[rollei_list] Re: Disturbing News
- From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:15:29 -0500
At 03:26 PM 11/8/2009, Hauke Fath wrote:
>>Shocking news! Tell me more! I wrote the book
>>on the firm,
>
>_The_ book, no less? Got an ISBN?
>
>>but never knew they filed bankrutcy!
>
>Well, even if it wasn't formal, you could say it was the moral equivalent
>of bankrupcy. ;)
>
>Zeiss Ikon AG shut down the camera manufacturing effectively in 1971, after
>spinning off the Voigtländer fab in Braunschweig to F&H (eine Danaer-Gabe).
>
>What's left of Zeiss Ikon manufacturing today produces locks
><http://www.ikon.de/index.php?key=historie&lang=en>.
No, Zeiss Ikon never filed bankruptcy. Zeiss
Ikon was owned by the Zeiss Foundation who
ordered the company to cease production of
cameras in 1972, with effect from 1973. The main
Zeiss Ikon factory in Stuttgart was converted to
the manufacture of eyeglass lenses. Zeiss Ikon
continued to produce ancillary items such as
slide projectors for some years, though the
projectors were later to end up in the hands of
Leica. The only surviving production of the
Zeiss Ikon company are the cruciform locks so
much a part of World War II Prisoner-of-War
lore: the Germans used these extensively in the
POW camps in which they held Allied Prisoners,
and believed them to be absolutely secure. A
Dutch officer at Oflag IVC at Colditz learned how
to pick them and taught Pat Reid who, upon his
escape to the United Kingdom, ensured that all
aircrew knew the trick, so German POW camps after
that were wide-open to the inmates. I have one
of these locks on a shelf near my desk as a memento.
The Zeiss Foundation kept control of all of Zeiss
Ikon's intellectual properties. The current
"Zeiss Ikon" camera is properly licensed by the Zeiss Foundation.
This is discussed in greater detail in Barringer
and Small, THE ZEISS COMPENDIUM. I would ask
that you not buy a new copy but would urge you to
pick up a used copy: these come up on eBay from
time to time. Hove is no longer paying
royalties, so I would regard it as a special
courtesy to me if you declined to but a new copy.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
---
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