At the optician's lathe in 1900 and the 1.5-ton EUV illumination system in 2000

2021 marks the 175th anniversary of the famous scientific optics company Zeiss, which has played a key role in the evolution of microscopy, ophthalmology and optometry, and even the 1969 Moon landing.

In 1846, shortly after his 30th birthday, mechanic Carl Zeiss opened his workshop for precision mechanics and optics in Jena, Germany. He began producing rudimentary microscopes the following year. But it was his partnership with the German physicist Ernst Abbe and the superior glass of Glaswerk Schott & Genossen that led to the true beginnings of Zeiss’ ground-breaking instruments in 1884.

Carl Zeiss in 1850

The company’s microscopes became the tools of Nobel Prize winners such as Robert Koch, who identified the causes of tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, and Swedish ophthalmologist Professor Allvar Gullstrand, whose research into astigmatism and the eye’s rotational centre was facilitated by Zeiss’ custom-built loupe. The first Zeiss slit lamp followed in 1912; its optical system also formed the basis for the development of the first Zeiss surgical microscope, the OPMI1, launched in 1953.

For more about Zeiss’ journey, visit: https://www.zeiss.com/corporate/int/about-zeiss/175-years.html