14 and 12 researched events on one shared scale. Graflex 1887–present, Taylor Hobson / Cooke 1886–present.
The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.
William and Thomas Smithies Taylor opened a Leicester lensmaking business in 1886, and William Smithies Hobson joined in 1887. The partnership became Taylor, Taylor & Hobson, combining optical manufacture with an expanding commercial operation before the Cooke license defined its photographic reputation.
William F. Folmer and William E. Schwing began in New York with metalwork, lighting and bicycles, then moved steadily into photographic goods. Their 1890 incorporation and camera offerings of the mid-1890s established the enterprise that would become one of Rochester's defining professional-camera makers.
Folmer & Schwing 1898 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies
Harold Dennis Taylor of T. Cooke & Sons patented the three-element anastigmat in 1893 and arranged for Taylor, Taylor & Hobson to manufacture it in Leicester under the Cooke name. The first photographic lenses followed in 1894, establishing a brand-and-maker relationship that would last more than a century.
Folmer & Schwing's own camera line emerged in the 1890s. The 1898 catalog presents Graphic, Graphic Senior, Cycle Graphic and stereoscopic cameras in several plate formats, alongside a broad lens trade. These compact field cameras supplied the name and practical folding architecture from which later Graphic systems grew.
Folmer & Schwing 1898 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies
Cooke catalogs grew into a system of portrait, general-purpose, high-speed, process, wide-angle, convertible, and telephoto series. Barrels, sunk mounts, shutters, focusing mounts, and matched extension cells let the Leicester works serve hand cameras, reflex bodies, studios, and large commercial plate cameras.
Taylor, Taylor & Hobson Cooke Lenses Sales Brochure 1908-09 · Cooke Compendium · Lenses for Photography Manufactured by Taylor, Taylor & Hobson
William Folmer's reflex-camera work joined through-the-lens viewing to a focal-plane shutter. Kingslake dates the first experimental Graflex to 1898 and describes the decisive 1904 change to a dependable curtain with fixed-width apertures, a pattern that became the mechanical signature of Graflex reflex and Speed Graphic cameras.
A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex 1906 Catalog
George Eastman purchased Folmer & Schwing in 1905 and moved the operation to Rochester. The organization became a Kodak division and later the Folmer-Century operation, bringing Century's view and Cirkut panoramic lines into the same professional-camera shop while William Folmer remained general manager through 1926.
A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1920 Catalog
Auto, Revolving Back, Press, Naturalist, Series B, Series C, Series D and Home Portrait cameras turned the large-format reflex idea into a broad working system. Formats ranged from compact roll-film sizes to 5 x 7, with the mirror and hood giving photographers an upright, full-size image for focusing before exposure.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1920 Catalog · Graflex 1906 Catalog
The Speed Graphic placed Graflex's curtain shutter in a folding, direct-view camera. Top-handle, larger-board, Pre-Anniversary and Anniversary generations expanded lens choice and refined focusing and handling. By the 1930s and 1940s the camera had become closely identified with American news and military photography.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Graflex Graphic Model History · Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Press Camera · Graflex 1920 Catalog
War work brought aerial reconnaissance, rangefinder, and military-optical demands. The four-element Aviar answered the need for fast, reliable definition from aircraft and later moved into civilian photography, while the firm's precision manufacturing expanded under conditions that cut Britain off from German optical supply.
Horace W. Lee's Series O Opic combined a six-element double-Gauss-derived design with an f/2 aperture. Alongside Kinic cinematograph lenses and expedition telephotos, it gave Taylor, Taylor & Hobson the optical foundation for sound-era cinema just as the company shortened its name to Taylor Hobson.
A Cooke Book · The History of Panchro (Part 1) · Cooke Compendium · Taylor-Hobson Cooke Lenses Advertisement in the British Journal Almanac
A court-directed divestiture separated Kodak's professional-camera operation. The Folmer Graflex Corporation took over the assets and continued in Rochester, carrying forward Graflex, Graphic, Cirkut and studio equipment through the Depression and wartime production before the corporate name became Graflex, Inc. in the mid-1940s.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1927 Catalog
Bell & Howell took control in 1930 and distributed Cooke cine lenses in the United States. Speed Panchros expanded across the focal range needed by 35mm studios, while Lee's inverse-telephoto design provided the long back focus demanded by three-strip Technicolor cameras and helped the Leicester lenses become studio standards.
