12 researched events, 1899 to present. Each is dated as its sources date it and carries the references it rests on.
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Stephan Rauber and brothers Andrew and John Wollensak organized Rauber & Wollensak Optical Company in Rochester on July 1, 1899. Working first in a 250-square-foot rented barn, they made photographic shutters. The firm incorporated in 1900, moved to larger quarters, and adopted the Wollensak Optical Company name in 1902.
John Wollensak established an optical department in 1902 with three grinding and polishing spindles and one assistant; its first lens followed that September. Catalogs soon paired lenses with shutters. By 1914, after several moves and rapid hiring, a dedicated 40,000-square-foot Clinton Avenue factory housed a workforce of roughly 300.
Wollensak Timeline · Wollensak Lenses and Shutters Catalog 1903 · Wollensak 1899-1972
The purchase of Rochester Lens Company in 1906 brought the Royal Anastigmat and Royal Portrait designs, renamed Velostigmat and Vitax. Andrew Wollensak's complex shutter work received a 1910 patent, while the 1911 collaboration with H. Oliver Bodine turned his Pictorial Lens into the Verito, a durable name in soft-focus portraiture.
Wollensak Timeline · Wollensak Lenses and Shutters Catalog 1903 · US961192A - Photographic Shutter
During the First World War, about ninety percent of Wollensak production served military needs, including trench periscopes, battery-command telescopes, aerial cameras, and related optics. A three-story addition doubled Clinton Avenue floor space in 1918; employment rose from about 500 that year to more than 600 in 1920.
Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
After Kodak stopped buying the Optimo shutter in 1920, Wollensak broadened its output to telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, movie equipment, and other instruments. It moved lensmaking to the spacious 872 Hudson Avenue building in 1925, expanded its catalog, and partnered with Howard D. Beach on a multi-focal portrait lens in 1929.
Wollensak Timeline · Photographic Lenses and Shutters, 1926-1927 · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
Wollensak devoted its Second World War output to military equipment, from aerial-camera shutters and binoculars to optical components for the Norden bombsight. The rapid Rapax shutter emerged from wartime needs. Afterward, a public naming contest supplied the Raptar name, and coated Raptar lenses replaced the Velostigmat line in 1947.
Wollensak supplied Graflex with Optar-branded lenses beginning in 1942 while selling related designs under its own Velostigmat and later Raptar names. Wocote hard anti-reflection coating distinguished the postwar line. The shared optical ancestry makes brand engraving important: an Optar is a Graflex product identity, not a separate Wollensak system.
Wollensak Timeline · Raptar Enlarging Lenses · Wollensak Serial Numbers
Wollensak acquired rights to Western Electric's Fastax high-speed camera in 1950, strengthening a scientific and industrial line able to record extremely rapid events. The concentric-mirror Mirrotel and Fototel followed in 1952. Revere-era catalogs then joined these specialist products with stereo, 8 mm, and 16 mm cameras carrying Wollensak lenses.
Wollensak Timeline · Trade Catalogs from Revere Camera Co. · Wollensak 16 Magazine Model 91
Revere Camera Company bought roughly seventy percent of Wollensak stock in May 1953 and later acquired the balance. Wollensak initially remained a separate entity and reached about 1,200 workers that year. Revere-backed still, stereo, and movie cameras used the Wollensak name, often as premium versions of established Revere designs.
3M acquired Revere in 1960 and placed Wollensak within its photographic and optical businesses. Rochester lenses served demanding work, including a specially made 25 mm Raptar used during Alan Shepard's 1961 flight. Yet employment declined, lens sales contracted, operating losses mounted, and 3M sold Fastax to Redlake in 1968.
Wollensak Timeline · Wollensak 1899-1972 · Trade Catalogs from Revere Camera Co.
3M sold the division in 1969 to interests that formed Wollensak, Inc. The new company acquired Polan Industries but struggled with losses, debt, and delivery delays. A federal investigation rejected its claim that increased imports were the major cause of serious injury. Directors voted for bankruptcy in October 1972, closing all facilities.
Wollensak Timeline · Optical Elements: Wollensak, Inc., Rochester, N.Y. · Wollensak 1899-1972
After liquidation, Rudolph Novak bought the old 872 Hudson lens plant and in 1975 acquired the Wollensak name, drawings, and technical information, later making a poorly documented range as Wollensak Optical, Inc. Virginville Lens Company bought the building and contents in 2003 and later registered the trademark; the factory became housing in 2020.
Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
