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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
102 (C
Reichert, Wien; Model VII; 1910s)
Carl Reichert (1851 – 1922)
was an optician who established one of the principal microscope manufacturing
firms in Europe in the late 19th century. Reichert married into
the Leitz family in 1874 (and was son in law of
Ernst Leitz). In 1876 in Vienna, he founded the Optische Werke C. Reichert. He employed some Leitz technicians, explaining one reason why his products
were so similar to those of Ernst Leitz of Wetzlar. Reichert
designed new lenses, lighting equipment for microscopes, and one of the first
microscopes for the study of metal surfaces. By 1900, the company had
produced 30,000 microscopes, and 100,000 microscopes in 1930. Instruments
were usually signed "C. Reichert, Wien". The firm was partially
sold to American Optical in 1962, which was taken over in 1968 by Warner
Lambert. By 1986, this company merged with Jung of Heidelberg and was sold to
Cambridge Instruments, which in 1990 merged with Wild Leitz
to form the Leica Group. In 1999 Reichert stopped microscope production,
concentrating to instruments for sample preparations for transmission
electron microscopy. Microscope 102 is
signed as C. Reichert Wien and has the serial number 45063, being dated to c.
1910. The instrument is identified as Model VII in a Reichert’s catalogue
from the 1910s (Figure 1). This instrument came with a wooden box and the
condenser is missing.
Figure
1.
Reichert’s model VII microscope as engraved in a firm’s catalogue from the
1910s. LAST
EDITED: 22.08.2020 |
