Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Zeiss. 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.
Birth and family
Carl's father, Johann Gottfried August Zeiss was born in Rastenberg, where his forefathers had worked as artisans for over 100 years. August moved with his parents to Buttstädt, a small regional capital north of Weimar, where he married Johanna Antoinette Friederike Schmith. Carls Zeiss's mother was related to Christiane Vulpius, the spouse of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.August Zeiss then moved to Weimar, the capital of the grand duchy of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, leaving the family business in the hands of his brothers. There he became a well respected ornamental turner, crafting lathe turned work in mother of pearl, amber, ivory, and other exotic materials. He came into contact with the crown prince, and later grand duke, Karl Friedrich of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, the successor to Carl August. The crown prince sought a master to teach him ornamental turning and found one in August Zeiss. The friendship of master and apprentice lasted 40 years. When a son was born to the Zeiss family on 11 September 1816 as the fifth of six surviving children, the newborn son was baptized in honor of his godfather the crown prince and his father the archduke, Carl Friedrich. Of Zeiss's siblings, three sisters and two brothers reached adulthood. Before 1885, the family name was spelled Zeiß.
Education
Higher education was the only path to social mobility at the time and August Zeiss sent all three of his sons to the university preparatory high school, the "Gymnasium", as preparation for the university. The two elder sons studied philology and history and went on to successful careers in education. In one of the accidents which shape history, Carl suffered from an inguinal hernia which required him to wear a truss constantly. The deskbound life of a scholar seemed a poor choice for him. Carl attended the Wilhelm Ernst Gymnasium in Weimar but left early. He sat a special end exam to allow him to study specific subjects at the university, principally the natural sciences.He showed an interest in technical studies very early, to the extent that he attended lectures at the grand ducal technical school in Weimar and finally decided to pursue an apprenticeship as a master machinist.
Carl moved to Jena at Easter of 1834 to pursue an apprenticeship under the "Hofmechanikus," court-appointed precision machinist, and private docent at the University of Jena, Friedrich Körner. His new master was well known beyond his local university town and his workshop is fairly well documented since he made and repaired instruments for the famous polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Zeiss remained for four years as an apprentice. For the last two years, he enrolled as a student and attended one mathematics or sciences lecture course per semester at the university, as was his right under his gymnasium certificate. He completed his apprenticeship in 1838 and departed on his journeyman years with the good wishes and recommendation of master Körner and a certificate of his studies at the university.
This was a time when the steam engine and locomotives exercised a powerful draw on young engineers so it is understandable that Carl Zeiss turned his special attention to mechanical engineering. In his travels from 1838 to 1845 he worked in Stuttgart, Darmstadt, Vienna and Berlin. There are few details of these studies, but it appears that he worked for Hektor Rössler, instrument maker and "Hofmechanikus" at Darmstadt. Rössler was involved in optical and scientific instrument production as well as steam power. In Vienna, the center for heavy machinery production in central Europe, he worked for Rollé und Schwilqué. His stay in Vienna also offered the opportunity to attend the Sunday Lectures on popular mechanics at the Polytechnic Institute of Vienna. He also sat for an exam at the institute which he passed with distinction. Finally, in Berlin, he worked in a machinist's shop.
Establishment of the workshop for precision machinery and optics. Early years in Jena.
After long deliberation Zeiss decided to return to his original subject studied under Körner, construction of experimental scientific apparatus, and set himself up as an independent maker of precision machinery. Zeiss returned to the well known city of Jena to renew an association with the botanist Matthias Jacob Schleiden who had stimulated his original interest in optics and emphasized the need for high quality microscopes. In addition, his brother Eduard directed the local public school in Jena and had kept him informed on developments in the city.Realization of the plan required considerable patience in the face of the bureaucracy of the time. He first needed a residence permit, which was easiest to obtain as a matriculated student. Zeiss matriculated and sat lectures on mathematics and chemistry beginning in November 1845. In addition he worked with several professors in the private physiological institute as a technician, building various apparatuses. There was plenty of work despite the fact that there were already two instrument workshops in Jena. In addition to Körner's there was the workshop of Braunau, who had also apprenticed with Körner.