A Cooke Book · The History of Panchro (Part 1) · Innovating Since 1893 · Taylor Hobson Limited
The wooden Crown View was followed by the metal Graphic View and longer-rail Graphic View II. These cameras put generous rise, shift, swing and tilt into studio and location tools, sharing selected boards or adapters with Graphic cameras and giving architectural and industrial photographers a distinctly modern American view-camera option.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1958 Price List
Anniversary and military Graphics, the Combat Graphic, Super D and postwar Pacemaker series carried the company through wartime and into a changed press market. Institutions and working photographers valued robust construction, interchangeable holders and the ability to combine rangefinder, scale and ground-glass focusing on one body.
Gottlieb's Life and Work · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Graflex 1958 Price List · Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Press Camera
Rank acquired Taylor Hobson in the mid-1940s, and factory coating became regular practice in 1947. Gordon Cook joined in 1948 and began revising the Speed Panchro line with new glass and larger coverage, carrying prewar designs into a postwar cinema industry moving toward wider screens and higher contrast.
A Cooke Book · The History of Panchro (Part 1) · Taylor Hobson Limited
Pacemaker Speed and Crown Graphics standardized the postwar folding platform, while the Century Graphic adapted its ideas to 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. Super Graphic and Super Speed Graphic added a revolving Graflok back, built-in rangefinding and electrical shutter features, carrying large-format versatility to the end of production.
Graflex Graphic Model History · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1958 Price List · Graflex 1968 Product Catalog
Graflex acquired the Ciro camera line and sold Ciro-flex, Graflex 22, Graphic 35, Century 35, Stereo Graphic and Graphic 70 cameras. These 120, 35mm stereo and 70mm products widened the badge beyond Rochester's traditional reflex and press cameras, though several compact lines depended on acquired or imported manufacture.
Series II and III Speed Panchros, Kinetals for 16mm, Telepanchros for long shots, anamorphic research, and purpose-built television zooms broadened Taylor Hobson's reach. Gordon Cook's Varotal III, V, and XIV addressed live broadcast with servo control, long zoom ratios, and increasingly sealed optical mechanics.
A Cooke Book · Cooke Speed Panchro Series II Sales Sheet · Taylor-Hobson Varotal XIV - The Lens That Captured the Win
General Precision Equipment acquired Graflex in 1956, and the company moved to a new Monroe Avenue plant near Pittsford in 1957. The catalog still centered on professional Graphic cameras, film holders and lighting, while product development reached toward lighter Super models and new medium-format systems.
Graflex 1958 Price List · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1968 Product Catalog
The XL replaced the folding bed with a modular medium-format body, dedicated focusing barrels and interchangeable roll, sheet and instant-film backs. Rangefinder, Standard and thin Super Wide Angle bodies accepted lenses from Zeiss, Schneider and Rodenstock, making the last Graflex camera system unlike its press-camera ancestors.
Singer's ownership carried Graflex cameras into the early 1970s, but camera manufacture ended in 1973 and tooling was sold to Toyo. The original manufacturing company did not continue as a camera maker; surviving cameras, manuals and the specialist community now carry the name's practical and historical continuity.
The 20-100mm Varotal of 1971 established the mechanical pattern for later Cooke cinema zooms. Varokinetal, Super Cine Varotal, Varopanchro, wide-angle Varotal, and Cinetal models served 16mm, Super 16, and 35mm production, while work on S4 primes prepared the lens branch for a new corporate life.
Les Zellan led the purchase of Taylor Hobson's optical division and formed Cooke Optics Limited. The transaction created a new legal company while retaining Leicester personnel, machines, designs, and practical manufacturing knowledge from the historic lens branch; Taylor Hobson continued along its metrology path.
A Cooke Book · COOKE OPTICS LIMITED overview · Taylor Hobson Limited
Cooke Optics Limited remains an active Leicester manufacturer of cinematography lenses. Its present factory belongs to a company incorporated in 1998, yet its workforce, tooling, design archive, and product lineage connect directly to the Taylor Hobson optical division and the Cooke name first placed on Leicester-made lenses in 1894.
A Cooke Book · Tradition of Innovation · COOKE OPTICS LIMITED overview
AMETEK acquired Taylor Hobson in 2004. The Taylor Hobson name now identifies an active precision-metrology manufacturer whose surface and form instruments grew from the measurement problems of lensmaking, rather than the current producer of Cooke-branded photographic and cinematographic lenses.
Read either maker on its own: Graflex · Taylor Hobson / Cooke
