How did Raptars get their name?

A simple Trivia Question.

 

How or why did Wollensak name their lens line "Raptar"?

 

Correct answer on Friday.

 

tim in san jose

<i>One Correct Answer</i> is kind of uninspring. How about the Top Ten answers as to why did Wollensak name their lens line "Raptar"? <br><br>My nomination for the #10 position: <b>Sounds better than Ratpar</b>.

"uninspiring"...sorry.

No. 9??? -- Sounds better than "Predator"

Great idea. I'll compile a list of these as they come in.

 

tim in san jose

The the older Wollensak's are Velostigmats; which is an anastigmat that is fast. The later Wollensak's are Raptars; which rhymes with Ektar; Tessar; Xenar; Baltar; etc. <BR><BR><b>RAPTAR means abduct in Spanish.<BR><BR>The Faster "Raptar" abducts light; that slower lenses miss. </b>.........This is what a Spanish speaking photographer told me decades ago... <BR><BR> Raptar is a trade name of Wollensak; it was made to rhyme with other lens makers lenses; that ended in ar..

8: The term 'Hip-Hop' wasn't coined yet.

In the actual production process, Wollensak would take the raw glass

and "wrap" it in a tar and straw mixture which drew out the surface

impurities before glass was cut and eventually ground to the lens particular specifications, the wraping in tar and straw was simplified

to "Raptar" and thus this wonderful lens was named.

Andrew Wollensak had a German Shepherd named "Raptor", and specified that the new lens should be named after his dog, similar to the Leica "Hektor" lens.

 

When the first production run came back from the factory, all the lenses had been labelled "Raptar" by mistake, because of a transcription error. The lenses were sent to the distributors anyway, and the name stuck. Wollensak never corrected the error in subsequent production runs.

�Raptar� is really a corruption of �rapped hard�. The early cells were not well made, and they had to whack the glass to get the elements to sit right.

Because Zeiss already had Sonnar, Tessar, Protar, and more; Leitz had Hektor, Elmar, Summitar, & Telyt (how did that get in there?); Schneider had Xenar, Radionar, etc. All the good names were used up and someone saw a hawk chasing a duck so . . . . . .

Maybe we should have a contest to decide what the real reason is...

"Wrapped Tar" another name for cigarettes ? oh well ! pc

#X: Wollensak wanted to re-brand the line in the mid 40's and came up with a competition for a name change. Raptar was submitted by a German engineer who actually worked for them - and won.

because it was Rapture to work with them?

Most of these are really funny and some are close to the truth.

 

Tomorrow. I promise.

 

 

tim in san jose

From Velociraptor (fast).

#7 The Mooar name was already taken by someone who manage to grind a meniscus lens out the bottom of milk bottle.

Top 10 answers!

 

#10 In the actual production process, Wollensak would take the raw glass and "wrap" it in a tar and straw mixture which drew out the surface impurities before glass was cut and eventually ground to the lens particular specifications, the wraping in tar and straw was simplified to "Raptar" and thus this wonderful lens was named.

 

#9 Because it was Rapture to work with them.

 

#8 �Raptar� is really a corruption of �rapped hard�. The early cells were not well made, and they had to whack the glass to get the elements to sit right.

 

#7 Andrew Wollensak had a German Shepherd named "Raptor", and specified that the new lens should be named after his dog, similar to the Leica "Hektor" lens. When the first production run came back from the factory, all the lenses had been labelled "Raptar" by mistake, because of a transcription error. The lenses were sent to the distributors anyway, and the name stuck. Wollensak never corrected the error in subsequent production runs.

 

#6 Sounds better than "Predator".

 

#5 The Mooar name was already taken by someone who manage to grind a meniscus lens out the bottom of milk bottle.

 

#4 From Velociraptor (fast).

 

#3 RAPTAR means abduct in Spanish. The Faster "Raptar" abducts light; that slower lenses miss. .........This is what a Spanish speaking photographer told me decades ago...

 

#2 Because Zeiss already had Sonnar, Tessar, Protar, and more; Leitz had Hektor, Elmar, Summitar, & Telyt (how did that get in there?); Schneider had Xenar, Radionar, etc. All the good names were used up and someone saw a hawk chasing a duck so . . . . . .

 

#1 Sounds better than Ratpar.

 

Now the real reason...

 

Richard Silfverberg came close. There was a contest held in 1945 and 1946 to "name the NEW Wollensak lens". The winner was not an engineer working for Wollensak but a man named Templin R. Licklider, head of the English Department at Cranbrook School, Bloomfield, MI. I would assume Mr. Licklider was a photographer as well. His prize in 1946 was $1000 dollars, a nice piece of change in the post war era. Mr Licklider passed away in 1998.

 

Second prize went to Mr. P.W. Glaser of L.A. for "Colotar".

 

Well done.

 

 

tim in san jose

"Raptar" is definitely better than "Licklitar."

I just realized the disturbing similarity in sound between lens names and pokemon.

And all along, I thought it was because they were designed by some old buzzard. Oh well ---

Darn, I was close :-)

 

Thanks for the trivia!

There is another man named Licklider too; a Internet founder; with a protocol named after him . (LTP) Licklider Transmission Protocol.<BR><BR>"Temp" published the Alumni magazine at Cranbrook; he was there for 1/2 a century...head of the English dept...His brother taught at Princeton

This prep school is a wonderful place to visit, with sculpture by the famous Norwegian, Milles. It is in Bloomfield Hills, MI, about nine miles north of the Detroit city limits. They had a great camera club as I remember. (In those days almost everyone there used Leicas or Rolleis.) They also have one of the finest collections of mesoamerica in their renowned museum. Definitely a fine place to visit!