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RichS · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:02 am Post subject:

I just got a new Turner Reich convertible lens and two things struck me when I first saw it.

One, it looks brand new... Not a mark, scratch, wear rub, nuthin...

The other is the serial number. I have another TR and a Gundlach (not TR) or two and they have 'normal' serial numbers. 6 or 8 digits that don't mean much anymore because noone apparently kept track of manufacturing dates... Too bad...

But this lens has a serial number of "RR0520". It just strikes me as an odd serial number and I thought that somone may know if it meant something? Government, special purpose, Recently Rejected?

I'm still thinking about whether or not to keep the lens as it's not what they sold me, but considering the condition, I may anyway...

Thanks...

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

Well if Kodak had made the lens it would have been in '55.

A bit late for TR I think.

I'm not up on my Gunlach/TR history, but I think they made cameras up through WWII, but not much after that.

Les

RichS · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:42 pm Post subject:

The only info I could find after many searches is the Kingslake history article. The later years of Gunlach were apparently not so good, but did pick up until bought. Here's the end paragraph:

"Around 1926 the name was changed to the Gundlach Manufacturing Company, and in 1928 it was taken over by John E. Seebold, president, and Walter H. Ashby as vice-president, under the strange name of the "Seebold Invisible Camera Company." Seebold left the following year and Ashby became president. They suffered badly in the depression and finally moved to Fairport in October 1935, their old building on Clinton Avenue becoming the Kane Furniture Store. Early in 1954 their remaining assets were acquired by Albert Drucker, of Burke and James in Chicago, and finally re-organized as "Dynamic Optics Inc." with David Goldstein as president. The firm ceased operations in 1972. In 1946 Mr. Turner's son, Donald, founded the Turner Bellows Company which is still in existence at 165 North Water Street, making thousands of bellows a day for Polaroid."

So they existed until 1954 and whatever was left of them could have existed until 1972. And this strikes me in an odd way. On one hand, I would hope that my T&R or Gundlach lenses were at least as old as my cameras (1928). On the other hand, it would be interesting to have such a lens made in 1970 or so... But I somehow doubt they manufactured such lenses that late?

And now knowing that Turner's son owns (owned?) Turner Bellows, and still in the Rochester area, I feel bad not buying a new bellows from them somehow...

If only all those old companies didn't keep better records, and someoen didn't keep the records. But I guess once they get bought out, most of the old paper work is lost...