GOERZ Anschuetz Patent ANGO Camera
"ANGO"

The last two decades of the 19th century Otomar Anschütz  was the court-photographer of the German empire.
In that function he frequently accompanied  the “Kaiser”  Wilhelm II.and his family on their journeys all over the world.
He was specialized in taking photos of fast moving animals and sportsmen
and invented the focal plane shutter, allowing to make shutter times possible up to 1/1000 sec.
In the year 1883 he placed 24 cameras in line and made brilliant pictures of the movements of a flying stork as well of a javelin thrower.
He made himself deserving by photographing Lilienthal’s  flying training on the “Fliegeberg” in 1894.
 

Courtesy archives Otto-Lilienthal-Museum

The Goerz Anschuetz strut folding camera, introduced in 1896 was equipped with a “Ottomar Anschuetz Patented” focal plane shutter.
Ottomar Anschütz's invention made it possible to expose the film in a very short shutter time up to 1/1000 of a second.
This remarkable shutter exist out of two roller blinds separated by a manual adjustable slit.
Different exposures times can be obtained by altering the width of the slit.
Albeit it that setting the shutter must be done by hand.
The upper curtain has a metal slider mounted on the upper curtain clip and is connected with a thin twine
which connects the upper and lower curtain.
Changing the position of the slider to the right or the left, would change the opening of the slit in wider or narrower position.
See the photo below.




The more the curtains are wind up, the more the spring in the lower roller gets more power
until it is automatically locked in the end position waiting for pressing the exposure button.
More or les power can be obtained by setting the spring pressure knob.
Instant and Time exposures can be made by switching the knob on top next to the winding knob.
The original upper roller blind shows printed in red, 5 figures representing the slit opening 0,1,2,3,4 and the  description
“Ottomar Anschuetz Lissa Preussen. 
Lissa was a town in the Prussian province of Posen part of the German Empire until it was returned to Poland in 1920.

To expose
First set the slider before winding the shutter.
Then wind the key until it stops. As the lower curtain cannot move further than the upper edge of the exposure window,
The slit has been set now inside the housing and as the spring of the lower roller has been loaded during this winding, in fact the slit is ready to be released
for its journey along the sensitive glass plate, but first the film cassette has to be installed and locked into the exposure window.
After drawing the cassette's dark slide, the glass plate will be exposed by the open slit passing by.
 

The blinds were made from cloth with a rubber coating to make the curtain light proof.
I suppose that the camera was not used for a period of decades or longer, as the blinds could not be rolled off.
I removed the mechanism and peeled the blinds off the shaft and made new blinds of 100 percent new black out shutter curtain fabric.
Unfortunately I had to sacrifice the stamped original blind. As this new invented shutter type was the first and simple designed application, renewing was not a hell of a job.
 

World wide distribution

The 1909 Australian advertisement.
An ideal camera for tourist, travellers, and all wishing a nice high class camera in a compact, light and quickly-adjusted style.
An entirely new model. The speeds of the focal plane shutter working automatically from 1/120 of a second up to 5 seconds
Available in
5 1/2 inch x 3 1/4 inch Postcard size
and
6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inch G-Plate

This particular camera is equipped with a Doppel Anastigmat 4,6/120 mm.
The lens-board can be moved up and down and shifted to the left and the right, making it
possible to apply "Scheimpflug", the geometric relationship between the orientation of the plane of focus, the lens plane and the image plane.

Seen from the back, on the right side:
on top, we find the winding knob to cock the shutter in open modus. So film holder should be closed during this action.
The knob has to be turned until it stops. Now the lower blind covers the whole exposure frame and the preset slit
together with the upper blind has been positioned on the upper roller. Ready to be fired.
However, another appliance can be set to increase or lower the speed of the slit passing along the sensitive
glass plate.  It is obvious that exposure can only take place after the dark slide has been drawn from the plate holder.
If not the film remains dark.
Don't forget to slide the dark slide back again after exposure.

The spring tension should be set with the lower knob turning it anti-clockwise in 10 steps.
The shutter-speed depends on the speed of the shutter-curtain and the width of the slit between the two roller-blinds.
Turn the winding knob until the slit is visible and set the slider.

Now everything is working again, you’d like to make some photos with it.
To focus, you can use the sports-finder.
On this camera it is a peep-hole on the rear and a hinged frame finder on the front side of the back.
Later models came with a eye-piece with lens and a Newton finder.

To be sure, you'd better focus on the ground-glass.
Open the slit completely by setting the slider to the utmost left side.
Therefore you have to turn the upper knob until it stops.
Then push the little knob on the left side of the camera while turning the right knob further.
When it stops, the back of the camera is open and you can put in the ground-glass and focus.
After focusing release the shutter.
The roller-blind comes down completely in one time, so you have to set and cock the shutter again.
Slide the plate holder loaded with film in the back of the camera.
Convince yourself that the focal plane shutter has been set and winded before pulling the dark slide.

 Instantaneous (moment) Exposures
     Set chrome arrow c on moment      or Instant . Next press the disc (a) inwards and turn it until 
the index indicator (a) points to the slit width in mm of your choice.
 Now turn the winding key b as far as it goes. It will stop automatically on your  chosen mm setting.
 To expose, you may press now the release button d
 The release by Ball is not described here because  of the fact that this method is no more possible due to degraded rubber.
 
 Time Exposures 
Set chrome arrow c on Zeit or Time and depending on a English or German language camera the disc a on 90.
The width of the slit is has been set on 90 mm now.
 Turn the winding key until it stops automatically and to make the exposure, press the release button.

Now the automatic focal plane shutter runs down and stops when the width of the split uncovers the film exposure frame complete;y.
The next push on the release knobs brings the shutter blind alive again and it will drop down and will cover the film exposure frame again.
End of the Time exposure.