I just bought an Ilex Paragon Anastigmat 7.5 inches f/4.5, mounted on and Ilex #3 shutter. Big lens, big shutter. Information about it is rare (so is the lens, maybe) so I have three questions about this lens.

1. What can you tell me about it? I sort of understand that it's a coated copy of the similar 1940 era Ektar lense, which was a Tessar design. Is that correct? Any other thoughts about it?

2. What will it cover? I'm using it on a 4x5 caera right now, but some information I've found suggests that it will cover 5x7 and possible 8x10 - I wonder how much movment would be left at 8x10, however,

3. Finally, there is a second, smaller, cocking lever on the side of the shutter. It's linked to a small roulette and an abreviated chart that reads: 23 Yellow, 20 Blue, 5 White and O Red. The only thing cocking this lever seems to change is that it induces a short delay (perhaps 1/2 s) between the time I release the shutter and the time it actually fires. What's that thing? Is it flash related?