Hans Tönnies

Hans Ferdinand Tönnies (born August 4, 1879 in Hülkenbüll near Garding , † June 28, 1973 in Hamburg ) was a German inventor and painter.

education

Tönnies moved to Hamburg with his parents and siblings and attended the Realgymnasium in Altona from 1886 to 1895. He began studying painting at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts , then moved to Berlin, and joined the Munich Art Academy on October 31, 1904 as a master student of Karl Raupp .

Phototechnology

Alongside painting, photographic technology was his main concern and became his central field of work after his studies. His most successful inventions were in the fields of optical and electrical light meters and range finders .

Light meter Practos II

In 1924 he registered the brand name Practos , which was then also included in the company name. The company Hans Tönnies Practos produced the following products:

• Practos (light meter)
  • Practos Junior
  • Practos I and II
• Tele-Practos
• Practos Color Finder
• Hatos (exposure table).
• Presto Posometer (exposure table)

Hans Tönnies magazine advertisement from the 1930s

He sold or licensed many of his patents to German and international companies, such as BIG Farbenindustrie AG, e.g. Patent number 511771, or Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation, e.g. B. US patent number 1982406. Tönnies also had an extensive license agreement with P. Gossen & Co in Erlangen, which used its light meters in its Sixtus, Ombrux and Cimbrux products.

mechanical engineering

In 1953 Tönnies received patents for technical innovations in the field of mechanical engineering. This also included the patent "Improvements in power transmission arrangements, particularly for automobiles", which was registered in Great Britain (patent number 687784) and France (patent number 1024798).

Patents

Between 1911 and 1963 Tönnies acquired over 70 patents worldwide, for example in Germany, the USA, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Denmark.

Extract from the patent list:

Patent number	country	year	title
429993	France	1911	Package of pellicules photographique en feuilles
54497	Austria	1912	Film pack
19210705	Great Britain	1913	Daylight Developing Apparatus
491906	Germany	1930	Basic rangefinder
528636	Germany	1931	Light absorption screen
1895271	United States	1933	Photographic Exposuremeter
42 h T 245.30	Germany	1933	Light meter
623151	Germany	1935	Photographic self-timer
702700	Germany	1941	Combined electric light meter and distance meter
213945	Switzerland	1941	Actuating device on cinema cameras
61154	Denmark	1943	Elektrisk Maaleapparat

Some of the patents can be viewed at the German Patent and Trademark Office.

painting

Even at a young age, Tönnies showed an exceptionally good eye for colors, details and light, such as B. the watercolor The head of cabbage from 1893 shows. Tönnies belonged to the Munich School and painted studio pictures (portraits and still lifes) as well as landscape pictures. His works are characterized by naturalism and by his talent to subtly capture the emotional life of the people he painted. As material he mainly used oil on canvas or cardboard, pencil and water-soluble paints (watercolor).

Works (selection)

image	title	year	material	size
	The cabbage	1893	watercolor	24 cm × 34 cm
	iris	1899	watercolor	44 cm × 32 cm
	The gypsy		Oil on canvas
	Aunt auntine		Oil on canvas	110 cm × 110 cm

Web links

• Database of the German Patent and Trademark Office

Individual evidence

1. ↑ '' Matriculation 02882 Hans Tönnies '' . Registration book 1884-1920. Accessed March 15, 2013
2. ↑ `` Early Light Meters: Practos '' . Photo but More.
3. ↑ '' Hans Tönnies HATOS exposure disk '' (PDF; 208 kB). German Camera Museum in Plech.
4. ↑ '' Exposure Tables and Exposure Calculators '' . Photo but More.

Remarks

1. ^ Contracts and correspondence from the collection of documents of the Gebhard-Tönnies family (Hamburg) from the estate of Hans Tönnies.