor, Taylor and Hobson claimed
that “no fundamentally new principle of photographic
lens design has been originated since Dennis Taylor
invented this lens.” The design was adapted by Voigtlän-
der in 1900 for its Heliar design which was sold from- The Ross Homocentric and Goerz Dogmar were
similar triplet designs.
LENSES: 3. 1890s–1900s