Background
Paul Rudolph was born in 1858 in Kahla, Sachsen-Altenburg, Germany.
Paul Rudolph was born in 1858 in Kahla, Sachsen-Altenburg, Germany.
He studied at the Altenburg Gymnasium and at the universities in Munich, Leipzig.
After spending a few years teaching, Rudolph joined the Zeiss works in Jena in 1886 at the invitation of Ernst Abbe. While there, he developed a series of apochromatic lenses, patenting the first photographic lens corrected for astigmatism and curvature of the image field in 1890. Named Anastigmate by Dr. Adolf Miethe, the lens was the forerunner of the Protar, the Planare (1896), and the Unare (1899). Rudolph also patented a series of anamorphic lenses in 1899.
In 1900 Rudolph helped establish A. G. Camerawerk Palmos in Jena, a collaboration between Zeiss and Kamerafabrik Curt Benzin in Goerlitz, in order to build stable hand cameras that could use his fast lenses to best advantage. In 1902 he introduced the four-element Tessar lens, still considered one of the most efficient ever designed, and in 1920 he calculated the Double- Plasmat lens, manufactured by Meyer of Goerlitz. The inventor's many honors included the gold medal of the 1900 Paris Exhibition.