371 - The Wray Archive, a large and important collection of original Wray factory documents and drawings relating to the design of Wray lenses, documents include: Design folders containing lens designs, calculations and paperwork. Large collection of lens prescriptions, each titled with the lens. A large collection of factory blueprints of lenses showing the designs for a number of lenses including special lenses for Rank, Bell & Howell, Taylor Hobson and others Copies of patent specifications for lens design. Company & many other Documents. A copy of 'Optical Design Procedure compiled by Arthur Warmisham for the use of the computing staff of Taylor, Taylor & Hobson” and “commonly known as A.W.'s Bible”, drafted between 1937 and 1946' Jonathan Maxwell – British Optical Engineer and Lens Designer Jonathan Maxwell is a British optical engineer, lens designer, author and academic whose long career has encompassed scientific, photographic and cinematographic optics. A specialist in optical design and the correction of aberrations, Maxwell has worked both within the British optical industry and in academic research and teaching. He is the author of Catadioptric Imaging Systems, published by Adam Hilger in 1972, and numerous technical papers dealing with lens design, apochromatic optical systems, aberration correction and computer-assisted optical design. For many years he was associated with the Applied Optics section at Imperial College London, where he taught optical design. Of particular relevance to the present archive was Maxwell's close professional association with Charles Gorrie Wynne FRS (1911–1999), one of the most important British optical designers of the twentieth century. Wynne worked for Taylor, Taylor & Hobson before joining Wray (Optical Works) Ltd in 1943, where he remained until 1960. At Wray he designed a number of important optical systems, including high-performance lenses for RAF photographic reconnaissance and aerial survey, and subsequently became Technical Director of the company. In 1960 he moved to Imperial College as Director of its Optical Design Group. Maxwell knew Wynne and his work closely. Following Wynne's death in 1999, Maxwell wrote his obituary for The Guardian and subsequently co-authored, with Prudence M. J. H. Wormell, the extensive biographical memoir of Wynne published by the Royal Society in 2001. Maxwell's own industrial career later included work with Cooke Optics, where he was engaged in the design of fixed focal-length and zoom cinematographic lenses. He has also written and lectured extensively on optical design and on the characteristics of Cooke cinematographic lenses. Provenance: The present archive comes directly from the collection of Jonathan Maxwell. It comprises a substantial body of original Wray factory material, including optical design folders and calculations, lens prescriptions, factory drawings and blueprints, patent specifications and related company documentation. A number of personal items formerly belonging to Charles Gorrie Wynne were also preserved in Maxwell's collection. Given Wynne's long association with Wray and Maxwell's subsequent close professional association with Wynne and his work, it is possible that some or all of the Wray archive passed to Maxwell through Wynne. No documentary evidence confirming this transfer has presently been identified, however, and the precise earlier provenance of the archive remains the subject of further research. Arthur Warmisham – British Optical Designer Arthur Warmisham was one of the leading British optical designers of the first half of the twentieth century and spent virtually his entire professional career with Taylor, Taylor & Hobson Ltd (TT&H) of Leicester, manufacturers of the celebrated Cooke range of photographic and cinematographic lenses. He joined the company directly from school in 1912 and, remarkably, had become Director of Optical Design and Research by around 1922. Warmisham's early career coincided with the rapid development of aerial photography during the First World War. Faced with the need to replace high-quality German photographic objectives that were no longer readily available, he developed the Cooke Aviar, c.1916–17. The Aviar was a four-element, air-spaced anastigmatic objective designed to provide high definition at the relatively large aperture required for aerial reconnaissance. Tested against contemporary German lenses, the design proved highly successful and was adopted by the Royal Flying Corps and subsequently the Royal Air Force. It became one of Taylor-Hobson's important photographic objectives and remained in production in various forms for decades. Warmisham went on to become a prolific designer of photographic, projection and cinematographic optical systems. His work included high-aperture objectives and the development of early variable-focus systems; he oversaw the Cooke Varo 40–120mm f/5.6, introduced in 1932 and regarded as the first non-telescopic