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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
125 (C
Reichert; model RC; late 1940s) 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 125 is signed as ‘Reichert,
Austria’, model RC, and has the serial number 154380, being dated to the late
1940s. The microscope contains a mechanical slide holder with the serial
number 15187. This instrument came with its original wooden box. References Compound
achromatic microscope, stand RC (http://stichtinghistorischemicroscopie.nl/en/microscopen/compound-achromatic-microscope-stand-rc-sm-361/),
last accessed on 05.05.2022 LAST
EDITED: 05.05.2022 |