Hi Kevin,
Yes I believe the Zolner was indeed a direct vision spectrograph using a grating. (It may actually have been a grism) The cylindrical lenses were used to widen the spectrum to make the lines more visible. I think it was mounted after an eyepiece, making effectively a collimated design with the eyepiece acting as the collimator and the eye as the camera lens so perhaps more like a forerunner of the ALPY operated slitless. The basic price works out at around £200 in today’s money
Robin