Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

Microscope 401 (Ernst Leitz; stereoscopic binocular microscope; c. 1960)

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 401 is a stereoscopic binocular microscope in which the head is labelled with “ERNST LEITZ, WETZLAR, GERMANY” and the serial number 555662. The base is also labelled with “Leitz, Wetzlar, Germany”. The instrument should be dated to c. 1960.

Note: this instrument was kindly donated by Dave Levell (Pembrokeshire, Wales) in May 2023.

Figure 1. Leitz’s stereoscopic binocular microscope as featured in a 1954 catalogue of the firm.