H. Roussel TRYLOR - what is it?

[W K Longcor]

I'm cleaning out some old "stuff" that's been sitting around for years. I have a H. Roussel - Paris 135mm f/4.5 TRYLOR - in barrel with iris. Can anyone give me a little history and or commentary about this lens?

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

hello from France !
According to the rare information I have handy, the Trylor from the honourable Roussel company is a classical triplet lens.
135 mm is the standard focal length for the classical European 9x12 cm format.
If the lens is labeled "135 mm" and not "13,5 cm" there is a good probability that it is a post- WW-II lens. I do not know if this is a general rule for European manufacturers, but I have noticed that millimiter instead of centimeter engravings often correspond to post-1945 lenses.
The lens in barrel could be an enlarger lens, but in the good old days, there was not so much difference between standard taking lenses and enlarging lenses.
An image of this lens could, may be, give more information about the age and purpose of the lens.
But basically it is a triplet according to Dennis Taylor's famous design, patented in 1893 and still in use in the fifties an sixties of the last century.

Too bad that Roussel is not listed in Eric Beltrando's pages !
http://dioptrique.info/base/m/marques_.htm

To those interested in old photographic lens designs, I recommend Eric Beltrando's web pages (thanks to Dan Fromm for this).
It is a repository of patents and designs of many, many vintage photographic lenses, re-visited by a lens designer !
Ahem.... yes, it is in French (too bad that no Roussel lens appears !) but I think diagrams and descriptions speak for themselves.

And you can always have fun with an automatic translation !
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdioptrique.info%2Fsommaire%2Fsommaire.htm&hl=fr&ie=UTF8&sl=fr&tl=en

Note an interesting translation error : a coumpound lens assembling several lens elements, in French, is named : "objectif" (in German : Objektiv)
So Goal Portrait is in fact : portrait lens. ;)
But "objectif" in French also means : a goal (to be achieved)
A single lens element is named : "lentille" or "lentille simple"

[W K Longcor]

Thank you ! You have been very helpful.

[Ernest Purdum]

Emmanuel, have you seen what English spell-checking software does to "brasserie"?

Not only that, but automatic translation can have American women wearing life-jackets when nowhere near the water.

Since the word "lentil" comes about from the similarity in shape of a double convex lens to a sort of bean, automatic translation has even more possibilities.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

American women wearing life-jackets when nowhere near the water.
Yes, Ernest and some people consider this combinaison to be the summum of élégance féminine. I respect them ! ;-)
About brasserie, too bad but the spell checker I use in both british and american spellings does accept brasserie as being correct !
Moreover, a brasserie in France, in most of the cases is not a real brewery, but simply a bistrot where you can have a snack.
Like Hôtel de Ville is anything but a hotel... except in Switzerland where it is both a hotel and official Town Hall ;)