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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
92 (C
Reichert, Wien; 1899) 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 92 is
signed as C. Reichert Wien and has the serial number 19917. Also engraved on
the instrument is the retailer's stamp ‘C Baker 244 High Holborn, London’.
This microscope can be dated to 1899. This instrument was described as
microscope ‘Austria’ No. III in the 1899 volume of the Journal of the Royal
Microscopical Society (Figure 1), and was recommend
to medical students. Figure
1.
Reichert’s ‘Austria’ microscope stand No. III as engraved in the 1899 volume
of the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society. LAST EDITED: 19.09.2020 |