TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

Beginning in 1914, the predominant influence on the manufacture of photographic lenses shifted to war.^[1] The first rumblings of this change were felt in Britain, but the effects quickly rippled out to the rest of the Allied nations. In August of 1914, Britain's Navy blockaded the German Imperial Fleet in its ports to restrict the mainland’s access to supplies. The blockage eventually cut off Germany's food supplies and starved the German people into food riots, but it also “created an immediate economic crisis in the British empire,” particularly in the instrument industry.^[2] The war intensified existing national divisions that existed between lens production and manufacturing, but did so on the basis of material capacity more than scientific design or advancement. It also revealed the tenuous nature of Zeiss’ licensing: for all that Zeiss licensed its name across national borders, international lens and optical instrument manufacturing was still significantly reliant on German optical glass.

While many countries had robust commercial capacities for the production of producing optical instruments, the glass for those instruments came almost entirely from Germany.^[3] Prior to the war, Jena Glassworks supplied between 60 and 90 % of Britain’s optical glass supply.^[4] The United States was beginning to develop an optical glass industry, both because of the threat of losing access to German optical glass and for the promise of supplying Europe. However, the United States wasn’t able to fill these shortages until late in the war. The Chance Brothers, Britain's largest domestic supplier, were only able to provide about 10 % of Britain’s wartime optical glass demand. Britain’s only other substantial alternative supplier of optical glass, the French company Parra-Mantois, was quickly overwhelmed by orders from other European instrument makers whose German optical glass supply was also compromised.^[5]