Taylor-Hobson
US advertisement of 1913 (Image rights) |
Taylor-Hobson are lens and precision instrument manufacturers based in Leicester, England.
The company was founded as T.S. and W. Taylor in 1886 by engineer William & optician Thomas Smithies Taylor. In 1887, W.S.H. Hobson joined the company.
In 1893 they produced their first Cooke lenses, designed by H. Dennis Taylor (no relation to the company founders) - optics manager of T. Cooke & Sons, York. Taylor was attempting to eliminate the aberrations at the outer edge of lenses, and in 1893 patented the Cooke triplet design (British patent no. 1991)[1]. Manufacturing rights were offered to Taylor, Taylor & Hobson, as the company was then known.
In 1932, the first Cooke zoom lens was introduced for cine applications. Around this time, Taylor, Taylor and Hobson was part-owned by Bell and Howell.[2] By 1939, Taylor-Hobson claim to have produced over 80% of lenses for film studios across the world[3]. Like much of the British photographic industry, the company became part of Rank at some time in the '40s.[2]
The company still exists, making lenses and lens measurement equipment, bearings, instruments and medical replacement joints - among other precision items[4]. It is currently part of the US-based Ametek, Inc. The separate lens company, Cooke Optics, also still exists in Leicester.
William Taylor was also responsible for testing golf balls in a wind tunnel, and developing a dimpled golf ball[3].
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Taylor, Taylor and Hobson Lenses
- Adotal
- Apotal
- Aviar
- Cooke triplet
- Cooke Amotal
- Ental
- Ortal
- Roytal
- Telepanchro[5]
T-H lenses may be dated from their serial numbers. Taylor, Taylor and Hobson also made Talykron shutters that some of these lenses are mounted in.
Notes
- Company history, first page, on the company's homepage
1913 ad of Taylor-Hobson image by Nesster (Image rights) |
- ↑ Company history at the Cooke Optics website
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Company information at Early Photography; the notes cite Rudolf Kingslake's History of the Photographic Lens (1989), Academic Press.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Company history at the Taylor-Hobson company web site
- ↑ Applications at the Taylor-Hobson website.
- ↑ Cooke Telepanchro 16 inch (406 mm) f/4 for Nikon F mount, c1960, sold at auction (for €2160) in November 2011 by Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna.