PHOTOGRAPHICA JOURNAL

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• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 2011
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)P'TIONAL FORM 41 (Rev. 7-76)
141 CF1g101-11.206
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,DDA SUBJECT FILE COPY,,
MORRIS G. MOSES
Professional Esgiaur
275 HANS[N AVENUE
March 16,1987
Mr. William F. Donnelly,Chairman
Information Review Committee
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington,D.C. 20505
Dear Mr. Donnelly:
On September 23,1986,it was my pleasure to receive
two sanitized items from the Committee and the DDS&T relative to
activities of the Technical Operations Division,WWII Office of
Censorship,NARA RG 216.
I currently find myself confronted with an anomaly
in classified material,and would like to solicit the Committee's
kind help in the dilemma.In 1984,parts of NARA RG 22?(WWII Office
of Scientific Research & Development) were declassified and re-
leased to me.Subsequent study of this material(some 100 or so paEps)
discloses material denied to me under earlier RG 216 requests.My
personal appraisal is that there has been a compromise of material
from RG 216.Material in question discusses steganography(patseand
'duffs"I.R. scanners("Wurlitzer Organ" operation) X-ray inspection
("Argus")and other operations of T.O.D. in detail.
Because of ethical considerations and the fact that
the volume of material in question would pose an unusually heavy
review burden on a page-by-page basis by Agency personnel ,may I
respectfully request the privilege of an informal personal inter-
view with the Committee to discuss the matter? My hope is that the
interview could be productive in securing further legitimate,re-
sponsible scholarly access to RG 216/TOD materials,short of in-toto
release,but more voluminous than single document review requiring
inordinate Agency manpower.
Please advise of any conditions prerequisite to such
an interview.My studies encompass a. definitive accoiuic of the social,
economic,and technical roles that. optics and photography played in
WW II espionage.
May I thank the Review Committee for its past recepti-w--
ness and cooperation,and ask that you accept the enclosures with all
good wishes and my compliments.
1, GT1i/lb
cc :-;:alter =forzheimer
ynthia Fo ,ivARA
V ry sincer'ly,
j'ioses
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DECU?SSIFIED
o~ 5~~1'bD~ Jf
Date i-10 -g~
July 4s 1945
Refer to Seat. 19.1 EX. -
Div.19;1131
Mr. C. J. Staud
Bastmm Kodak Caaepaw
Zo"k park works
Rochester, W1erv Irk
Dear Mr. Stands
As arranged by te]egrsm yesterdq , I on planning
to be in Rocheata r on Wednesd y, July 18, arriv-
ixlg at 4=40 a.=. $ spending the one day there.
I ? mw trying to get tickets. If there is aW
ohasagee I shall ]et you km .
Tor your advance infarsation, I as attaching a
f th
e
copy of a ----rand= from Dro, fit. S. Breon o
Off ice of Censorship together with a report on
CC to 1[r. 0. A. Richter
Sincerely Toms:.
Warren C. Lothrop
Technical kids to
Division 19
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PHOTO GRAPHIA
~( 6 ]AU
VOLUME 3, No. 6
Lassam
Paris Train Station
becomes Musee D'Orsay
Isenburg
A Camera
Changes Hands
Moses
Photo Patents and
Everyman's CIA
Cross
A South African
Collection -
The Whysall Story
Liebhold
Why was photography
invented? Was it cultural
demand or progression
of science? See the
SPSE Pioneers
Conference Review.
Gallery -
News and Notes
Happy New Year
NOV.- DEC. 1986
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8 ? PHOTOGRAPHICAIJOUFNAL
PHOTOGRAPHICA, PATENTS,
by Morris G. Moses
Editor's Note: Morris G. Moses of
Albany, NY is an engineering graduate
of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
whose career has been principally in
the chemical and nuclear process
industries. Photographic history is Mr.
Moses' hobby. His patent research and
detective work" have uncovered
obscure historical data on cameras and
photo processing which would still be
dormant, were it not for his keen
judgment and determined effort. Mr.
Moses spoke at PhotoHistory VI
sponsored by The Photographic
Historical Society in Rochester. His
paper and some of the patent-related
illustrations are published here. JN
I must begin by taking to very
gentle task those who decry their
difficulties in researching the
historical and technical details of
photographica. To slightly paraphrase
the good book, behold a wonderful
thing has been put before you - yet
a majority of you choose not to
follow it. I will attempt to review
patents as practical working sources
of information, with the emphasis
on the nuances and mechanics of
the retrieval of information from
them.
Early Background
The issuance of patents in the
U.S. goes back to Colonial times
which in turn inherited the practice
from English patent law. The English
were not the first to stimulate
economy and commerce with patent
protection and the very earliest
world-wide patents were those
granted in Venice, Italy in the first
half of the fifteenth century. The
first English patent was issued in
1641 to Samuel Winslow for a
method of extracting salt. On
February 16, 1790, Congress put
the first patent bill up and this was
signed by George Washington on
April 10 of that year. The first U.S.
patent was issued to Samuel
Hopkins of Philadelphia on July 31,
1790 for the manufacture of potash.
Numbering of U.S. patents began on
July 13, 1836 with 9,557 un-
numbered patents having been
issued prior to that date. The first
classification scheme of 1838 had
22 classes, and the classes that
would relate most closely to
photographica under that earliest
scheme were class 2 - "Arts Polite"
Class 4 - "Chemical Manufactures",
and Class 14 - "Optical
Instruments". The work of Daguerre
and what soon followed would lead
to the establishment of Class 95
which appeared in the index of
1872. The 1872 revision of the
Patent Classification System was
the largest single change in the
patent reclassification efforts of the
nineteenth century.
A Sampling of-Photographic Patents
Over the Years
It is an irony that those who
sought to exploit their inventiveness
through patent licensing in earliest
days-Daguerre, Langenheim, Talbot
and others-profited very little.
Enforcement was difficult and
attempts at restriction were
regarded as hostile to others.
Picking out some sample patents
over the years from 1842 to 1872,
we find "Daguerreotype
Impressions-Mode of Fixing",
Benjamin Stevens and Lemuel
Morse, March 28, 1842;
"Daguerreotype Pictures, Coloring"
John Plumbe, October 22, 1842;
"Daguerreotype Apparatus" William
H. Lewis and H.J. Lewis, November
11, 1851; "Daguerreotype Pictures"
Charles J. Anthony, January 1, 1851;
"Daguerreotype Cases" J.F.
Mascher, March 8, 1853 (Patent
#9611); "Apparatus for Moving
Stereoscopic Pictures" Albert
Southworth and Josiah Hawes,
# 13,106, June 19, 1855; "Collodion
for Photographic Pictures" July 15,
1856 and "Bituminous Ground for
Photographic Pictures", October 21,
1856 - both of these by Victor M.
Griswold; "Enlarging Photographs"
#23,316, by D. Shive, Philadelphia,
March 22, 1859; "Stereoscopic
Picture Improvements #35635
William Southworth, June 17, 1862;
"Photographic Rest for Support"
#55,443 Oliver Sarony, June 5,
1866; "Phototometer" #55,797, S.G.
