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Descriptive Summary
Creator:
Back, Frank G.
Title:
Frank Back Papers,
1899 - 1983
Extent:
6.10 linear feet
(5 archives boxes, 2 card file boxes and 20 oversize folders)
Abstract:
Papers of Frank Back, optical engineer and founder and president of Zoomar Inc., an optical engineering company specializing in lens design for television, motion picture and single-lens reflex cameras. Born in Vienna in 1902, Back immigrated to the United States in 1939 after receiving a doctorate in science from the Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Vienna in 1931. Back invented the optically-compensated zoom lens for television and single lens reflex (SLR) 35mm cameras. Back and his companies, Zoomar Inc. and Research and Development Laboratory, contributed significantly to the development of optical technologies for television and motion pictures, as well as astronomical, medical, commercial, and military applications in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Materials include biographical documents from his early years in Austria; reprints and typescript drafts of Back's professional writings; several patent applications; correspondence, including a photograph of a letter to Back from Albert Einstein; miscellaneous Zoomar records and memorabilia; and biographical documents related to Back's brother-in-law, Herbert Lowen. The collection also includes photographs of Back, Zoomar facilities and products, and Back's meeting with Albert Einstein in 1955.
The papers are arranged in nine series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) WRITINGS BY BACK, 3) WRITINGS BY OTHERS, 4) CORRESPONDENCE, 5) ZOOMAR MATERIALS, 6) PHOTOGRAPHS, 7) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS, 8) HERBERT LOWEN MATERIALS, and 9) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.
Collection number:
MSS 0568
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