Pendoplast - Style 1

Heinz Julius Beez in Stuttgart was granted patent #541794 on January 18, 1932 for this design. The patent was initially applied for in January of 1929. In his description, he stated:

“The stereoscopic viewing device can be used for all purposes, e.g., for nature shots of all kinds, but especially for film recordings for industry and trade as advertising for the demonstration of factory facilities, goods, etc.”

The viewer uses a chain-driven set of spools to advance through a roll of film with side-by-side stereoscopic images. The focus is managed by pulling the lens board in/out. No occular adjustment is provided. One downside to this Pendoplast is the slim size of the advance knob — it’s a pain to grip and rotate through a large number of photos, especially if the tension of the film is tight. This version of the Pendoplast is almost identical to the colorful Style 1 of the Stereo-foto viewer produced 20 years later by Weizsäcker, also in Stuttgart. But unlike the Stereo-foto, the Pendoplast is most often found in black. Another interesting aspect of this Pendoplast is that some of them are made with a painted wood housing instead of metal — probably due to shortage of metal during World War II. Also, given the context of this viewer’s creation — 1930's Germany — you will occasionally see Nazi symbols and photos of Hitler on the walls of the factories shown on the film. We’ve only found one branded Pendoplast, made for Elektronmetall Canstatt (see link below for pictures). We make an assumption that it’s a Pendoplast because of the design but there’s no Pendoplast mark on it.

Pendoplast - Wood vs Metal

In both images below, the viewer on the left shows a wooden Pendoplast, painted black. You’ll notice the wooden version still uses metal for the lens board.

Pendoplast, Model B (Style 2)

Instead of using a roll of film, this version of the Pendoplast uses a stack of film stereoviews placed under the rubber roller inside (with the jagged edge of the images towards the bottom and the cut corner on the right) and advanced by turning the wheel until the entire stack of images has moved over the rubber roller. It seems the main intent of the device was a promotional tool. Their marketing encourages: “Prove the importance of your business and the characteristics of your products in an unobtrusive way. A good business card that will open many doors for you.” While we have a few of these in our collection, we only have one that came with stereoviews of an unknown factory.