Elliott, June 19, 1866 (a very early
extinction-type exposure meter);
"Printing Frame" #99, 462, Peter
Murphy, February 1, 1870;
"Photographic Lens" #126,979, R.
Morrison, May 21, 1872 (an early
lens design). The Daguerreotype era
had run its course and the Collodion
period was beginning to near its
eclipse.
The Dawn of Gelatin
and Flexible Films
The deceiving simplicity of the
Eastman and Goodwin film patents
of the 1880's belie the legal battles
surrounding them and the
tremendous fortunes that were to
be made based on them. One of the
Eastman patents, #306, 594,
"Photographic Film" showed only
three layers designated simply as
"A, B, and C". The drawing for
Goodwin's patent #610,861 was a
shaded square! In this same period,
as the 1880's drew to an end, were
some of Frank Brownell's work on
camera design: #575,208, January
12, 1897, #579,126 on March 23,
1897, and #579,949 on April 6,
1897. Brownell had begun his
distinguished career which can be
traced pretty well through his
patents. In 1900, we find some of
the evidence of Henry Reichenbach's
work on "Camera Backs" in patent
#661,894 issued on November 13
of that year. Closer study of the
patent literature in this 'period will
show some of Eastman's and
Reichenbach's collaborations on
early film coating technologies.
The First Three Decades
of the 20th Century
Eastman's first Kodak camera with
cylindrical lens-shutter took form in
the patent #388,850, patented
September 4, 1888. The cameras had
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PHOTOGRAPHICA/JOURNAL 9
AND EVERYMAN'S C.I.A.
SO6,594. PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM. Ou gas Ea.er .e' , P.r ehcat'r. N.
Y, assignor to the Eavtaaa Dry Plate Company, same plats Filsd Y r.
7.188. (No model)
Cloim.-1. As a new article of manufacture, a seo3itiee pb' t-
graphic film consisting of a coating of insoluble semitized gelatine, a pi-
per or equivalent support, and an interposed coating of soluble oel+ ::.
2. Ina photographic film, the combination of the support A.:`.:??
insoluble sensitive gelatin-argentic-emubioo film C. and t'se so:ub:??
interposed gelatine layer U. sabotantially as described.
3. In a film for photographic purposes, the combination of a b irk-
ing sheet or support of paper or like material, a film of set:;itized gel-
Una adapted to withstand the solvent action of water, and so istcrm,?-
diate film of soluble gelatine.
4. The herein-described sensitive flexible photographic film.
slating of the support A. baring a layer of injolublo seniti.xd Bela:iu??.
C. attached thereto by means of an interposod soluble Selmiu.? t.r
One of the Eastman
roll film patents.
G. EASTMAN.
:d Yi4A.
.
6 10, 8 6 1 . PHOTOGRAPHIC :ELLICLE AND Pi tICESS OF ).
PRODUCING SAME HANNIBAL GOODWIN, Newark, N. .1. F,'.-71 Ni,
2, 1687. Serial No. 236.750. (No mmuleL)
Claim.-1. An improvement it, the art of tual,in_ t:au=p.tr. t.t
flexible. photographic-film pellicles. the -tune cunsi-ring in di-l.
The deceiving simplicity of the
Eastman and Goodwin film patents of
the 1880's belie the legal battles
surrounding them znd. the-fortunes
which were made based on these
patents.
J 3::.U-se..t I. Brownell, Turner, and the Eastman
The milestone Kodak Camera patent
of 1888.
begun to come out of production
earlier in June 1888. With the price
of $10 for 100 photographs and the
volume of advertising placed in over
a dozen magazines of that era,
amateur photography was put on
the map forever. The subtleties of
technical and economic warfare in
these formative years of flexible
film can be traced out in the patent
literature, and the fortunes of
and Blair companies are forever
inscribed in the patent literature for
any diligent researcher.
In the early part of the century,
the sleeping giant of photography
woke up all over the world, and a
cursory inspection of the patent
literature has produced the
following patents listed at random:
"Camera" #843,140, William
Folmer, February 5, 1907; "Focusing
Screen" #856,618, Frank A.
Brownell, June 11, 19C)7;
"Photographic Camera" #855,004,
Lodewyk Hoist and Louis Borum,
May 28, 1907; "Folding Camera"
#903,533, Frederick A. Anthony,
November 10, 1908; "Vest Pocket
Camera" Magnus Niell, #904,005,
November 17, 1908 (This is the.
inventor of the well-known EXPO
watch camera, itself the subject of
patent #769,319, dated September
6, 1904); "Camera" Bartram Walker,
#910,750, January 26, 1909;
"Chronometric Camera Shutter'
#916,346, March 23, 1909;
'Photographic Camera Shutter" Fred
Schmid #975,464, November 15,
1910; "Magazine Developing
Camera" #1003533, Charles Spery,
September 19, 1911; "Shutter
Operating Mechanism" Reinhold
Heidecke, October 7, 1913,
#1075101; "Motion Picture
Camera" #1151566, Herman Casler,
August 31, 1915; "Autographic
Camera" #1240910, Roy Wilmot,
September 25, 1917; "Film
Magazine" #1215534, Albert S.
Howell, February 13, 1917; "Silent
One of the Goodwin
roll film patents.
Camera Shutter" #1298755, Albert
Matter & Fred Conley, April 1, 1919;
"Stylus Attachment for Camera"
#1473798, Charles Speidel,
November 13, 1923; "Enlarging
Camera" #1573314, Emanuel
Goldbert, Dresden, Germany,
February 16, 1926; "Film
Photographic Camera" #1733234,
Umberto Nistri, Rome, Italy, October
29, 1929; "Exposure Guide for
Cmaera Shutters" # 1795797,
William A. Riddell, Eastman Kodak
Company, March 10, 1931; "Printing
Apparatus for Photographic
Purposes" #1796258, Oskar
Barnack, Leitz-Wetzlar, March 10,
1931; "Distance Meter" #1930432,
Oskar Barnack; "Photographic
Camera" #2032061, Heinz
Kuppenbender, Dresden, February
25, 1936 (one of the many patents
useful in tracing out the history and
technology of the CONTA));
"Photographic Camera" #2104094,
Hubert Nerwin, Dresden, February 4,
1938 (One of the patents issued on
the TENAX to a name many will
recognize). The above is but a brief
sampling of patents issued in the
early 20th century when the
photographic industry was
undergoing a revolution in terms of
apparatus for the amateur, as well
as professional. The point in the
recital is that you will have
recognized names or certain
developments through patents. Now
let us take a look at the mechanics
and practical methodologies of
retrieval of research information
from the patent literature.
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IV - r II v 1 %j %j nrr "i%_m %jun1,4AL
How to Find the Winning Numbers
There are several tools in the
patent research game. One, the basic
of these, is the classification table
which breaks down the "art," as it is
called, into subclassifications. The
current class number for photog-
raphy is class 354 and this is further
broken down currently into over
400 subclasses. just about every
optical and mechanical configuration
is covered and an example will
show how the system is applied.
The patent office periodically puts
out lists, called subclass lists, on
which appear the patent number of
those arts corresponding to the
subclasses in the 354 tables.
