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The history of lenticular - lenticular methods


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Winnek's Tri-Vision X-Ray Method
Figure 16. Winnek's Tri-Vision X-Ray Method
(Popular Science, 1942)


 


Douglas Winnek also was quite prolific in patented camera designs, imaging techniques and lens manufacturing methods (figure 16 through 18). Called "Trivision", his inventions were widely publicized including his approach to auto stereoscopic X-ray photography.



A Winnek Camera Design
Figure 17. A Winnek Camera Design
(Winnek, 1947)
 

A Winnek lens manufacturing method
Figure 18. A Winnek lens manufacturing method. (Winnek, 1947)

Lenticular techniques showed rapid progress in the 1960's as large corporations recognized its advertising potential. Mass production became a reality on February 25, 1964, when a Look Magazine issue featured the "first ink-printed postcard sized "parallax panoramagram". The black and white still life of the bust of Thomas Edison surrounded by some of his more famous inventions required a 1000-pound camera, tracked in a programmed arc, to photograph. The manufacturing process involved printing the image using a 300 line offset press and a special technique for coating and lenticulating a thin layer of plastic on the image at high speed. The process, known as "Xograph" was developed at Eastman Kodak in Tennessee and was credited to Arthur Rothstein and Marvin Whatmore. Over 8 million copies were sold. Look Magazine followed with a color lenticular on April 7, 1964.

With the growth in the popularity of lenticular in the 1960's, several companies entered the market including Vari-Vue of New York, which was co-founded by Victor Anderson, who contributed greatly to the practical commercial success of the product. Vari-Vue, along with companies such as Crowle Communications, Hallmark, Toppan ("Top Stereo") and Dai-Nippon of Japan and later Optigraphics ("Optipan" and "Linearoptics"), produced a wide variety of products over the next twenty years, including Cracker Jack premiums, Political buttons, 3D baseball cards, postcards, magazine and book covers and point-of-purchase displays.

 

 
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