Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

      

Microscope 306 (W & H Seibert, student microscope, 1910s)

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Wilhelm and Heinrich Seibert were brothers who worked for Carl Kellner’s optical business in the 1850s, in Wetzlar, together with Ernst Gundlach. In 1859, Gundlach started his own microscope manufacturing firm, and the Seibert brothers also joined this company as employees. This company entered in debt and Gundlach left for England in 1860. Later, in 1865, Gundlach returned and, this time in Berlin, he started a new optical firm to which the Seibert brothers also joined in about 1866. In 1872, the Seibert brothers joined Georg Krafft and bought the firm from Gundlach, and he emigrated to the USA. The firm moved to Wetzlar and was initially named Seibert & Krafft (1871 – 1884). In 1884, the firm changed the name to W & H Seibert and operated until c. 1925. Microscope 306 is engraved with ‘Seibert in Wetzlar’ and the serial number 15112. The instrument is a student microscope and should be dated to the 1910s.

 

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Seibert’s student microscope as engraved in a trade catalogue of Paul Altmann in 1900.