Taking subclass 205 as an
example, we go to the 3541205
listings and find that the first patent
number shown is #472,257. This
patent turns out to be one for a
"Photographic Camera" issued to
Benjamin Edwards of London. It
issued in the U.S. on April 5, 1892
and had previously issued as British
patent #11,416 on July 16, 1889.
Already we have quite a bit of
background on one of the first
patents for an early focal plane
roller-blind shutter. The remaining
patent numbers under the 205
group will give the researcher in
focal plane shutters a good
beginning into the history and
technology of this particular art. It
will not be a perfect coverage,
however, since it must be borne in
mind that patent classification
systems have evolved over a
century and have always been
subject to human interpretation.
You will also note that although
you have entered the classification
under 354, older patents will show
up as having been classified under
the very early classes of 2, 4, or 18
or in the intermediate class of 95
which appeared from 1872 to the
late 1960's. Other vital tools in the
researcher's armory will be the
Annual Indices and the weekly
gazettes. The Annual Index,
published from 1842 in various
formats, permits the researcher to
enter the patent literature
chronologically by subject,
inventor's name, and in many cases,
by assignee. There are many
subtleties in subject searching and
you will soon discover that "Optical
device or part thereof" can hide the
details of a lens design if you are
not persistent in your searches.
From time to time, the Patent
Office has issued what they call
"definitions" in which they try to
explain variations in the
terminologies they employ for
differing arts and subclasses.
Another device in the patent
literature is the file wrapper, or
patent office official file history. This
document, often several hundred
pages in length, gives the running
account of all paper work that
ensued from the moment the
inventor first filed his application for
the patent until the time it was
granted. This document will include
what are called all office actions,
denials and grants of claims (the
legal heart of the patent) and very
often, addresses which are of vital
importance in reconstructing the
history and often finding the
inventor or his heirs personally.
The assignment indexes, another
tool, often permit the researcher to
start with nothing but a company to
whom the inventor might have sold
his rights and work back to the
patent where only the company's
name and a time span are known,
and where the indexes might have
missed such facts. In short, there
are many strategies in research-
the major ones being the annual
indexes, the subclassification lists,
the file histories, and the
assignment "libers" (or books).
Where to Find
the Winning Numbers
U..M.t.
"LOSS
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- P.b `SE,TS
Rco-C:.: ..;4e:??L'_~i :=1;J ?. `ff:.
contract= ?."' a1f
scientific man power. A year 1101 01Y III d mdlcnoox camera. Lett to right: Outside metal shell, milled-edge winding knob (top side with engraved transport
p 1 - distance - indication notches not shown), reeled film, back; and.
plastic (bakelite) molded inner body, proposed a run o of
earlier, on June'27, 1940, the 450 to 500 units,, in January
National Defense Research shaped time=delay explosives ', towards roducin 1944, and supplementary con-
Council (NDefense d been set detonators,..- water-soluble cameras in: Summer 1943 was the ing at a nominal 1/50 second tract read ona prod 'ron_
up as a liaison between in- microfilm for emergency based partly on se r- a small lrutautaneous speed, and.aLso tinting diti oal 'pr on
dustry and government. One destruction by swallowing, format's ability to nfrared. nig500 sliding brass plate provided September
charged with development of infrared. night viewing render ' high-resolution con- two stops, one at f.5.0. and one' 1944 OSS correspondence and
more exotic hardware of war equipment. One of the early tinuous tone "images..;";The: at f. 11. No- viewfinder was in-' receipts over the period of
was Division 19, established in contracts that passed thru' doubts were, present, despite ' cluded in the design on the" Januar
y 19frag the-end of
April 1943 to fill the needs of Division 19 for production of successes in 16mm microfilm- philosophy that bringing the 1945 are fragmen nted, and
OSS, Division 19, whose matchbox cameras ,(initially g ,equipment of the late totals documented by archival
1930s. The team. chosen ate camera to the face was too coon records only account for 846
euphemistic title was under a. camouflage project) spicuous, and also that a waist- eMiscellaneous Weaponsas vim OSS Contract 1677 Kodak. consisted-; of" Joseph level reflex finder would pose .cameras produced under con-
spawned projus s' for pencil- Stoiber, Joe Boon, andnry tract. On the'basis of those
Kodak's initial "skepticism"' `Hood. StolbeBoon ll'nd He t}ie 1 parallax problems: The '`'
d'arkioom loading scheme was' records foimd_by the author,
team, was born in Jae h
t
l
A'Fy 13, 1947.
J, STO;BER
:_^.e:-. IT: cl, 1
T11ed TN, G. 1917
.,t;relupmenc Depart
ment: In 1939, he was pro-
moted to development'
- 'engineer, and by 1945 had
become a supervisory design
engineer.. The matchbox pro-
totype, 'fabricated by-Adam
Archinal of New-York city for"
the OSS-in mid 1943
became
,
the basis for refined production
designs subsequently made by
Kodak and Stoiber's group.
S. Patent #2420628 issued on May 13, 1941 for s
e OSS/Kodak Matchb
ox
g
wir
decided on earlier by OSS as an
Bavaria, Germany in d attended the bra h 897 and additional precaution to pre continued on .,nr,a -to
ha
-- a:uule there. Stoiber ar-
rived'in:the U.S. in 1926 and
went to work for Kodak in'
November 1927 as ? a_,r._R"._
~.' The cameras` utilized
variants of a Kodak microfilm
-lens designated, as a-"formula
? ; 89W Tessar-type." The focal
'length was approximately
25mm, and the original speed
rating was f.3.5. The'two ma-
jor versions of the camera dif-
fered primarily' in the manner
of film configuration. The
earlier "Model I" took the film
..wound. in coils only; whereas
the later "Model 2" took film
wound on reels as well as coils.
The top disc of the winding
knob was.. enorov ,4 .,r:.1,
{,,-.al scan:
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their origins and, in deference n~rig mill in Wetzlar on the mid-1950s. In 1948; Zapp gn~ the to Minox ginal conception,
to Walter Zapp s totally sincere . Bahnhofstrasse (Railroad Sta- entered the U.S. briefly in one having only 4 elements, the Walter Zapp returned to his
personality ,,: tion Street Berztns; the ho of~indin :an American element being "recessed,: role_as an independent inven-
g- away from the Film `and "filmy Y .tor;in late=1950. In 1961, he
manufacturing "connection
ft :. Plane:. The ,film was-still ,: took up, residence, in Saint
.
also` b f"th`
'
u u ort
e
met With ,
~~ a curved"configure- Callen, Switzerland. Born in
quick failure and Za
i dgt
tonurin. exposure, but Lavia, -filing the " original
released completely;.. during Minox patent as a German
transport, eliminating any dirt 'citizen, , and living in
carryover and scratching?prob -Switzerland has certainly
l
Th
l
ems.
