Re: Kennedy Camera Question

["Paul A. Lehman" <palehman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Dutkowski wrote:
> It wasn't me who was asking, but I would be interested in seeing what
> you found.  Thanks.

This is the text taken from an article titled "The Stereoscopic
Art-Part I" written by J.A. Norling in the PSA Journal 703-708
Vol 17, Nov. 1951. (I'm still looking for Part II).

Kennedy Stereo Camera

Even without a slide board, the single lens, if its aperature is
large enough, can be employed to produce stereograms of excellent
quality. Its usefulness seems to fall only in the still-life
field, since the effective aperature employed for each image is
of a rather low order. The system is simplicity itself, and was
designed and built by Professor Clarence Kennedy of Smith
College, in cooperation with Dr. Edwin H. Land and Otto E. Wolff.
Professor kennedy had employed it principally to obtain large
stereograms of sculptures. Its diagrammatic representation shows
that only a part of each lens (meaning one lens assembly-PL) is
used for forming each member of the steroscopic pair. If the lens
has a large enough diameter to accommodate the desired result,
the two individual lens "stops" can be separated to the required
spacing called for by the geometry of the stereogram's planned
use. A lens of large diameter, 75mm or more, must be used. Its
focal length is determined by the type of stereograms to be made.
A large diameter demands a lens of long focal length.
Consequently, this particular process is limited to still
stereograms. Because of the large size of many stereograms used
this way, projection would introduce many problems. Viewing boxes
are used instead.

<end of paragraph>

Note that the lens must be 75mm (~3in) or more in diameter (not
75mm focal length)

A diagram illustrates the design, lets see if I can described it:
it shows a single 4 element lens with glass elements in three
parts, in the middle of the lens is a diaphragm (aperture) with
two holes, one for each image. Behind the lens are two mirrors at
an appx 45 degree angle reflecting the images to opposite sheets
of film. Essentially, the two images are formed within the single
lens by the internal two holed diaphragm.

If I recall my previous reading, this camera was used to make
very large format stereo photographs.

If interested I can make a scan of the illustration and e-mail it
to interested parties.

Come to think of it, I've got a friend with several large brass
barrel lenses (from 4-6 inches in diameter) designed for slide-in
wheatstone f-stops. I might put this idea on my already too long
"to-try someday" list just to see how well it works. 

Paul A. Lehman