Info

This article was published in Flashlite Magazine nr. 17 1993, Written by Gunter M. Solomon and translated from German by Ed van der Aa, Http://www.myphotoweb.com

Flashlite Magazine  was a private initiative of Gunter M.  Salomon as a collector of photographica. Due to circumstances he was forced to end this initiative in 1993. Nr. 17 of the magazine was also the last edition of this magazine and we ow him thanks for the Gossen information that is in the last issue. Gunter M. Salomon past away around 1999. Flashlite Magazine was the predecoessor of the current magazine "Photographica Cabinett" a magazine from "Gesellschaft für PhotoHistorica e.V." with a website at http://www.cabinett.de

- Update november 17 2010.
I have tried to get in contact with mr. Gunter M. Salomon in 2010 but i heard he has passed away since 10 years. After I was informed about this, I tried to find out were his pictures and the Gossen prototypes went. After some digging and a number of email contacts with people in germany, I found that the prototypes were handed over by mr. Uwe Hitz to the museum of Erlangen. An old enourmous and very havy graphical camera used at Gossen for production of scales en comercial papers went to the Photographics museum of Zeil am Main founded by Herr Dr. Gerhard Binder.  I like to thanl all people who helped discover a little bit of the history of Gossen.

How long do selenium light meters last?

The history of Gossen and the discovery of the primordial Lunasix

Actually this article was intended to be only be a note of a few lines in length. Often in our circles, as collectors of photographical equipment, the question arises how long the selenium light meters in our beloved collection items, will hold, And when the stock of the existing spare cells will be exhausted what will happen then? Also the question should be answered whether it was better to cover the honeycomb cells of the selenium exposure with opaque tape to protect against constant light (cameras in the glass cabinet), or whether it is better to switch off the exposure meters during constant exposure to light.

After several attempts at GOSSEN in Erlangen and also at METRAWATT in Nurnberg, to get a competent person to to speak to about this subject, it turned out that the people who are familiar with selenium exposure meters either are retired or have died. The time of selenium exposure meter seems to be expired by now.

Finally, I still had a bit of luck to meet a former Gossen physicist,  who had witnessed the basic development of Selenium exposure meters, to speak to. According to his information the lifespan of the selenium elements is virtually unlimited. If the selenium element deo give up,  it this is mostly due to inaccuracies in the precision of the production of the selenium elements. For example, in that time there were technical problems with the way of fixing the electrodes to the actual selenium elements.

With a defective selenium light meter the damage is usually not on the selenium element itself, but a mostly faulty measuring device. This raises then the problem for the collector if such a defective device needs to be repaired since there almost no spare measuring device any longer exists. Also such a measuring device is of a very complicated structure because  light meters are so called logarithmic measuring devices and these are designed with a linear scale. However, should the selenium element actually given up, here's good news: The company Dr. B. Lange in Berlin, sole manufacturer of selenium elements,  is in certain circumstances and with good reasons able to provide selenium cells in required necessary sizes. (Note: this was written in 1993)

Very damaging: Direct sunlight

Particularly harmful for all selenium exposure meters with honeycomb window is direct sunlight: the structure of the honeycomb seem to appear as small focal lenses, which bundle UV light on the selenium element and this may result in destruction of the selenium element. The Selenium element does not tolerate UV radiation on the long-run. But when cameras with built selenium exposure meters are kept in a glass display case they are protected twice from the harmful UV light first, through the glass panes of the windows, and second, again through the glass of the showcase. According to Mr. Peter are those collectors covering the honeycomb of the selenium exposure meters cameras or keep  them in the dark quite right: The Selenium element is best stored in this way, unlike later used  CdS cells, selenium elements have  no "memory".

The merger of Gossen and METRAWATT

During my research it revealed a startling fact: When I auditioned the first time in Erlangen, showed the factory, - located in the middle of town - and in better times  approximately 2,500 employees counted, rather empty. Except for a porter were almost no people on the territory and  I learned that the company Gossen and METRAWATT had merged. Both companies were for many years direct competitors in the field of measurement and control technology,  and even in the same region. The shareholders, the brothers Rochling KG, had the merger of two companies decided with the departure from GOSSEN from his Erlangen area to Nurnberg as result. The new company name is now Gossen-METRAWATT. The activities were as good as shut down at the end of April 1993 since  the administration, development and production were transferred to METRAWATT in Nurnberg-Langwasser. The first move took place on July 7, 1992 and was the internal dept.  PHG 6, the production of electronic exposure meters.

A stroke of luck …

In my further research I discovered on  a man who we owe to that we have the unique pictures here showed in this story. It is Mr. Uwe Hitz, and he acts as a kind of  "Executor". Due to the merger, and as he at that time had just the "right" age, he took the offer to retire early on, and on two days a week he has for some time engaged in GOSSEN the "estate-work up, at least what still remains. At the beginning of the 70s was the management not only on "distance" to the employees and would no longer have the close human contact (as Paul Gossen time to practice), but also had tons of - today for collectors valuable archive material be destroyed.  This applies also to other companies (hear from Kodak similar story), where an expensive archive seems no longer acceptable, a pity to us as collectors.

For some time the merger was in the air, Uwe Hitz had on all possible departments secured special instruments that were not moved or no one wanted to have anymore. He was also able to save at least partial some archive material. In that time Uwe Hitz was formerly ‘Dipl.-Ing.’ (engineer) in the development and the last years in charge of documentation,  including the development and design of user manuals.

since August 1987 Uwe Hitz, in addition to its "normal" activities, also served as editor of GOSSEN chronicle, an in-house staff magazine. In the last two issues (issue 41, August 1992 and very last issue at all, the issue 42, December 1992) he has the history of the company GOSSEN  researched and published. Did you know that in GOSSEN

in the early 50's also produced typewriters? Attentive readers from Flashlite will remember the quizzes in flashlite in issue No. 12 of Nov. 91, because there was a Gossen "Tippa" than to win a second prize.

Because the company GOSSEN also manufactured many other products besides photo technical devices for one or the other are in our audience is of interest, with friendly the approval of Mr. Hitz, "Gossen-Geschicbte" printed on pages 22-27, for which we thank him very much.