The Heliar was designed by Hans Harting of Voigtlander in 1900. It was a modification of the Cooke Triplet. The first Heliar were as good as the Triplet and hence not interesting due to the complexity. A second design appeared in 1903 when, probably influenced by the Tessar from Zeiss (1902), Hans Harting turned the doublets and launched the Dynar. This construction was abandoned till the end of the first war and then Voigtlander revived it with the name Heliar that was considered more appealing than Dynar.

I researched this information in a book called "A history of the photographic lens" by Rudolf Kingslake, Academic Press Inc. ISBN 0-12-408640-3. I think it is still on sale because it is not that old: 1989. It is an excellent source to understand the genealogy of most of the lens ever produced and the problems associated to lens construction.




The Heliar construction and some of the lens available at that time.
From a German book from 1931
Knipse Aber Richtig, von Wolf H.Döring DWB




Here an advertising published in Photo Miniature October 1910 that shows that there were some Heliars on sales before the revival.