e, 4-e
ement design, qualified Zapp as a world class
lens design of the-Minox left
much' named the COMPLAN (COM- camera designer. Arthur
room forirnprovements. pensating PLANe) became a Seibert . went on. in 1951 to
In his search for a better lens; hallmark in successive models found the firm EMO-OPTIK
he discovered Arthur Seibert, of the Minox. : ' (EMO m Electronic, Mechanic,
who had been' employed by Seibert and Zapp; neither of Optic) in Wetzlar. The firm is
Leitz since 1920. Leitz was not whom were ever. 'salaried world renowned to this day for
interested in any. part of the employees of Minox CmbH. roducin the finest ma i-
Minox at that time,; and the P g gn
idea of?Seibert's "moorili t G'esseen, were to break .their _ fiers, microscope-telescope.
formal association as contras- : combinations, and specialized
ing"as ,a lens designer was un- tors to that "firm in 1950. 'instruments.
comfortable for both Zapp and Earlier, Zapp had worked with, Next: 'Part' Five-The
Seibert.: Finally,, in 1949, Dr. Ing. Joseph'Sti~per, author 1950s-1970s era, and going for
Seibert agreed to !a full-time - of the definitive work' oir.. `the Cold.
contract - with Zapp for the. . camera design "Die' Photo- The author would like to
desigri of the postwar Minox graphische Kamera"-and an. thank Rolf Kasemeier, Werner
lens. authority onapecial and sub- Michaeli, Liane Seibert and
The first of .Iwo postwar.
t
i
for
u
e
matcameras.D. the! Seibert Family, and
Minox.,lens designs was a a
Stuper was. one: of, the, early Thomas. Sharpies for their.
5-element lens (appropriately,
production managers of Minox many kindnesses in connection
named: a "Pentax") and the CmbH Giessen and. was with Part Fourofthisseries:?
rear element of which was call-
_
actuallycontacted.thefilm and
pressed it into. a curved path.
during exposure: While the
concept was valid forcompen-
sating for many distortions and
aberrations, the design was im-
practical insofar as trapping
dirt and producing scratching.
Cross-section of Minox model 2. circa 1948. Heavy arrow points to part #27. the of the negative.. In the hopes of
film-lens (and fifth element). This lens element contacted the film during exposure reducing the problem, cork
but the design Treated all sorts of dust pick-up and scratching problems. and chamois swabs were even
PP turned to Germany.'-:
.Zapp had also realized, even
during the war, that the
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Minox-Small Wonder tor 5U Years
by Morris G. Moses that year for production of has never been authenticated, rights to the Berlin offices of
5000 Minoxes. Based on the and the only piece of work Agfa-Kamerawerk. Through.
Part Three-The World War II - author's study of fragmented done under the $10,000 allot- ? the influence of Rusche, who
Years records from the CVVA (Cen- 'ment appears to be the Castelli. could see some commercial
(Previous parts of this story tral State Archives of Riga), the enlarging column lock patent potential in the post-war ex.'
(Previous with the conception of production fell far short of the p2,339,615 filed on May 21, ploitation of the camera, Zapp
or 5000 and was closer to the 1942. was given'a job in 1943 work-
d a Minox in the co by conception
the (Readers with ing in the AEG-Berlin research
Zapp; the first Estonian pro- "Russian ? Minxes" and other `-In. the summer of 1941. Ger- laboratories under Drs. Bruche
totype; and the developments Minox cameras are urged to the man VEF troops was taken occupied over b Riga and- and ?Ramsauer, who were
e
that led to Zapp's association .;contact Mr. Richard Conrad,; by the world exp its on the early
l
with the VEF in Riga, Latvia P:0.. Box 156, Mason, MI.: Gesell esellnschaft efne ("AEG"), an ricit inats- development of the electron.
in 1936-1940.) 48854 Mr Conrad is doin an ? mrcroscope?
e
ea qua ez in n. their intensified night-time MinOxes and heim
serial
r n, vbaeringtof and would had cross-licensing agreements bombings of Berlin. Although
be pleased to exchange with General Electric Com- the work on electron
information.) pry among others, and also microscopes was a challenge to
While the Russians were de had representatives in over 40 Zapp's many skills, the dream
facto owners of VEF during countries on all five continents. of a Minox reborn after World
AEG also had a financial in-' War II was' ainin more
parts of \VW II, the manufac- g g
turing rights and title to Minox January 21VEF, from 1942, WWI. Otto On strength in the fertile imagina-
in the U.S. at that time were Rusche, a director of AEG; tion of a determined Walter
another complex matter. Zapp, was authorized by a Zapp.
and Jurgen had made their "Vntlmarhr 1x wnr of ,r: Next-Part Four-The Post
United States.-: : had commenced, and export to
The' 'American base `on,1. England and Switzerland had
which Minox, Inca was >., started in 1938. With escala-
established began with the in- tion of the war in 1940, Janis
corporation in 1935 of the firm Vitols lost contact and legal
AD.-Auriema, founded by control of his source of mcr-
Adolph Auriema, an exporter chandise. On April 1, 1941,
of radio, electronic, and -0- Dr. Alfreds Bilmanis, Latvian
tion?picture equipment. Short- Envoy Extrar4inary, Minister
iy' after Janis Vitols had arrived Plenipotentiary, and exiled
in the U.S. in 1939, he ap- Counsel General of Latvia in
proached Auriema for finan- the U.S., sold all rights to U.S.
cial support in marketing the Patents numbers 2,161,941;
Minox in America. On June 3, 2,169,548; and 2,218,966 to
1V1 Minoi had begun at
VEF in late 1937,
and Janis. Vitols had already
made his contacts in London
for the establishment of Minox,
Ltd. there in 1938. While trade
.between Latvia and Europe
had existed since the 1800s, the
new 20th century marketing
vistas in the minds of 'VEF
management were in the
Although Pearl Harbor was
still over. a year away for
America, the Russians had
entered Riga on June 17, 1940.
This would be the first of two
Russian-occupations of Riga.
With the Russian takeover of
VEF, the production of Minox
cameras became a second
priority to manufacture of
more ordnance, radio, and
radar. Historical photographic
remnants of the spasmodic
Russian occupations of Riga
are embodied in the so-called
"Russian Minoxes." Variants of
these included effacing or
omitting the word "Riga"
under "VEF" and also the
American advertising for the Government) as a 331h % sales
Minox-had already begun in" commission for underwriting
the photographic consumer publicity and advertising for
magazines in early 1940. the Minox in the U.S. Of fur-
and John J. Mahoney, a
lawyer, incorporated as
Minox, Inc. with offices at 116
Broad Street (Auriema's ad-
dress) N.Y.C. Janis Vitols held
18 of the 20 outstanding shares;
&uriema and Mahoney held
one share each. The business
address changed to 92 Liberty
Street, N.Y.C. in late 1940, in-
directly as a result of Vitols'
meeting with members of the
Latvian-American Relief
Committee who had vacant of-
fice space there. Heavy
Minox, Inc. Janis Vitols' firm
in the U.S. It was a legal vic-
tory, but one which did little
to assure any continued.
American Supplies of Minox
cameras. Earlier, on February
11, 1941, an even more vi-
sionary agreement had been
drawn up between Vitols and
Bilmanis, the latter acting for-
the free government of Latvia
in exile. The terms of this
earlier. agreement gave Vitols
Latvian assets of $44,912.60.
