Foldable Stereoscope ‚Le Plistero‘

Camille Le Tal­lec filed patent FR 737.107 on 14 May 1932 “for improve­ments to stere­o­scopes intend­ed for view­ing trans­par­ent images,” through the addi­tion of a bel­lows that elim­i­nat­ed stray light and pro­vid­ed greater view­ing comfort.
This stere­o­scope was also designed to be fold­able, quick­ly set up, and equipped with adjustable focus­ing. Its name, Plis­tero, prob­a­bly derives from a con­trac­tion of the French words pli­ant (fold­ing) and stéréo. In the descrip­tion of his patent, Le Tal­lec tar­get­ed com­mer­cial users who could use the device to show their prod­ucts quick­ly and in three dimen­sions, with­out hav­ing to trans­port heavy and bulky equipment.
One appli­ca­tion of this kind is known. The Étab­lisse­ments Klein , an impor­tant piano man­u­fac­tur­er, offered its cus­tomers a mahogany case con­tain­ing a Plis­tero and views of its prod­ucts on Lumichrome film.
The Plis­tero was also man­u­fac­tured and dis­trib­uted in 45x107mm and 6x13cm for­mats for ama­teur use.

(from: Moulin­ier et al. His­toires de vision­neuses stéréo­scopiques français­es. Limo­ges, 2025, p. 228. Author’s translation.)