17 Facts About Ernst Abbe

Ernst Karl Abbe was a German businessman, optical engineer, physicist, and social reformer.

Ernst Abbe was a co-owner of Carl Zeiss AG, a German manufacturer of scientific microscopes, astronomical telescopes, planetariums, and other advanced optical systems.

Ernst Abbe was awarded his PhD in Gottingen on 23 March 1861.

Ernst Abbe became director of the Jena astronomical and meteorological observatory in 1878.

Ernst Abbe was a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences.

Ernst Abbe was relieved of his teaching duties at the University of Jena in 1891.

Ernst Abbe developed the laws of image of non-luminous objects by 1872.

Ernst Abbe created the Abbe number, a measure of any transparent material's variation of refractive index with wavelength and Abbe's criterion, which tests the hypothesis, that a systematic trend exists in a set of observations.

Ernst Abbe was the first to define the term numerical aperture, as the sine of the half angle multiplied by the refractive index of the medium filling the space between the cover glass and front lens.

Ernst Abbe is credited by many for discovering the resolution limit of the microscope, and the formula.

Ernst Abbe was in the camp of the wide aperturists, arguing that microscopic resolution is ultimately limited by the aperture of the optics, but argued that depending on application there are other parameters that should be weighted over the aperture in the design of objectives.

In 1876, Ernst Abbe was offered a partnership by Zeiss and began to share in the considerable profits.

Ernst Abbe perfected the interference method by Fizeau, in 1884.

Ernst Abbe founded the social democratic Jenaische Zeitung in 1890 and in 1900, introduced the eight-hour workday, in remembrance of the 14-hour workday of his own father.

In 1889, Ernst Abbe set up and endowed the Carl Zeiss Foundation for research in science.

Ernst Abbe was a pioneer in optics, lens design, and microscopy, and an authority of his time.

Ernst Abbe left us with numerous publications of his findings, inventions, and discoveries.