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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
8 (Ernst
Leitz, Wetzlar; meat inspector’s travelling microscope; late 1920s) 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 8 is a specialized and uncommon microscope, a
trichinoscope, identified as meat inspector’s travelling microscope in
the 1907 Ernst Leitz catalogue (Figure 1). Meat inspectors were looking for Trichinella
spiralis, the pork parasite which causes trichinosis in humans who eat
the contaminated meat (particularly when incompletely cooked). The instrument
can be quickly dissembled for storage in the case. Microscope 8 is signed on
the tube ‘Ernst Leitz Wetzlar, No. 297071’. The serial number suggests
that this microscope was produced in the late 1920s. Figure
1.
The meat inspector’s travelling microscope as engraved in the 1907
Ernst Leitz catalogue in the case (left) and set up (right). References Ernst Leitz (1907) Microscopes catalogue Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Microscopes (http://earth2geologists.net/Microscopes/LeitzScopes.htm) LAST EDITED: 15.08.2020 |