Wollensak

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Wollensak

Wollensak was an American manufacturer of audio-visual products. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, many brands of Movie camera

Movie camera

The movie camera is a type of photography camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of photographic film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images, each called a "frame"....
s came with a Wollensak "Velostigmat" lens, while their reel-to-reel tape recorders were prized for their robust construction and value.

firm was founded in 1899 by Andrew Wollensak to produce camera shutters. At its peak in the 1950s, it employed over a thousand people.

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Encyclopedia

Wollensak was an American manufacturer of audio-visual products. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, many brands of Movie camera

Movie camera

History

The firm was founded in 1899 by Andrew Wollensak to produce camera shutters. At its peak in the 1950s, it employed over a thousand people. The company had several owners, including Revere Camera Company

Revere Camera Company

The Revere Camera Company was started in 1920 by Mr. Samuel Briskin, who also started Wollensak Recorders and Opticals.Founded in 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, USA as the Excel Radiator Company by Ukrainian immigrant Samuel Briskin to manufacture car radiators, but started manufacturing some coarse household products later in the decade....
and 3M

3M Company , formerly Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company until 2002, is an United States multinational corporation Conglomerate corporation with a worldwide presence....
Company. Wollensak ceased operation in 1972.

Camera equipment

Wollensak began making camera lenses in 1902. The company also produced camera shutters for large format cameras. They made shutters such as the Betax, Alphax, Optimo and, for the Graflex Corporation, Rapax.

The Betax shutters were patented in 1912 and remain popular for large format photographers today. Betax shutters are made in different sizes from size #0 to the huge size #5. These shutters are very reliable and relatively easy to repair.

Wollensak purchased the Fastax high speed rotating-prism camera developed by Bell Labs

Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories is the research organization of Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company .Bell Laboratories has had its headquarters at Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, and it has research and development facilities throughout the world....
from Western Electric

Western Electric

Western Electric Company was an United States electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of American Telephone & Telegraph from 1881 to 1995....
, and developed it to a capability of 10,000 frame/s, see High speed photography

High speed photography

High Speed Photography is the science of taking pictures of very fast phenomena. In 1948, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers defined high-speed photography as any set of photographs captured by a camera capable of 128 frames per second or greater, and of at least three consecutive frames....
. Fastax cameras were used for recording projectiles and explosions, including nuclear explosions.

Audio-visual

3M also used the Wollensak brand name on audio tape recorders for many years. They were among the first manufacturers of cassette

Compact Cassette

The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape Sound recording and reproduction format....
decks, as well as 8-track decks for home use.