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| The Birth of the German Optical Industry |
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Fraunhofer had given a major stimulus to the dramatic developments taking place in the field of optics. However, he took the secret of manufacturing large pieces of flint glass with him to the grave. Numerous European institutes endeavored to continue what Fraunhofer has started. Only two glassworks in Europe were able to supply good optical glass in large quantities: Chance in Birmingham, England and Feil in Paris, France. Their products were used all the way across the globe.
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| Ernst Abbe | Otto Schott | Carl Zeiss |
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Carl Zeiss, the founder of the Zeiss factory in Jena (1846), had recognized that craftsmanship alone was not enough to produce high quality optical instruments. His collaboration with the mathematician and physicist Ernst Abbe began in 1866. However, even Abbe’s theory on image formation in the microscope (1872) did not permit perfect microscopy if the right types of glass were not available to implement it.
In 1881 Abbe succeeded in persuading Otto Schott to assist him in the development of optical glass with special properties. Schott moved to Jena to work in a glass laboratory specially set up for him. This was later to become the firm Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Genossen, and later today’s global player SCHOTT AG.
Otto Schott placed the production of glass on a sound scientific basis and is now considered to be the founder of modern glass technology. His pioneering achievements included not only optical glass, but also age-resistant thermometer glass, chemically and thermally resistant borosilicate glass, and heat-resistant glass.
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