Carl Zeiss was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practical and theoretical opticians and glass makers to reshape most aspects of optical instrument production. His collaboration with Ernst Abbe revolutionized optical theory and practical design of microscopes. Their quest to extend these advances brought Otto Schott into the enterprises to revolutionize optical glass manufacture. The firm of Carl Zeiss grew to one of the largest and most respected optical firms in the world.
Ernst Karl Abbe was a German physicist, optical scientist, entrepreneur, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-owner of Carl Zeiss AG, a German manufacturer of scientific microscopes, astronomical telescopes, planetariums, and other advanced optical systems.
Fisher Scientific International, Inc. was a laboratory supply and biotechnology company that provided products and services to the global scientific research and clinical laboratory markets until its merger with Thermo Electron in 2006, after which it became Thermo Fisher Scientific. The company offered products and services to over 350,000 customers located in approximately 150 countries including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, secondary and higher education institutions, hospitals and medical research institutions, and quality control, process control and research and development laboratories.
Peter Dollond was an English inventor of optical instruments. He was the son of optician John Dollond. He is known for his successful optics business, and for the invention of the apochromat.
John Henry Dallmeyer, Anglo-German optician, was born at Loxten, Westphalia, the son of a landowner.
Cornelius Varley, FRSA was a British water-colour painter and optical instrument-maker. He invented the graphic telescope and the graphic microscope.
Robert William Paul was an English pioneer of film and scientific instrument maker.
Alexander Eugen Conrady was an optical designer, academician, and textbook author.
Charles Frank Ltd was an optical and scientific instrument maker in Glasgow, Scotland.
Prior Scientific Instruments Ltd was established in London in 1919 as a manufacturer of optical microscopes. It is the last traditional microscope manufacturer of makers such as Vickers, W.Watson and Son, Baker, Charles Perry, Cooke, Troughton & Simms and many others who have ceased to produce microscopes.
A stanhope or stanho-scope is an optical device that enables the viewing of microphotographs without using a microscope. They were invented by René Dagron in 1857. Dagron bypassed the need for an expensive microscope to view the microscopic photographs by attaching the microphotograph at the end of a modified Stanhope lens. He called the devices bijoux photo-microscopiques or microscopic photo-jewelry.
A. Krüss Optronic GmbH is a German manufacturer and distributor of optical and electronic laboratory equipment as well as instruments for gemology. The Hamburg-based company is one of the traditional Hanseatic family-owned enterprises and one of the oldest companies in Germany. It had its origins in the optical workshop of Mechanicus Opticus Edmund Gabory, founded in 1796. A. Krüss Optronic has a branch office in the US, and representations in many countries of the world.
Marratt & Ellis Opticians was a company established in 1828 in London, England. Initially known as J S Marratt, then Marratt and Short, this optician's was situated at 63 King William Street, the northern end of London Bridge where King William Street meets Gracechurch Street. Marratt and Ellis was at one time a large business engaged in sight testing, dispensing spectacles, making artificial eyes and a supplier of optical and scientific instruments. There are many examples of opera glasses, thermometers, barometers and meteorological instruments etc. which are engraved with the company name.
Ernst Leitz GmbH was a German corporation based in Wetzlar, a German centre for optics as well as an important location for the precision engineering industry.
Harold Armytage Sanders, F.R.P.S. also known by the full name Harold Armytage Thomas Sanders, was father of World War I photographer Henry Armytage Bradley Sanders of New Zealand fame. As an optician he worked for W. Watson and Son. He went into business with Crowhurst with the business named Sanders and Crowhurst, and then was in business by himself as Sanders and Company.
Richard Beck (1827-1866) and Joseph Beck FRAS, FRMS formed the optical manufacturing firm of R and J Beck in 1843, based at 69 Mortimer Street, London,. James Smith worked with the company under the name of Smith and Beck, renamed Smith, Beck and Beck in 1854 but reverting to R and J Beck when Smith retired in 1865. Smith is credited with helping to raise the status of the use of microscopes within scientific research.
Harry Arthur Crowhurst was a photographer, optician and partner in a lantern and optical supply business.
Frederick Woodward Branson, FIC, FCS was a British chemist, glassblower, instrument maker and X-ray pioneer.
Albert George Dew-Smith was a British physiologist, lens maker, bibliophile, and amateur photographer. He co-founded the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, and conducted early research with physiologist Michael Foster.
The solar camera, or solar enlarger, is an ancestor of the darkroom enlarger, and was used in the mid-to-late 19th century to make photographic enlargements from negatives.
