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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
319 (Ernst
Leitz; simple dissecting microscope; early 20th century)
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 319 is a simple dissecting microscope signed by ‘E Leitz
Wetzlar’. This instrument is labelled as simple dissecting microscope in
several Leitz catalogues since 1893 (Figure 1).
Figure
1.
Simple dissecting microscope as pictured in a Leitz catalogue from 1905. References Dissecting Microscope
in Case, by E. Leitz, Wetzlar, c.1920 (https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/collections/imu-search-page/record-details/?thumbnails=on&irn=5845&TitInventoryNo=47929), last accessed on
19.09.2020 Ernst
Leitz Wetzlar Microscopes (http://earth2geologists.net/Microscopes/LeitzScopes.htm), last accessed on
19.09.2020 |
