scsambrook Posted February 16, 2011 Share #1 Posted February 16, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Perhaps a slightly odd question . . . Can anyone tell me when Leitz began to use polystyrene or similar materials in their equipment packaging? This has nothing to do with the equipment itself, just the boxes the factory put it in. This is connected with a study of the evolution of particular types of consumer-goods' packaging, and nothing to do with the merits or demerits of whatever Leitz did in the 1960s and 70s - ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Hi scsambrook, Take a look here Leitz photo-equipment packaging. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
luigi bertolotti Posted February 16, 2011 Share #2 Posted February 16, 2011 Well... a 100% definitive answer is surely difficult...; my 2c contribution is that the 1961 catalog quotes (litteraly) "Polystyrene containers" for the lenses (I have many of them) : their codes are detailed as REPLACEMENTS, which means that the lenses were delivered with such packaging; the 1958 catalog speaks of "plastic containers" for the lenses... I cannot say if this refers to the "old" black containers, even if the codes (changed from 5 letters to 5 digits in the meantime) seem unchanged (example : BOORW-1958 "plastic container" for 35mm lenses, quoted in the 1961 catalog as corresponding to 14590 L "polystyrene container"). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UliWer Posted February 16, 2011 Share #3 Posted February 16, 2011 I am not quite sure what "polystyrene" means in this context. Is it the white, light stuff which is in the box often formed exactly to fix the object: http://www.hartmut-mueller-gmbh.de/de/Bilder/EPS.jpg. Or do you mean the transparent plexiglas containers for lenses you could unscrew, where the lens was screwed in the bottom? If it is the former, I don't think this was used before the late sixties. The original boxes for an M3 from 1961 and a original box for a 16461 Visoflex viewfinder from the mid sixties still have the red velvet inlays which served for the purpose of fixing the object inside the box. The transparent plastic containers were used since the early fifties. Before they had the bakelite boxes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted February 16, 2011 Share #4 Posted February 16, 2011 The various components of a Telyt 400 6,8 from 1971 were boxed using only cardboard supports + velvet strips; the components of a Telyt 800 6,3 of 1972 were inserted into plastic foam (dunno if is a Polystyrene variant, in strict terms). UliWer detail about plastic containers clears the doubt I had about their introduction... and, indeed, I have a Hektor 135 from 1953 which has a transparent polystyrene container which (probably) was with the lens from the origin. Also the filter containers have the polystyrene (transparent) and the (older) bakelite version... no idea on when they switched from one to the other Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
giordano Posted February 17, 2011 Share #5 Posted February 17, 2011 I'm reasonably confident that the transparent-topped lens containers were polystyrene. ISTR remember repairing one with polystyrene cement which dissolved it satisfactorily. Moulded polystyrene foam packaging came along later. I remember being given a pocket electronic calculator in 1971 or 1972: the packaging seemed as ultra-modern as the device itself (or maybe I'd been too long in the bush:)). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pecole Posted February 17, 2011 Share #6 Posted February 17, 2011 I am not quite sure what "polystyrene" means in this context. Is it the white, light stuff which is in the box often formed exactly to fix the object: http://www.hartmut-mueller-gmbh.de/de/Bilder/EPS.jpg. Or do you mean the transparent plexiglas containers for lenses you could unscrew, where the lens was screwed in the bottom? If it is the former, I don't think this was used before the late sixties. The original boxes for an M3 from 1961 and a original box for a 16461 Visoflex viewfinder from the mid sixties still have the red velvet inlays which served for the purpose of fixing the object inside the box. The transparent plastic containers were used since the early fifties. Before they had the bakelite boxes. Just a lkinguistic addition : - the brown/black/yellow "plastic" used before and immediately after the War was "Bakelite" (a rigid "plastic" invented in the late 1920s by the Belgian chemist Baekelandt) - the transparent plastic used for the lens containers is a variant of polystyrene mainly known as "polystyrol" - the white, light material is "expanded polystyrene" or polystyrene foam. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scsambrook Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share #7 Posted February 17, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) My thanks to everyone for these informative and helpful responses. Although I was looking to learn about the onset of using 'soft' plastic materials as shock-absorbing elements in camera and lens packaging, it's good to have been reminded that other plastic was used too for quite different purposes - e.g. for lens containers. I've also been reminded by a friend that Pradovit and Cinovid projectors were packed using moulded polystyrene materials inside cardboard boxes duriing the late 1960s, something which I'd quite forgotten. The same (elderly!) friend, who worked in the photo retail trade until a few years ago, also pointed out that Leitz used a dark gray or black closed-cell foam material for packing some items in the mid to late 1960s. Does this make me seem like the Ultimate Leitz Geek - I hope not ! Stephen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.