Zeiss, Carl (redirected from Carl Zeiß)

Zeiss, Carl

(born Sept. 11, 1816, Weimar, Thuringian States—died Dec. 3, 1888, Jena) German industrialist. In 1846 Zeiss opened a workshop for producing microscopes and other optical instruments. He later formed a partnership with the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe (1840–1905). The chemist Otto Schott developed about 100 new kinds of optical glass and numerous types of heat-resistant glass for the company. After Zeiss's death, Abbe donated the firm and his share in the glassworks to the Carl Zeiss Foundation; in 1923 Schott added his share in the glassworks.

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Zeiss, Carl 

Born Sept. 11, 1816, in Weimar; died Dec. 3, 1888, in Jena. German optician; founder of an optical firm in Jena.

Zeiss moved to Jena in 1834 and became an apprentice of the noted optician F. Körner, a docent at the University of Jena. In 1838 he visited machine shops in Stuttgart, Darmstadt, Vienna, and Berlin. In 1846 he opened a workshop in Jena to produce magnifying glasses and simple microscopes. The workshop subsequently developed into a company for the manufacture of optical instruments. Zeiss engaged E. Abbe and F. O. Schott to work in the firm. Since 1948 the Zeiss Optical Works has been a people’s enterprise of the German Democratic Republic.