How I Constructed The Salon Iris
by Ty Bumgardner
 

When I first saw "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" at age 12 in 1971, although I was mesmerized by the Nautilus as a whole,
I was especially intrigued by the Salon window with the iris cover.
I have never been able to find any pictures other than the one that is always published of the technicians rigging the iris.
Nor have I been able to find any blueprints or descriptions of how it was built and operated.
So, I decided to figure it out for myself.
First I created an animation loop of the iris to study it's operation.
 
While talking to Lee Seiler of totalimmersion.com, he assured me that the workings were shown on the DVD in the "trims" section. I remember seeing the outtakes with the ugly outside view, but for some reason didn't realize that was the actual backside of the beautiful iris we see in the Salon.
So, I made another animation loop to study the hidden side.
 
By comparing the technician photo and the animation loops, I made a guess as to the shape of the leaves of the iris, and their operation.
 
Then, I created this animation to demonstrate my conception of how the iris worked.
 
I threw together this animation to show how the iris as we know it would not fit into the housing as we know it.
 
This is the leaf design that I guessed at to create my iris animation.
 
This is the grid coordinate system using full size dimensions I used to create my own leaf!
If anyone has a copy of the actual blueprints and construction details of the iris used in the movie, please share!