Wollensak Lens Oddity

[Fotoguy20d]

I bought a lot of old lenses the other day. An assortment of kodak and bausch RRs and anastigmats, and then a lens in Kodak shutter marked as a RR but looking for all the world like a Tessar. lastly, in an Optimo shutter, a 5-8-12 triple convertible Verastigmat. Couldn't find any reference to it anywhere but it has that wollensak V name thing going. Looks like 2 or 3 cemented pieces of glass in each half. Anyone know what this is? An early version of the series I velo? Aperture scale is marked f2.9 for the 5", f8 for the 8" and f16 for the 12".

Thanks,
Dan

[Fotoguy20d]

I may be barking up the wrong tree thinking its a wolly. It might actually be a Gundlach lens.

Dan

[Dan Fromm]

The VM says it is a Gundlach lens.

[Fotoguy20d]

Forgot about the VM. I just looked. It says it's a 4+4 symmetrical anastigmat. The 4 seems right but it certainly doesn't seem to be symmetrical (I typoed when I said 2 or 3 above. I meant to type 3 or 4). Any idea of vintage?

[Dan Fromm]

Ask Google to find gundlach and verastigmat. Early ought=oughts-

[Jim Jones]

Those apertures appear to be marked in the old U.S. system, not f/numbers. 2.9 would be about f/6.75, 8 = f/11, and 16 = f/16.

[Fotoguy20d]

After some digging I found the lens in a 1906 gundlach korona catalog but not a 5-8-12 combo. Some more digging makes it seem this was a Manhattan lens that came over in the 1902 merger.