From this was deducted
$10,392.66 (due the Latvian
ther interest were allowances
of "$3.00/camera guarantee
fee" for 996 cameras (a form of
warranty set-aside); -$4.00/
camera for "rebuilding" of 150
cameras (some apparently ar-
rived in need of final assembly
or rebuilding) and an
allowance of $823.40 for "faul-
ty mechanisms" (presumably,
repair work and. replacement':
parts). -The most historically'*
significant aspect of this agree-
ment was the inclusion of a
$10,000 allowance from the.
Free Latvian Government "for
work involving continued pro-
duction of the Minox camera in:
the United States."'It was the.
engraving of "Made in USSR" intention of Free Latvia to
where the normal "Made in assure continued supplies of the
Latvia" wouldyhave been. Ac- Minox in the U.S. and accept
cording to The State Plan for a 5% royalty on sales of such
Development of the USSR Na- cameras. Regretfully, a Minox
tional Economy for 1941, the engraved "Made in U.S.A."
Russians had actually set a goal
t, ternational electrical trust, in late 1943, the Allies began
exhaustive research study on ,:'U d rt
d 11-A: AEC
business between Riga, 11- "' ...1.." .V LLIVx
Switzerland, and Berlin. It was named in previous parts, the
later in the war and through author would like to
Rusche that the Swiss hfinox acknowledge the help of Osca-
operation, VEF-Etablisse-, Fricke; Ti)ri Mulligan, Na-
ment, was set up to handle floral Archives; Professor
Akira Inomata, Minox distribution in , State , Univer-
postwar
. sity of New York;
Switzerland. During Rusche'$
Quadri, VEF-Establissement;
tenure as German interim con- Dora Weinstein and Barry
nection to VEF-Riga, he Balthrop, both with the U.S.
managed to meet Walter Zapp Patent Office Scientific
who was traveling between Library. _ ?
Riga, Munich and Berlin in the
hopes of selling the camera
Variants of "Russian MINOXes"-left to right "Riga" effaced and "Made in USSR" engrav-
ed in sunken background; no "Riga" and "made in USSR" engraved on flat background;
on extreme right. regular Riga MINOX.
rr -.. r.nT . 1W, q? ~. N.... r .... wa w*...
M.. d.N..anode dy.nl.ar. n., N.r..ar i_un..
1...I IN Uar liw. u N apW d ...4446 4 .r..
Abn.Y..M.uw.W UNr.+4 I. Ya. I.aM. IW W *r.M.. _
..M l.r all IM ..W t.
.r
W..
un.. w I. N a.r?W
aM
I
4
*4
*
I4M. II W. g 4aI. u M r .4.. 4.II h '*g N 4, ..I..N
.4 hOua I.rr? . v aN Is.a pa.r 4..(041 ?I'?. w.[Y.
'I W 1. N .,.? (04 -, r..MM? u .. M..14???M d...Ia.w.
M ur a a.myM .A.a r a.W.[al ..srM... w alY r+4 N ruwr,
All 4r...w1?a?u r? .rN.~.. + W MY.O% W ..w Na.....?.. 1.
MrUrs hb GfA1 wMr. ?+..'i~'? ..... I
Advertisement for MINOX in England. November 1939. Photographic Journal (Lon-
don). 25 English pounds were 5125.00 American at the beginning of WWII.
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89G00643R001000100041-0
embodied * in the con-
tract.....The men, Walter
Zapp and Richard Jurgens,
confirm here in writing that
the camera is the invention of
Walter Zapp, and the joint
property of Walter Zapp and
Richard Jurgen." The formal
contract occupied three pages
and became the basis for the
familiar 8 x 11mm format Riga
Minox and 49 patents in 20
countries. The first patent was
Finland's #7481, December 21,
1936. A second Finnish patent
#7486 was issued simultaneous-
ly with British Patent #495,149
on December 22, 1936.
Zapp moved from Nomme,
Estonia to Riga and VEF in
late November 1936, and the
Minox tooling began at VEF
under Edvards Berzins in ear-
ly 1937. It was an effort involv-
ing nearly 70 people among
whom were the optical team
including Indus from Estonia,
Francis Fersts, Blatnek and
Mueller, two Austrian refu-
gees. A. man named Petters
became the. liason between
Zapp and Teodors Vitols, and
a designer, Oskars Crinbergs,
was assigned for Zapp's use.
Roberts Erdmanis, a mechan-
ical engineer and member of
the faculty of the Latvian
University, helped develop
much of the automated tool-
ing, very advanced at that time
for technology anywhere in the
world. Peters Butulis, a techni-
cian, worked on designs for. "
autofocusing mechanisms of
early models of 20 x 30cm
enlargers. Space precludes a
complete listing here of all
Minox personnel, their educa-
tional backgrounds, and their
language skills, but to the
author's amazement, over 42
names given to,him by Walter
Zapp and Alberts Jekste were
confirmed in immigration, em-
bassy, and intelligence records
at the U.S. National Archives.
Jekste was an administrative
executive under VEF's Vice-
Director Juris Liepins and
radio-electronics . division
department head, Edvards
Feldmanis. Alberts Jekste was
also an early pre-WW II
pioneer in development of
xenon short-arc high-intensity
lighting sources for motion pic-
tures. It was partially thru
Jekste's intercessions with Dr.
Alfred Bilmanis, Latvia's
Foreign Minister, th&t seed
monies were found for the
Minox project.
The early Estonian Minox
logo as originally conceived by
Zapp was disputed by Zeiss-
Ikon shortly after its registra-
tion. As a result, Zapp's logo
was modified by VEF's
graphics designer, Adolfs Ir-
bitis (brother of Karlis, the air-
craft designer) from "Minox"
to "VEF-Minox-Riga." Born
ion December 6, 1910 in Riga,
Adolfs Irbitis had been in
charge of the VEF photo-lab,
and contributed suggestions
towards the styling of the VEF
Minox. His industrial designs
"The early Estonian
Minox logo as originally
conceived by Zapp was
disputed by Zeiss-Ikon,
after which Zapp's logo
was modified.'
also figured heavily in many
early Minox publications, and
VEF radio cabinetry.
Facilities for casting were in
short supply in 1937, and the
unusual deep-drawn camera
body-shells, made of stainless
steel, presented many die-
making problems and frustra-
tions in finish-cleaning. Sub-
assemblies for shutter and body
mechanisms required hand-
soldering of brass and steel in
some places. It was not until
February 1938 that serious
production began to yield over
100 cameras per month. Zapp
was also asked to consider a
16mm format in 1939, a pro-
ject in which Orestes Berlings
(later, a designer for the
Omicron, prototype for the
Japanese Atoron Minox-copy)
participated, but the scale-up
would have magnified weak-
nesses in the existing triplet lens
design, and also inhibited sales
and. processing revenues from
the unique 9.5mm wide Minox
double-spool film packaging.
According to Walter Zapp,
the first Minox sold outside of
Riga was purchased by a
French diplomat who later
remarked on "its usefullness for
office purposes." This might .
have been a euphemism for es-
pionage usage, an application
which Zapp has always denied
as being the primary design
goal for the camera. Whether
or not it was intended for spy-
ing, it is one of very, very few
rigid-bodied cameras which.
focus down to 8 inches without
use of supplementary lenses
leaving much to conjecture.
