43 Facts About Carl Zeiss

The firm of Carl Zeiss grew to one of the largest and most respected optical firms in the world.

In one of the accidents which shape history, Carl Zeiss suffered from an inguinal hernia which required him to wear a truss constantly.

Carl Zeiss sat a special end exam to allow him to study specific subjects at the university, principally the natural sciences.

Carl Zeiss moved to Jena at Easter of 1834 to pursue an apprenticeship under the "Hofmechanikus," court-appointed precision machinist, and private docent at the University of Jena, Friedrich Korner.

Carl Zeiss completed his apprenticeship in 1838 and departed on his journeyman years with the good wishes and recommendation of master Korner and a certificate of his studies at the university.

Carl Zeiss's stay in Vienna offered the opportunity to attend the Sunday Lectures on popular mechanics at the Polytechnic Institute of Vienna.

Carl Zeiss sat for an exam at the institute which he passed with distinction.

Carl Zeiss returned to the well known city of Jena to renew an association with the botanist Matthias Jacob Schleiden who had stimulated his original interest in optics and emphasized the need for high quality microscopes.

Carl Zeiss first needed a residence permit, which was easiest to obtain as a matriculated student.

Carl Zeiss matriculated and sat lectures on mathematics and chemistry beginning in November 1845.

Carl Zeiss finally made his application to the government offices in Weimar for a concession to establish a machinist's atelier in Jena on 10 May 1846.

Carl Zeiss referred to the increasing demand for scientific apparatus and justified his wish to work in the city with the importance of intimate association with the scientists of the university.

Carl Zeiss opened the doors of his workshop on 17 November 1846 with an initial capital investment of 100 Talers, which he had borrowed from his brother Eduard and which was later repaid by his father August.

Carl Zeiss initially worked alone constructing and repairing many types of physical and chemical apparatus.

On 1 July 1847 Carl Zeiss took the significant step of taking on his first apprentice, 17 year old August Lober.

Lober became one of the most important workers in the Carl Zeiss workshops, becoming a profit sharing partner and staying with Carl Zeiss until his death.

The university's instrument maker Nobert had moved and Carl Zeiss was asked by several members of the faculty to fill the vacancy with an appointment as curator of the physics cabinet with a salary of 200 Talers.

In May 1853 Carl Zeiss married Ottilie Trinkler, a headmaster's daughter.

Carl Zeiss's longest serving apprentice Lober earned three Talers per week by 1856 while the other workers earned two and a half.

The first moves to more efficient division of labor were made in 1857 when Carl Zeiss separated optics under Lober from the metalwork of the stand.

Carl Zeiss advised Zeiss to concentrate his efforts on the microscope which was critical for the rapidly advancing science of cellular anatomy and very much in demand.

Carl Zeiss had developed into something of a bookworm in his limited spare time, researching everything available on theory of the microscope.

Carl Zeiss wanted, above all, to move past the prevailing methods of microscope production which relied on empirical matching of sets of lenses which would make up the high-magnification compound lenses he needed for compound microscope optics.

Carl Zeiss was, from the beginning, more a fine machinist than an optician.

Carl Zeiss decided to pursue the design of microscope optics by theoretical calculation, which expert opinion considered impossible for various reasons.

Carl Zeiss had already attempted to acquire the required theory in his evening literature studies.

Under the object stage Carl Zeiss introduced a domed aperture plate and a mirror mounted to allow not only side to side, but forward movement to produce oblique illumination.

Carl Zeiss knew quite well that his strongest objectives could not match the quality of the Hartnack water immersion objectives.

Carl Zeiss renewed his search for a collaborator and this time chose Ernst Abbe, a private docent, or associate professor, at the university.

Carl Zeiss repaid Abbe for his endeavor with a generous profit sharing arrangement in the workshops and made him a partner in 1875.

Carl Zeiss remained active in the firm on a daily basis.

In recognition of his contributions Carl Zeiss was awarded an honorary doctorate by the faculty of the university of Jena in 1880 at the recommendation of a long-term collaborator, the zoologist Prof.

The always thrifty Carl Zeiss required retailers to share the cost of three or four silver groschen per copy.

Abbe and Carl Zeiss were convinced that the optical qualities of the microscope objective could be improved further if glasses with certain properties could be obtained.

Carl Zeiss supported Abbe in his theoretical work with the resources of the workshop to produce objectives using liquids in lens triplets to test his theory by 1873, known as polyop objectives in the workshop.

Carl Zeiss was convinced to move to Jena and expand his experiments.

In December 1885 Carl Zeiss suffered a mild stroke, from which he fully recovered.

Carl Zeiss was able to attend the celebration on the occasion of the completion of the 10,000th microscope on 24 September 1886, to which all employees and their spouses were invited.

Carl Zeiss suffered a rapid decline and, after several strokes in the last quarter of 1888, died on 3 December 1888.

The greatest contribution of Carl Zeiss was in his steadfast pursuit of his idea to produce microscope objectives based on theory, even when his own efforts and those of Barfuss had failed.

The production of an objective based on theoretical design was only possible with skilled artisans trained to work with the highest possible precision, upon which Carl Zeiss had always placed the greatest emphasis.

The driving force behind the expansion was Ernst Abbe, but Carl Zeiss had the final say and supported the efforts to the fullest.

The football club FC Carl Zeiss Jena is named after him.