15 Facts About Otto Schott

Friedrich Otto Schott was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass.

Otto Schott's findings were a major advance in the optics for microscopy and optical astronomy.

Otto Schott's work has been described as "a watershed in the history of glass composition".

Otto Schott was the son of a window glass maker, Simon Otto Schott.

From 1870 to 1873 Otto Schott studied chemical technology at the technical college in Aachen and at the University of Wurzburg and at the University of Leipzig.

Otto Schott earned a doctorate in chemistry at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, specializing in glass science.

In 1879, Otto Schott developed a new lithium-based glass that possessed novel optical properties.

Otto Schott shared this discovery with Ernst Abbe, a professor of physics at Jena University whose comments on glass had stimulated Otto Schott's interest in the subject.

Not long after Otto Schott had completed his formal university training, he had become aware that Abbe had articulated the deficiencies in glass that was available at the time.

Otto Schott substituted one element for another, such as borate and phosphate for a portion of the silica in the glass and substituting fluoride for oxygen.

In 1882, Otto Schott moved to Jena, where he could work more closely with Abbe and Zeiss.

Otto Schott systematized the chemical composition of a significant range of glass compositions.

Otto Schott used borosilicate glass to make laboratory and medical supplies, including thermometers, glassware for laboratory use, medicine vials and pharmaceutical tubing.

Otto Schott produced heat resistant lamp cylinders for use in gas lighting.

In 1909, Otto Schott received the Liebig Medal from the Association of German Chemists.