|
Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
|
|
Microscope
40 (C
Reichert Wien; stand VII microscope; 1898) 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 40 is signed as Reichert Wien and has the serial number
16357, being dated to 1898. An identical instrument, with a posterior serial
number and dated to c. 1900, is in exhibition at the Science Museum in
London. This instrument was advertised in England as model ‘Reichert Stand
VII’ (Figure 1). The stand and pillar are integrated and made of black
enamelled cast copper alloy. The nickel-plated body tube is attached to the
pillar by diagonal rack work for coarse focusing. Fine focusing is by a
micrometre screw at the top of the pillar. A substage Abbe illuminator with
an iris diaphragm is set beneath the stage and below it is a plano-concave
mirror. Figure 1. Reichert’s microscope stand VII as engraved in a 1893 volume of the
Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society. References Compound
Microscope in Case, by C. Reichert, Vienna, c.1900 (http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/collections/imu-search-page/record-details/?thumbnails=on&irn=11428&TitInventoryNo=14885), last
accessed on 13.08.2020 LAST
EDITED: 19.09.2020 |