Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

    

Microscope 28 (C Reichert Wien; Model VI microscope; 1912)

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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 28 is signed as C. Reichert Wien and has the serial number 56218. The instrument is identified as Model VI in a Reichert’s catalogue from the 1910s (Figure 1). This instrument came with a wooden box where the same serial number is engraved. There is a label in the wooden box containing the date 1912.

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Figure 1. Reichert’s model VI microscope as engraved in a firm’s catalogue from the 1910s.

 

LAST EDITED: 15.08.2020