Having read the notes I note that `"paul" has been engaged with the ratchet rather than his brother "pawl"

Edited By KWIL on 03/08/2012 09:34:09

Michael,

I think I'd need to lie down in a darkened room with a cold towel round the head to follow that. I suspect the degree of automation was largely if not entirely for the purpose of quantity production; for our purposes, mostly requiring one-off or very small numbers, there are much easier ways to cut multi-start threads.

David

Edited By David Littlewood on 03/08/2012 12:50:08

Hi,

What an amazing document !

I declare an interest as an ex Ilford employee but I think this has given us yet another reason why they lost the war.

I noted the 13 day trip for just 3 days in the factory. You don't get jollies like that nowadays. And that nearly 90% of the 1946 output of cameras was syphoned off to our Yankie buddies (could be swapped for Rolliflex from the Brits though) but when it came to microfilming the Leica drawings the Yanks made a mess of it according to the Intelligence report.

I would love to have seen the shutter setting process as described in the report

"In the assembly of the shutter fast- range escapement one component after another was tried till one was found that worked in a fairly satisfactory manner and then various minor alterations were made to it by filing, and in some cases, a light tap with a small watch-makers hammer. The skill of the operators was undoubtedly the chief asset in theefficient assembling of this shutter"

Mike, are there any more gems where that came from ?

Bob D

Mike,

I can't help directly with the Kennedy Monobar but, skewing the topic a bit, I have a copy of Ilford's history, "Silver by the ton". Kennedy gets a reference there.

They were known as Kennedy Engineering until 1948 and it mentions Kennedy Instruments making a simple 35mm camera called the Advocate, presumably marketed under the Ilford label. It quotes a special edition being made for £340.10s and presented to Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth by the Borough of Ilford. It was stolen but later recovered after being returned to Ilford for repair.

They had numpties even in those days!

Bob D

Michael,

The Kennedy monorail certainly looks a desirable collector's item. Like the writer of the first site you quoted, I suspect it could be quite tricky to operate; having spent many hours back in the 90s taking photos on a 5×4" sheet film technical camera, I remember how critical it is to get the focus spot on, and how tricky it is on the ground glass screen. I hate to think how much more challenging it would be with a 35mm image (36 x 24 mm max). Also, the design would seem to require use of lenses designed for larger format cameras (to fit the leaf shutters in the lens board. The generally have a markedly lower resolution than those designed for 35mm film – they don't need it.

Still, wouldn't get rid of it if I had one! Thanks for sharing.

David