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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
28 (C Reichert
Wien; Model VI microscope; 1912)
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 28 is
signed as C. Reichert Wien and has the serial number 56218. The instrument is
identified as Model VI in a Reichert’s catalogue from the 1910s (Figure 1).
This instrument came with a wooden box where the same serial number is
engraved. There is a label in the wooden box containing the date 1912.
Figure 1. Reichert’s model VI
microscope as engraved in a firm’s catalogue from the 1910s. LAST EDITED: 15.08.2020 |
