September 1847: With skill, experience, vigor, and ideas of his own, Carl Zeiss starts making microscopes on his new premises at Wagnergasse 32. These are simple microscopes, consisting of one lens only and intended mainly for dissecting work. During the first year, Zeiss sells as many as 23 of them, an indication that they do well in comparison with other makes. Nevertheless, they undergo many improvements during the following years.
Encouraged by this early success, Carl Zeiss soon sets about a more demanding task - the production of compound microscopes. These consist of two optical elements: an objective and an eyepiece. The first unit of the "Stand I" model goes on sale in 1857. |  Anticipating the Future
 How everything started
A Long Story
The Formula One
The Glass
The Light
Turn of the century
Stages of a Chronicle
A Flashback
Nobel Prizes |
 | Modifications of this, as well as new designs follow. In 1861 Carl Zeiss is awarded a gold medal at the Thuringian Industrial Exhibition, because his compound microscopes are ranked "among the most excellent instruments made in Germany". In 1863 Carl Zeiss is appointed supplier to the Grand-Ducal court. Now, after not quite two decades, the flourishing business employs about 20 people.
The success of those years is all the more worthy of note as it has been achieved merely by skill and experience, applied to a trial-and-error method of manufacturing instruments whose designs lack a theoretical foundation.
As a man of foresight, Zeiss is well aware of this lack. And he finds something ought to be done about it.
1866: The 1000th microscope leaves the Zeiss workshop. Despite all due pride, the principal is preoccupied, has been so for quite some time. He has realized, as nobody before him, that trial and error is insufficient in microscope making. He is convinced that even the most skilled craftsmanship reaches its limits where the perfect form of an optical system has to be found by experimentation rather than by computation. In Zeiss' own words: "The only remaining function of the working hand should be that of precisely implementing the forms and dimensions of all construction elements as determined by the design computation."
Optics of calculable, predetermined performance: a demanding task. For some time, Zeiss tries to tackle it himself, in vain. But he does not give up. Then he meets Dr. Ernst Abbe, a physicist and mathematician, 26 years of age, lecturer at Jena's university. Carl Zeiss engages him as a free-lance research worker. Two matching minds join to make possible what nobody has thought of before. | | |