For someone in Wales .....

P

Paul Kay

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Hope that this is ok to post. I have a PPE (Pilkington Perken Elmar) barrel Lens 210mm f/ 6.8 Double Gauss designs which would have been made in St Asaph on the North Wales coast when there was a collaboration between Pilkingtons and the US based business. Its in poor condition and needs a really good clean and service (muck, a bit of fungus, etc) but has an additional close up lens included. I'm not sure of coverage but something in excess of 5x4 I think, possibly much greater. I do not know what the lens was for but I am told, by someone who knows, that it should be ok as a camera lens. So if someone in Wales would like a fairly unique 'made in Wales' lens they can have it for postage. It really belongs in Wales and should be used in Wales too!
 
Wouldn't be surprised if this lens covered 5x7 as 210mm is the standard lens for that format. Great to have a welsh lens.
 
Well I live in Wales and have a Welsh made (John Nesbitt of Llanidloes) 7x5 wooden field camera......but I don't know the first thing about cleaning such a lens !
 
It will probably need professional cleaning so its a 'project' which will need some investment hence why I am prepared to give it away. I used to have a 5x4 by John Nesbitt - and such a camera would be an ideal companion. There is no shutter but a small Packard Ideal might work.
 
Paul Kay said:
It will probably need professional cleaning so its a 'project' which will need some investment hence why I am prepared to give it away. I used to have a 5x4 by John Nesbitt - and such a camera would be an ideal companion. There is no shutter but a small Packard Ideal might work.
Click to expand...
I am willing to give it a go, I will PM you tomorrow
 
Great, do pm me. Here are the photos including the close up lens (on an 1890s TT&H Cooke):
PPE 01.jpg
PPE 02.jpg
PPE 03.jpg
 
Its probably usable as is - I use a lot worse lenses with seperation, scratches and more, with surprisingly good results. Some of my oldest lenses (1860s) have clearly been very heavily used in the past and they show it!
 
It looks a very solid, well made lens. Almost industrial. Thanks for posting.
 
It was probably used in some sort of copying environment, not sure what though.
 
Perken Elmer a US company worked with Pilkington Brothers between 1967 and 1972, at their St Asaph factory. They produced lenses for optical masking for the manufacture of micro-semiconductors, for a US Air Force contract. Also for copiers & cameras.

This lens is probably optimised for close focus work, reduction by projection.

Ian
 
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For Info, and from the horse's mouth so to speak (pers email corres with a friend who designs lenses for a successor company):

Friend's Q. Hello XXX
Here’s a teaser – I haven’t got any obvious search results from LIB with 210mm, f/6.8, 8.25” etc etc. Just a couple of early repro lenses for 1:1. Have you any ideas?
Retired optical designer A. Wow that's some time ago ('72-'75). Do however remember these which were simple symmetrical double gauss type lenses of the 4 elements and therefore worked at a fairly high field angle but at low aperture.
Mike Roberts designed most of them (4 element) although I did a more complex one (Split Dagor -16" focal length? that gave a large, high quality image).
Hope this helps.

So they are intended for small aperture use and in common with many such lenses will probably perform quite adequately at infinity stopped down.
 
Just tried it on a Sony (central definition) at infinity and whilst contrast is perhaps slightly lower than it could be (marginally), central definition is very good. So a very usable lens.
 
The lens is safely in Wales and will need a bit of a clean ! I will see what I can do re mounting it as well.

Thanks Paul !
 
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