Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc, Thanks, for the interesting information. Regards, Horst Schmidt Marc James Small wrote: > At 12:40 AM 5/19/99 +1000, Horst Schmidt wrote: > >I believe Voigtlander was the first lens manufacturer who managed to > >calculate a lens. > > I'm not certain quite what is meant by this. Microscope objectives were > being calculated at both Leitz and Zeiss in the 1870's, long before > Voigtlander began to adopt modern mathematical design techniques at the > turn of this century. Certainly, Paul Rudolph's work at Zeiss predates > Harting's at Voigtlander by a decade and more. > > If you are referring to the Petzval lens, that was designed by Petzval and > THEN turned over to Voigtlander for production and marketing -- the tale > told is that Petzval was given a platoon of Austrian soldiers to do his > maths. It was after this that Voigtlander pirated the design and moved, in > the middle of the night, no doubt, from Vienna to Braunschweig to escape > the process of Austrian law. > > (So, you see: the Japanese are certainly not the only thieves in the > history of camera lenses!) > > Marc > > msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 > Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!