Time had now come around
to mid-1939, thoughts of set-
ting up for export to England
and the U.S. were underway,
and no one at VEF was yet
aware of the three successive
foreign occupations of Riga
that would begin in 1940.
Next: Part Three-The World
War II Years.
N.B. In addition to those
previously named in Part One,
the author would like -to
acknowledge the contributions
of Orestes Berlings;': Richard
Conrad; Professor David
Crowe; Alfreds Gerbers; Karlis --
Irbitis; P.' Korsaks, Latvian
SSR; Heldor ' Sepman;.
Miewaldis Sipins; A. Spur-
manis and J.V. Svanks,
Association- of Latvian
Engineers; and Nick Upenieks.
?
The main building of the VEF (Valsts Elektrotechniska Fabrika or State Electrotechnical
Factory) in 1939. Note antenna on top with letters "VEF." Minox production shops.
were on parts of second and third floors and some lower. rear floor areas.
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 "flox
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-3mai i vv onaer
Dr. Teodors Vitols (1888-1948).Director
of VEF. His emigration to the United
States was sponsored in 1946 by. his
nephew. Janis Vitols. Barely in the states
for two years Vitols died in New York
City on January 15. 1948.
by Morris G. Moses
copyright 1986 all rights
reserved
Part Two-Operations at the
Valsts Electrotechniska Fab-
rika (VEF) 1937-1939
Editor's Note:
A portion of the planned
book on Minox by Mr. Moses
is appearing in Shutterbug in
an eight-part series. This is the
second installment.
(Part One described the ear-
ly life of Walter Zapp and his
conception of the first Minox in
Estonia in the mid-1930s. Fail-
ing in his attempts to secure a
manufacturing set-up there,
his fortunes led him to VEF in
Riga, Latvia in 1936.)
Walter Zapp and his
financial partner,
Richard Jurgens,
were received at the VEF on
September 7, 1936 by Teodors
Vitols, the General Director.
Vitols, born in 18. in
Taurkaln, Latvia,.. 35 . miles
southeast of Riga, had com-
menced studies at'the" St...
Petersburg (now Leningrad),..'.
Polytechnic Institute in 1907,
but"w as dismissed soon after
enrollment upon discovery that
he had participated in the 1905
Revolution. He .was later.
employed " by ' Siemens-
Schuckert in St: Petersburg in
1909 and returned to Latvia in
1920. Graduated from the, -University of Latvia in 1929,',.,'
he joined VEF in 1932.
VEF had been established in
that year as an independent::
state enterprise, . having
developed out of the Pasta and
Telegrapa' Galvenas-the Lat-
vian State Postal ? Telegraph
,.and Telephone complex. t
Employment at VEF rg fr
400 to nearly 3500,: in' !1939, e.
with corresponding sales from
2 to. 15 million. Lats;.(at 1
.Lat a 19 .cents, roughly
$400,000 to $3,000,000).
Among the varied departments
were the plywood and aircraft
divisions with such prize-
winning world-recognized air-
craft designers as Karlis Irbitis,
father of the VEF J-11 and J-12
monoplanes. Coincidentally,
Janis Vitols, nephew of-
Teodors, was VEF's London
sales agent for these planes in
1936. VEF radios from the
radio-electronics divisions were
sold all over Europe, some
models having features copied '
from such well-known Ameri
can firms as National Radio in
Malden, Massachusetts and
Hallicrafters in Chicago.
What Zapp and Jurgens first
presented to Teodors Vitols :
was the Estonian Ur-Minox, a
6.5 x 9mm prototype,- silver- ' -
plated brass and-steel working
model, capable of enlarge-
ments up to 13 x 18mm. Vitols'
initial reaction was both
apathetic and skeptical, and
his first question was whether
or not the enlargements had
been "doctored" or retouched.
When Zapp replied that only
dust spots and scratches had
been removed, Vitols then ask-
ed Zapp to take test photos in '
Vitols' presence. These were
sent out for processing and
when the negatives and enlarg-
ed prints came back, Vitols ex-
claimed his delight at the
results. The initial contract
between VEF and the Zapp-
Jurgens partnership was drawn
up on October 6, 1936 and the
opening paragraph is quoted:
"This contract has to do with
a miniature photo camera and
respective accessory apparatus
discovered, invented, and built
by Mr. Walter Zapp. The
camera is called "Minox" and
hereby the camera is
designated as the central object
and its technical description is
ror u Years
SHUTTERBUG, OCTOBER 1986
A VEF-Riga Minox outfit. From left to right Developing tank with thermometer.
tripod/cable release clamp, instruction book, enlarger, extinction-type exposure meter,
film tin containing cassettes, and the Minox camera itself. Note size of exposure
meter as compared to camera.
Close-up of VEF?Riga Minox exposure meter. Note delineation of lighting condition
'by graphics just above shutter speed band in lower photo and overall resemblance
of meter to the more familiar "Leudi.-
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89G00643R001000100041-0
in Photo Technology
Part 1: Developments up to 1940
..urerie s Roll Holder (Courtesy Brian Coe-Kodak Harrow)
n d
CP
by Morris G. Moses Rochester manufacturer who
designed the Eastman-Walker
U nc of the earliest ac- rollholder of 1884, had been
counts of technical corresponding with Warnerke.
photography in Russia The 1888 Kodak had a
is about the work done in 1840 100-exposure capacity another
by A.F. Crekov. This was an interesting coincidence with
attempt to eliminate the mir- \Varnerke's concept.
rorlike quality of a daguer-
reotype and obtain a inure A Three-Color Camera
lasting image by chemically An early three-color color
plating a thin gold layer over camera designed by E. Kozlov-
the image. Crckov's work was skii appeared in 1889 and is
reported by the French somewhat reminiscent of the
physicist Arago to the French 1938 American design by
Academy of Sciences in Paris in Devin-. Three filtered images
late 1840. Crekov was one of .- were obtained with one ex-
the first Russian workers to posure and then registered to
construct a daguerreotype produce the final full-color im-
apparatus. mage. The Kozlovskii ap-
Another Russian daguer- paratus was exhibited in Kiev
reotypist was S.L. Levitskii in 1901. Early work by 1.
who exhibited his work at the Yanovskii in 1894 on
Paris Exhibitions of 1843 and chronophotograpy was a
1851, winning a gold medal at
the latter.. Levitskii Is further
credited with a focusing
bellows camera in 1847 and
the earliest use of the arc light
in Russia, in 1879. One of the
I% earliest Russian stereo cameras,
high-speed and time-sequenced
photography..
. Many f today's catadioptric
lens designs have come down
from the early work of A.A.
Popovitskii in 1902. A patent
constructed by D.P. Ezuchev- , granted him in 1904 describes
skill in 1878, brought this \. a unique lens design with mir;
qt'r' deli Paris bronze eimodal In the, roe objective and bellows, one
1878 of the earliest patents in
r
14 14
Rollfihn Origin
Some claim that the legacy
of the rollfilm is due in large
part to the work of Leon
Warnerke (Varnerke), a Rus-
sian who lived in England in
1875. 1Varnerke's rollholder
used a special paper rollcoated
with collodion emulsion. This
was a -strippable'! film, made
up in a 100-exposure length
and wound between two
rollers.
