JOSEPH FRAUNHOFER

Joseph Ritter von Fraunhofer (6 March 1787 – 7 June 1826) was a German physicist and optical lens manufacturer. He made optical glass, an achromatic telescope, and objective lenses. He developed diffraction grating and invented the spectroscope. In 1814, he discovered and studied the dark absorption lines in the spectrum of the sun now known […]

Poul Henningsen

Poul Henningsen (9 September 1894 – 31 January 1967), Danish author, architect and critic, was one of the leading figures of the cultural life of Denmark between the World Wars. In Denmark, he is often referred to as PH.

Holophane

Holophane is a manufacturer of lighting-related products founded in 1898 in London, England. The hallmark of Holophane luminaires, or lighting fixtures, is the borosilicate glass reflector/refractor. The glass prisms provide a combination of uplight and downlight to illuminate any environment evenly without creating dark spots or glare. This ribbed glass shade/reflector, called “Holophane” is iconic […]

Huet

Nouvelle Maison Jules Huet & Cie of 25-27 Rue de la Grange – aux – Belles, Paris. Founded in 1854. Produced binoculars for the French and British during WWI, and manufactured and supplied during WWII whilst France was ‘occupied’, so binoculars made in France for Germany were given a code which was stamped on the […]

MAISON JANSEN

The Paris-based Maison Jansen was a pioneering design firm active between the 19th and 20th centuries, and was the creator of the period’s most dazzling backdrops. Founded in 1880, at the height of Beaux-Arts fashion, Jansen began to garner attention among the upper class in France’s Third Republic. By the turn of the 20th century, […]

Krauss

E. Krauss was a French camera and lens maker, founded in 1882 by Eugen Krauss. They manufactured binoculars and telescopes. The company had a license to produce some lens designs of Carl Zeiss.

Leitz

Ernst Leitz GmbH, Wetzlar. – German optics enterprise and manufacture of Leica cameras. Ernst Leitz Optische Werke was founded in Wetzlar in 1913. WWII code = beh.

NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA

The firm of Negretti and Zambra (active 1850 – circa 1950) was a producer of scientific (philosophical) and optical instruments. Henry Negretti (1818–1879) and Joseph Zambra (1822–1897) formed a partnership in 1850, thereby founding the firm which would eventually be appointed opticians and scientific instrument makers to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Edward […]

Robert Whitehead

Robert Whitehead / Whitehead & Co, Fiume – In 1866 Robert Whitehead developed the first automobile or self-propelled torpedo whilst working as manager of the Fonderia Metalli situated in Fiume (Rijeka), today in Croatia. He thus introduced the world to a weapon that almost changed the course of history during both World Wars. In 1875, […]

Rolls Royce

Rolls-Royce Limited is a renowned British car-manufacturing and, later, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Sir Frederick Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904. Royce started designing and building aero engines in WWI by the end of the war they had supplied over half […]