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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope 79 (E Leitz
Wetzlar; c. 1912) In 1849, Karl Kellner founded the Optical Institute in
Wetzlar, Germany, which in a few years had microscopes as the main product.
The company hired an engineer named Ernst Leitz in 1865, who soon became a
partner. Leitz took over the company in 1869 and renamed it Optical Institute
of Ernst Leitz. Ernst Leitz died in 1920, and his son Ernst Leitz II became
the sole owner of the business. During the 1970s, competition increased from several
companies in Japan, especially Olympus and Nikon, which were producing modern
microscope designs of excellent quality at relatively low prices. Several
venerable microscope companies closed, merged, or were bought out in Europe
and the USA. Wild Heerbrugg bought the majority ownership of the Leitz
Wetzlar company in 1974, but Leitz continued to develop their new lines of
compound microscopes. The last member of the Leitz family retired from the
board of directors in 1986. At the beginning of 1987, Ernst Leitz Wetzlar
GmbH and Wild Heerbrugg AG merged to form the Wild Leitz Group. The Wild
Leitz Group was broken into smaller companies in 1988, and Leica Camera was
split off. The merger of Wild Leitz Holding AG with the Cambridge Instrument
Company in 1990 created the new Leica Holding B.V. group. The Leica name is
now used for all microscopes and other scientific optical instruments.
Microscope 79 is signed on the tube ‘E Leitz Wetzlar, No. 155629’. The serial
number suggests that this microscope is dated to c. 1912. The model was not
identified but a similar microscope was mentioned as being preferred by
students in a 1912 book by W. Dierks (Figure 1). Figure 1. Engraving of an
Ernst Leitz’s student microscope in the 1912 book ‘Einfühlung in das
mikroskopieren’, by W. Dierks. References Ernst
Leitz Wetzlar Microscopes (http://earth2geologists.net/Microscopes/LeitzScopes.htm), last
accessed on 15.08.2020 LAST EDITED: 30.08.2020 |