The roll was marked ahead
of time with numbers and lines
for positioning in the focal
plane. The lines and numbers
spherical mirror lens design
that laid the groundwork for
later designs by Maksutov.
A crude photo-electric shut-
ter design was patented by 1.
Polyakov in 1899, but design
work never progressed beyond
a prototype at the Moscow
Technical College in 1908.'
Aerial photography was used
by the Russian army in World
War I, and multi-objective
aerial survey cameras were the
subjects of design patents filed
by V.F. Potte and R. Tile in
1910.
Burinskii's Work
One of the more unusual
sian workers argue to this day ;areas of pre-revolutionary Rus
L
h
?,s,tslii s catadioptuc objectives and camera: 1) camera and mirror (8) com-
criminology techniques andj
forensic photography was
adopted by many Western
countries. Burinskii was the
founder of the St. Petersburg
State Forensic Photographic
Laboratory in 1889. In IS98he
was awarded the 11.V..
Lomonosov prize for work
done on deciphering 13th Cen..
tury documents found during.
an 1843 excavation, of the
Kremlin..
Using the techniques of
repeated exposures and
negative superimposition to in-
crease contrast, he was able to
bring up the writing on the
original 13th Century':
material. This material, amar.
ingly enough, was rawhide) A'
copy of a Burinskii work,
Forensic Examination of
Documents (1903), is in the
F.B.I. Library in Washington,
The turn of the century
brought the appearance of the
Iris sensitized plate factory in
Libau and the Victory and All
Russian Factories in Moscow.
Production rates for sensitized
goods and cameras in the ear-
ly 1900s were .still low sine
mass photography as we know
it in the West had not yet ar-
rived for the Russian man ak
the street. S
The revolution of October,
1917 opened up many
developments in Soviet
photography. Among the key
evens was the establishment of
the Higher Institute of
Photography in 1918, later
reorganized as the Leningrad
Institute of Kinematographic
Engineering. In the same year,
the S.I. Vavilov State O tic:.
Institute was founded jr
Leningrad.
The Institute (CO1) om ed
great deal to its founder, D.S
Rozhdestvenskii, and has beer.
a key institution in the rise c::
the Soviet photographic in
Anlarly Russian subminiature camera (Russian patent 110550.1919)
e woe
that George Eastman's sian photography was t
rollholder was inspired main- done by Evgenii Fedorovich
-1y by Warnerke's work and Burinskii, who was born Feb.
that William H. Walker, the ? 6, 1849. His early work in
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89G00643R001000100041-0
'.'stitute of-Precision Mechanics"
,'.'and-Optics was to come late
`in 1930. With the advent ofthe -,;
COI; much research began id:.
practical camera design-arid
"production. _
l;f te.Plate `Camera: .
%was ihe;Efte plate camera;
alike 'the -German 9ca=and
Gs rto plate.,.`caineras -These-
:'were: 9 ?by_ 12cm.. designs : that, .'+
boiroweil:`heavilyifrom,
the'
Dresden'- influence rand kieri==
iially led -to=another,series of.r
olding; plate cameras "called
otolcors..Other related'desi
grLSn.
iridtided-'by--they?9cma
uris; =a'nd-6.5 by. 9cm
most; famous-of;t}ie,
:1930s -vintage Soviet=cameras'
Y.were`the:.Feds;Znamed after,.:
Felix Daeizhinsky; fast chief of
?;`Soviet secret police: The'Fed is.
egarded_b' many as:a;Leica
; opy'I( history . is told :very
Relegantty:by.Oscai-:Fricke>in .
the?April, 1979 issue=ofHistorv
.40f Photography. . Suffice t:to:
:say; that withthe arrival of the.
?: Fed; 35mm photography. had
been 'put into the- handsiof.-'
=thousands of Soviets_and Soviet?
coruumerphotogrupliymoved ;
notch 161 Jo
' Western ac.
i ivit%and,consuinptionlevels-
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89GO0643ROO1000100041-0
U U u"L Lu,P it kcu.li ii U-/11 C; V'CU Ul,1JU U l1lCU U isZ~
on Russ a Shhce 1940.
by Morris G. Moses A very interesting item of
Russian photographic conncc-
W hen the bombs full tion in WW 11 was the gesture
over Pearl Harbor in made by our Office of Strategic
December 1941, the Services (the predecessor of the
Japanese had already sent back CIA) to the Russian N. K.V.D.
dozens of rolls of film taken by (their forerunner of the KGB).
their agents in San Francisco The' glad'tidings-'came in the
and Honolulu. In Europe, form of a letter from General
Hitler had invaded Poland and john. Deane, U.S. Army, to
was marching on Europe. -Golanel P. Fitin of the Russian
In June 1940, Russia, oc- N.K.V.D. It was an offer to
cupied the.Baltic and left to- -.ship-the KGB a portable 15mm
day's collectors souvenirs in the microfilm outfit weighing 3'/s
form of several dozen very _pounds, with our com-
unusual Minox cameras. Nor- pliments. It must be recalled
rnallv, these cameras that were that after the German invasion
a product of the VEF State -of Russia on June 21, 1941, the
Electrotechnical Factory in- U.S. and Russia became much
Riga, Latvia, would have been friendlier than they were. at the
engraved to that effect. start of WW II.
However, VEF records for Ju- At the close of.WW II, many
ly thru September 1940 show - of- Germany's finest optical
107 of the cameras had the works were-"up-for grabs" by
word "RICA" effaced and the whomever got -there first. A
words "Made in U.S.S.R." in-
scribed on the back cover. -
Under the U.S. Lend-Lease
programs, which began in late
1941, the Russians were also
recipients of tremendous
amounts of foreign aid. Among
the entries in U.S. Lend-Lease
'-administration records for 1943
under "Photographic Supplie3"
were the following :mouth-
watering goodies, film, 35mm
negative, 2,811,545 feet billed
at $59,007; 752,750 pounds of
photographic paper costing the
U.S._just over $550,000;
motion picture sound record
ing apparatus $112,443 scienti
ficcameras $35,527, camera
parts at-$149.476; X-ray film
costing $200,000.
team of U.S. experts under the
direction of Edward Kaprelian
of the Signal Corps were able
to reach many Zeiss personnel
in Jena in May 1945, before
these people might have been
"liberated" by the Russians. It
should be interesting to look
back and speculate whether
the Instamatic camera would
be with us today had
Kaprelian's teams arrived late.
