Giant Holmes, Booth & Haydens info wanted

[RawheaD]

Can anyone give me any info on this giant lens.

The focal plane is around 24” from the flange. It may have belonged to EE Barnard who was a famous astronomer.

Truly any info appreciated. 240528

[domaz]

Measuring the size of the front objective might help determine the speed of the lens. If it was used for astronomy I would expect they would have wanted a very large front objective.

[RawheaD]

Measuring the size of the front objective might help determine the speed of the lens. If it was used for astronomy I would expect they would have wanted a very large front objective.

It's about 5, maybe 6 inches. It's enormous :) Yes, I'm assuming the F-stop to be around F4.

[reddesert]

E. E. Barnard, among many other things, made a number of celestial photographs with a large lens he refers to as the "Willard lens," a lens he describes as 31" focal length and 6" clear aperture, originally made for wet plate portrait photography (Barnard writes in 1913 that the lens cost its original photographer owner several hundred dollars in the 1860s, a staggering sum). Barnard describes this lens in the introduction to a set of photographs and mentions that Willard was not a lens maker but a dealer, in the same breath as Holmes, Booth, & Hayden. But he doesn't say his lens was from Holmes, Booth, & Hayden.

You can read what Barnard wrote in the Lick Observatory Bulletin here: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1913PLicO..11....9B/abstract click on the links under "Full text" on the right to get a PDF or gifs of the scanned article. The discussion of his Willard lens is on page 12. The actual photographs are not shown; if they have been scanned, they are in a different entry. I don't have deep knowledge of Barnard's work, or Holmes Booth & Hayden for that matter, but I do know how to dig out references in the astronomical literature, which is how I found this.

[RawheaD]

E. E. Barnard, among many other things, made a number of celestial photographs with a large lens he refers to as the "Willard lens," a lens he describes as 31" focal length and 6" clear aperture, originally made for wet plate portrait photography (Barnard writes in 1913 that the lens cost its original photographer owner several hundred dollars in the 1860s, a staggering sum). Barnard describes this lens in the introduction to a set of photographs and mentions that Willard was not a lens maker but a dealer, in the same breath as Holmes, Booth, & Hayden. But he doesn't say his lens was from Holmes, Booth, & Hayden. You can read what Barnard wrote in the Lick Observatory Bulletin here: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1913PLicO..11....9B/abstract click on the links under "Full text" on the right to get a PDF or gifs of the scanned article. The discussion of his Willard lens is on page 12. The actual photographs are not shown; if they have been scanned, they are in a different entry. I don't have deep knowledge of Barnard's work, or Holmes Booth & Hayden for that matter, but I do know how to dig out references in the astronomical literature, which is how I found this.

Super cool!!! Thanks; this is very interesting.

It is almost certain that this lens belonged to Barnard, or at least he tinkered with it, since it came from Yerkes Observatory, along with many of his possessions. Barnard says that Charles Usner probably made the optics for both Willard and Holmes, Booth, and Haydens, so the optical design may be pretty similar to what he described in this bulletin, if not necessarily identical.

Anyway, will do some more measurements. I'm daydreaming of creating a wooden camera for this lens and do some Milky Way photography with it :D

[mhayashi]

Dear Satoru,

Here is another nice article about Willard lens.
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Astronomical_Photography/erh_Fx5LpasC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Your lens is photographed put in actual use in p3 of pdf
This lens was made in 1859, before the similar Dallmeyer 6A was made.
This suggests the optical layout should be the original Petzval layout, which suggests C. Usner might designed this lens based on Voigtlander 9A petzval, 780mm f5 d156mm:162mm. But I don’t know Voigtlander 9A predates 1859 yet.
This lens was used in a San Francisco photography gallery according to p78 or p12 in pdf.
Then the lens was put in use by 1889 at Lick observatory.

There are the biographies in the last pages.
Very interesting.

[RawheaD]

Dear Satoru,

Here is another nice article about Willard lens.
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Astronomical_Photography/erh_Fx5LpasC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Your lens is photographed put in actual use in p3 of pdf
This lens was made in 1859, before the similar Dallmeyer 6A was made.
This suggests the optical layout should be the original Petzval layout, which suggests C. Usner might designed this lens based on Voigtlander 9A petzval, 780mm f5 d156mm:162mm. But I don’t know Voigtlander 9A predates 1859 yet.
This lens was used in a San Francisco photography gallery according to p78 or p12 in pdf.
Then the lens was put in use by 1889 at Lick observatory.

There are the biographies in the last pages.
Very interesting.


Wow, thank you very much! Another very interesting reading. Although it doesn't mention a Holmes, Booth, and Hayden, the drawing of the Willard Lens camera on a telescope is exactly what I want to (re)create with this brass lens!

240663

I have since confirmed with the owner of this lens (John Briggs of Magdalena, NM) that this brass lens, though it was found with Barnard's items at Yerkes Observatory, was *not* catalogued as an item belonging to U. of Chicago, which tends to support the hypothesis that the lens was Barnard's personal possession. The fact that the lens approximates the famous Willard Lens, in it's dimensions, appearance, maybe the lens designer, optical design, etc., it's easy to imagine Barnard having several similar lenses lying around his office. Surely people on this board can understand lens hoarding! :D