Zeiss finally made his application to the government offices in Weimar for a concession to establish a machinist's atelier in Jena on 10 May 1846. He referred to the increasing demand for scientific apparatus and justified his wish to work in the city with the importance of intimate association with the scientists of the university.
Despite the recommendation of respected professors of the University of Jena, the government in Weimar moved slowly with the request. Zeiss was required to sit a written exam in August and finally, in November, received his "concession for the construction and sale of mechanical and optical apparatus as well as the establishment of an atelier for precision machinery in Jena." After payment of a fee and swearing a ceremonial oath before the Jena authorities, everything was ready.
Zeiss opened the doors of his workshop on 17 November 1846 with an initial capital investment of 100 Talers, which he had borrowed from his brother Eduard and which was later repaid by his father August. By 1849, the workshop earned a profit of 197 Talers on sales of 901 Talers. Zeiss initially worked alone constructing and repairing many types of physical and chemical apparatus. Loupes cut from mirror blanks were particularly in demand. Eyeglasses, telescopes, microscopes, drawing instruments, thermometers, barometers, balances, glassblowing accessories and other apparatuses purchased from foreign suppliers were also sold in a small shop.
In 1847 he began to make simple microscopes which almost immediately met with especially good commercial success. Compared to his competition Vincent Chevalier of Paris, Simon Plössl of Vienna or his mentor Körner, they proved to be not only cheaper, but better. Zeiss microscopes could be focused by moving the column that carried the optics, instead of the object stage. Zeiss's method was more convenient on a dissecting microscope.
Business was so good that he was able to hire an assistant and move to a larger workshop by early 1847. On 1 July 1847 Zeiss took the significant step of taking on his first apprentice, 17 year old August Löber. Löber became one of the most important workers in the Zeiss workshops, becoming a profit sharing partner and staying with Zeiss until his death. A total of 27 simple microscopes were delivered to customers beyond the borders of the grand duchy in 1847. Three difficult years followed with poor harvests, business crisis and revolution in the grand duchy, but by 1850, Zeiss and his microscopes had established a good enough reputation to receive an attractive offer from the University of Greifswald in Prussia. The university's instrument maker Nobert had moved and Zeiss was asked by several members of the faculty to fill the vacancy with an appointment as curator of the physics cabinet with a salary of 200 Talers. Nothing came of the offer, and Zeiss was to remain in Jena for better or worse, when an influential mathematician maintained that such a position should not be filled by a "foreigner."
His sister Pauline kept the household in Jena until Carl Zeiss married a pastor's daughter Bertha Schatter on 29 May 1849. She died giving birth to his first son in February of the following year. Roderich survived to eventually join his father in the family firm. In May 1853 Zeiss married Ottilie Trinkler, a headmaster's daughter. They had one son, Karl Otto and two daughters, Hedwig and Sidonie.
Carl Zeiss as an employer
Zeiss ran his workshop in a strict paternalistic fashion. Microscopes produced by the apprentices which did not meet the strict standards of precision he set were destroyed on the workshop anvil personally by Zeiss. The working hours of the shop were 6 AM until 7 PM. A mid morning break of 15 minutes and a midday break of an hour made for an 11 ¾ hours workday. Despite these strict rules, the working environment in the shop was very good. New recruits to the workshop were interviewed extensively in his home over a glass of wine. The workers were often invited to the gardens of the Zeiss home for wine and refreshments and the workshop paid for the yearly worker's outing to the hills in the hay wagon. His longest serving apprentice Löber earned three Talers per week by 1856 while the other workers earned two and a half.Zeiss's efforts at improving his knowledge of precision machining and optics meant that a substantial library of books accumulated. These became the machinist's library, available for the further education of any worker.
As the firm expanded, by 1875 the Zeiss health clinic was established, which guaranteed employees free treatment by a clinic doctor and free access to medication. If a worker was unable to work, wages were paid for six weeks with a further six weeks at half wages. These forward thinking policies even precede Otto von Bismarck's state welfare laws introduced in 1883. Worker morale at the Zeiss works was consistently good.