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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
28 (C Reichert
Wien; Model VI microscope; 1912) 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. Figure 1. Reichert’s model VI
microscope as engraved in a firm’s catalogue from the 1910s. LAST EDITED: 15.08.2020 |