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. Materials include biographical documents, reprints and typescript drafts of Back's professional writings, patent applications, correspondence, miscellaneous Zoomar records and memorabilia, and documents related to Back's brother-in-law, Herbert Lowen.
Frank Back Papers, 1899-1983 (MSS 568)
Extent: 6 Linear feet (5 archives boxes, 2 card file boxes and 20 oversize folders)
Frank Gerhard Back was born in Vienna, Austria, on August 25, 1902. Upon completion of his secondary schooling in 1920, Back matriculated at the Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Vienna, where he received his masters in engineering in 1925 and a doctorate in science in 1931. He worked as a self-employed consulting engineer in Vienna until September of 1938 when he moved to France. Back remained in France for less than a year and during the summer of 1939, he immigrated to the United States.
After working as an engineer for several companies in New York City, Back started his own company called Research and Development Laboratory in 1944. A year later, Back started a second company, Zoomar Inc., and served as its president and head engineer until his retirement in the late 1970s.
Throughout his life, Back invented several optical devices and improvements of existing optical technologies. He held numerous patents in the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, France, Britain, and Italy. At Zoomar he developed and patented an optically-compensated zoom lens for television cameras in 1948 and one for single lens reflex (SLR) 35mm cameras in 1959. From the late 1940s to the 1970s, Back and Zoomar Inc. continually advanced optical technologies and introduced optical innovations for television and motion pictures, as well as astronomical, medical, commercial, and even military applications.
Back was also recognized for his expedition to the Philippines in 1955 to observe and photograph the solar eclipse on June 20th. He intended to provide conclusive evidence for Einstein's theory of relativity by calculating the optical distortation, if any, of starlight caused by the sun's gravity. Prior to his trip, Back conferred briefly with Albert Einstein on the type of data needed in order to prove the theory of relativity. He published a narrative report of his trip and his findings later that year in a book entitled Has the Earth A Ring Around It?
Over the course of his career, Dr. Back received numerous honors and awards from professional organizations in his field including the Royal Photographic Society, the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers, and the Society of American Military Engineers. In addition, Back lectured frequently at professional conferences and published regularly in professional journals in the United States and abroad.
Frank Back died in San Diego, California, on July 6, 1983.
The Frank Back Papers contain materials related to the professional career of the Austrian-born optical engineer and founder and president of Zoomar Inc. who contributed to the advancement of optical technologies in television, motion pictures, medicine, commerical, and military applications from 1945 to the late 1970s in the United States. While the collection contains little documentation of Back's development of optically-compensated zoom lenses, materials related to his professional career include reprints and typescript drafts of his published writings;patent applications; writings by others on optical engineering; miscellaneous Zoomar records; and memorabilia describing or advertising Zoomar products. Also included are biographical materials from Back's early life and education in Austria and his immigration to the United States via France in 1939; correspondence; biographical materials of Back's brother-in-law, Herbert Lowen; and 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.