PART IL
One of those brought back to The Russians had sent back
the U.S. under "Project photos from the far side of the
moon in the late 1950s, and the'
Paperclip" by the Signal Corps; early 1960s brought the in-
was Hubert Nerwin, father of troduction of the Russian MO-
the Zeiss Tenax and the Kodak MENT - the USSR's answer to
Instamatic cassette systems. Polaroid. Styled in the tradi-
Russia World War II years of tion of the Polaroid 95 and 110,
ussia saw the beginnings of the MOMENT had an f.6.3
newer generations of the ----
prewar- designed FED camera lens in a 1/10 to 1/200 shutter
and a wide range of MOSKVA- and was finished in black
folding cameras, 60 by 90mm leather-like material. The ar-
(roughly 2'/t by 3'/f inch) for- rangements for the attempted
mat, reminiscent of Voight- license for manufacturing from
lander Bessas and Zeiss Ikon- Polaroid are still partly shroud-
tas. The FED designs spawn- ed in secrecy and obscurity,
ed others, including the although the MOMENT can
ZORKI and the ZENIT, The be adapted to use Polaroid roll
-- earlier ZORKIS were primari- films. Instant film and diffu-
ly rangefinder 35s leading into sion - transfer technology in the
the auto exposure models of the USSR is confined mainly to
1960s. The ZENITs were pen- other than mass, consumer,
taprism SLRs, withZENITs of amateur markets.
the 1960s incorporating semi- The KIEV-VEGA range of
pearance is somewhat a
reminder of the NARCISS
16mm subminiature design in-
troduced by the U.S.S.R. back
in 1958.
For those who wish to "im-
port" their own current design
Russian cameras on a one or
two-lot basics, there has been
VNESHPOSLYTORG. This is
an agency offering to export
single lots of contemporary,
Russian cameras, binoculars,
as the o std '~" o
p the dollar llar and English facilities Consumer the photofinishing
pound. today
of 1982 was 5 Marksistskaya po The a , M's address still leave much to be desired
uI. on quality,-and the same-day
109147 Moscow' w' U U.S.S.S.S. .R.. y
You would be wise to check
with the American Embassy
and Trade Consulates before
sending any remittances..
because the trading climate
varies quite widely with the
politics of the day.
Also, as of 1982, the familiar
Kodak film in the friendly
yellow box could be found in
Russian "Beriozkas" (hard-
currency stores) conveniently
located in metropolitan
Moscow near the Novcdevichy
'Monastery and the famous
Mezhdynarodnaya ? Hotel.
Kodak film has commanded a
hefty premium over stateside
prices (the Russians know a
and one-hour service we
Americans take'for granted is
a luxury there available only to
a limited number of very
privileged citizens. ' o
and motor drives. Perhaps the that first appeared in the
most unusual variations of the mid-1960s had their origins in
ZENITs were the Photo- the Minolta-16 designs that
1970s. These were gunstock, ' ly 1950s. On page 6 of the
A "Russian" Minos. pots absmue of
word "RIGA" under the MILOX logo on
top. and "Made in U.S.S.R." near
bottom.
sions nor long-tocai iengtn Camera Trade News is an ax-
telephoto lenses and ostensibly, tide telling the frustrations of
sold for close-up nature Chiyoda Kogaku Seiko K.K.
photographs. Up to 1980 over (Minolta) when they discov-
150 designs had appeared in , ered the similarities in the Rus-
Russian camera manufactur- sian KIEV-BERAS and their.
ing. A major number of these own Minolta-16s and were
have been delineated in the unable to prosecute because of
booklet titled "One Hundred lack of patent recognition on
TenRussian Cameras"written the part of the U.S.S.R.
by 'Solomon Maizenberg, . a However, the - Japanese, in
Russian emigre, whose many turn, are a bit silent bout the
excellent books on Russian origins of the Pentax 11(I SLR
camera repair are in the collec- system of 1978 whose ap-
tions of the Library of
Congress.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89GO0643ROO1000100041-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001000100041-0
AvYaat 20, 1945
B star .to Seotioaa 393. -
D?v.39jbe.
BVBJECTt Office of Csnscmvhip Bad Book sad. the 39astaar Chartj
Dsfeaae Committee Reeving at September 5
Dr. B. L. Clarke
xr. 3. s, latoea, Jr.
Dar. R. D. 'va. a
Dr. X. H?H ?.y
Dr, A. Be Lest
Dr. L. C. panurg
Harris L chadx 11
1. Colvesl Sham has requested the return of all copies at the Bed. Book
,slob have bseaa loaned to beotica 39.1. It is aq that
copies were diatrsbntod to roenbeera of the Des=* Cceaiittee,
MUM a;d .1
aapcciate your r6tvrmlN to this offi,oa MW *Off of the Red
nook that yes say have. If ym do not have a cop7r, please wits >?
to that affect. Dime all tech:dcal work In the. Orifice of Cai.arship
Is to be aloaed vat by SaptM>w 15, von34 yqu be good em wgb to sand
the.. books to no not later than Septiaber 1.
-2. sues the Mloe of Ce i g mishap is ZD3ag cent of bmirrss tawny Co.Lnnel
Shaw fools that copies of the re ised Red Book and of the lta atear C =t
should not be d1stributed to Se ti n 39.1 DosrEractoara. '99.b" to
have one volma of each available in this off Los tar boas, hassvss.
If 7o'n wish to borrow this 00e. Dopy, Please 2mt me kaov. -
3. The neetiri of the Defense Co mi ttee scheduled Ser ltednesdq, Septa.,brr S,
in Dr. sash's office vdll be held in aaooardaace with prwvions arraMe-
ssrtta. Because of the Office of, Cta~sorshipof. b.ir abo3.1mbedv this
will be the final meeting of that gro . At this n+et3rg, it is hoped.
that there will be a diswusoa of 3or car? prop, as vWcb-should be
-W a rtakea by mW ariuaiYatic !treated to replace uBBD and that each
aa^bee of the Cereaaittes -will be prepw to psaaeah his s SS stiom.
Ins aati*ii sties of this diaemsaioat, Was Oa1b Bettis vdll be glad to
eireslate to the mob ass of the grc =7 ideas tbs3 yow arq vdah to
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89G00643R001000100041-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89G00643R001000100041-0
Property at the New York Postal Station
Description
K sr1 orelco .Diff Apparatus, Model #410, with modifications..
4 horns and automatic time switch device.
valves
Pressure cut-off switch,square D make
.. Motor, elec. 1/4 H.P. G.E. 1
Boiler, 3/4 H.P., Hoffmann,steam
A b 1. Special table equipped with 6 valves, 16's
.
3/4" brass pipe & 1pc 18 mesh copper screen 9 W
4'? X 4'.(Built by A. D. Little, Inc.) 1
1
61 Oberdorfer 1/4" bronze gear pump
Stainless steel racks 5" X 10"X14"
Stainless steel tanks 15" X 214 X 12"
Propert1 at the San Juan Postal Station
f a T Device, Electronic, complete in Par-metal case 1 ?
Stainless.steel circulators & valves
Eastern-Centifugal pumps, Model D-6
rL nI strument, optical, _consisting .of. filters,
'~ - & candle-light.: (From Bell- Telephone Labs.)
Property at the San Francisco Postal Station
Description
f! JTDevice...Electronic s ?. complete. in Par-metal case... ?
K )l Device,* Electronic, 'complete in * Par-metal . case
Property at TOD Laboratory
A 0 I-Device., . electric scorch - striping
G 103Reflector detector
(I7 L Hand screed maker with ruling 'pens
7/4/45
QUE=titY
chmntity.
DECLASSIFIED
4~_____ NN2 7 ao 9 9
SG / NABS. Date /01
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP89G00643R001000100041-0