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C. C. Harrison's Orthoscope Lens of
1857-1858
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"C. C. Harrison, so widely known as a
manufacturer of camera lenses and tubes, for
heliographic use, was, in 1846, a
daguerreotype manipulator. He prosecuted
this business for several years, making, the
while, lenses both for his own use and for
sale. The value of his lenses eventually
became so extensively known, and the demand
for them so great, that he was constrained
to give his undivided attention to this
manufacture, in which he has, at present,
constantly employed over thirty workmen. Up
to May 15th, 1863, he had constructed eight
thousand eight hundred and seventeen of the
lenses in general use, and three hundred and
seven of his new globe lenses, so highly
prized for landscape-photography copying,
&c."
-The Camera and the Pencil
By Marcus Aurelius Root (US) 1864
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CC Harrison Orthoscope Lens
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"I do not intend to give the modus operandi
of the various processes, nor to describe the
photographic apparatus most in use, but it
seems only justice to call your attention to
the astonishing successful labors of our
fellow citizen, C. C. Harrison, in the
manufacture of that most difficult of all
work, the Camera; these are not behind the
best optical instruments made in the world,
although Mr. Harrison has not the mathematical
assistance of a Petzval, nor the early
training of a working optician. His success
will be best appreciated by the man of
science, who well knows the difficulty of
working achromatic lenses of such enormous
diameter as three, four and six inches, to
less than one foot focus; yet in these he has
contrived to reduce the spherical aberration
to a mere fraction, and the chromatic almost
to a perfect nonentity. Some of Mr. Harrison's
instruments are even much larger, being not
less than nine inches in clear aperture, the
largest ever made. The demand for such very
large lenses, has arisen from the desire for
life size photographs, several of which graced
our exhibition at the crystal palace last
autumn." TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE,
CITY OF NEW-YORK FOR THE YEAR 1857.
Charles Van Benthuysen (US) 1858
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In 1840, Joseph Petzval of Vienna designed
two lenses; the first was his landmark
portrait lens design ("Petzval Portrait")
and the other was his landscape design.
Petzval's landscape lens, the "Orthoskop,"
featured a double combination of lenses,
which allowed for greater sharpness and
flatness of field than the ordinary single
lens of the day. While the Petzval Portrait
lens forever changed photography almost
instantly, the landscape design sat dorment
until about 1856. At this time, Petzval had
Dietzler of Vienna produce his lens and
within a short period of time, Voigtlander
manufactured a version of the lens as did
Ross in England and Harrison in the United
States. The Dietzler and Voigtlander lenses
were rated at f/8.7, while Ross' version
came in at about f/14. Harrsion's lens
appears to be around f/11. All of these
lenses tend to be of long focus and in fact
are an early precursor to the telephoto
objective.
This design was copied
by many and trade names included; "Petzval
Landscape," "Orthographic," "Orthoscop,"
"Orthoscope," and "Caloscopic."
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Original design f/8.7 with a 44
degree angle of view
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"Orthoscopic" was to denote freedom
from distortion (even though the
design does suffer from some
pincushion distortion).
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Voigtlander's actual production lens
had this layout
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Voigtlander Orthoscopic Lens Layout
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From Edward Nugent's, "Optics: Light
and Sight Theoretically and
Practically Treated"
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Voigtlander's version of the
Orthoscop from Ausführliches
Handbuch der Photographie By
Josef Maria Eder, (Germany) 1893
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The Voigtlander lens had stops inserted
behind the rear lens, while Harrison's was
between lens groups.
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Voigtlander Orthoscopic Lens _
Courtesy Leitz Photographica Auction
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Diagram of Harrison's Orthoscope
Lens
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"Orthoscopic Lens.-This form which, like the
portrait lens, we owe to Petzval, has been
extensively used, especially in this country.
Harrison manufactured many good objectives of
this form; but on introducing the globe lens,
he stopped making the'orthoscopic, and this
lens is now but little used here. In Germany
it seems to have kept its place better. The
orthoscopic is a good copying lens, but slow,
owing to its long focus, and the small stop
generally used with it in copying. For taking
views, a stop of considerable size may be
employed; and, as it has a considerable depth
of focus, it is by some much prized for
landscape work; though this is rather in
Germany than here. Small pictures of landscape
scenery are well taken by the smaller
orthoscopic lenses, because in them the focal
length is not far from corresponding with that
of the eye. But large pictures made with the
orthoscopic require a lens of very long focus;
and it results that planes of distance are not
well rendered, the foregrounds become
indistinct and inconspicuous, and distant
objects look unnaturally near." A manual of photography: intended as a
text book for beginners and a book of
reference for advanced photographers:
Author: Lea, Mathew Carey (US)
1868
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What makes this lens special to the history
of photographic lenses is the Iris Diaphragm
that was patented by Harrison and his
protege, Joseph Schnitzer. The diaphragm was
likely first manufactured in a Harrison lens
in 1857, although it took until September 7,
1858 for the patent to be approved. All
known Harrsion Orthoscope lenses are marked
Patent Applied For
("Patent Appld For"). Later
Harrison portrait lenses that featured this
aperture control were marked "Sep. 7
1858" This diaphragm was the basis for iris
shutters of the 1880-1900 period and are
also the basis for automatic aperture
control systems in todays cameras - some 150
years later. The patent for this is
shown below:
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Notice the markings for the aperture are
marked from 1/4 inch on top, down to a
maximum opening of 1 inch. Although the
front element is about 2.75", the widest
aperture opening is one inch.
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With the front element group removed, one
can clearly see the six bladed iris that
was invented.
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