The German Genius

1,000 instruments. In the same year, recognizing that he needed to be more scientifically systematic if his business were to prosper, Zeiss engaged Ernst Abbe (1840–1905), at the time a young lecturer in physics and mathematics at Jena. The two men formed a partnership in which Abbe became director of research at the Zeiss Optical Works. It was Abbe who worked out the mathematical/ physical basis of what became computational optics, which would lead to many new devices. The first of these, introduced in 1869, was an illumination device, providing lighting for the objects under examination. Three years later, in 1872, Abbe (who was a great social reformer in the workplace) formulated his wave theory of microscopic imaging, the “Abbe Sine Condition.” This made possible a whole range of microscopic objectives all based on mathematical theory. 37
    Zeiss and Abbe were supplemented by Otto Schott (1851–1935). Brought up in Westphalia, Schott is now regarded as the father of modern glass science. His understanding of glass chemistry led to the introduction of more than one hundred new types of glass. The most important made possible the first “Apochromat” lens, in 1886. Apochromatic lenses have better color correction than achromatic lenses, making them particularly useful in astronomy.
    Zeiss also led the way in the production of binocular telescopes and prism binoculars, each of which gave improved depth perception. 38 The invention of the motor car (see Chapter 19) was to open up a new area, with the need for ever more elaborate headlights.
    Just as famous was the work developed by Ernst Leitz. Born in the Black Forest in 1843, Leitz was six when the company that would eventually bear his name was founded by Carl Kellner, a twenty-three-year-old physicist, in Wetzlar. Kellner began making optics for microscopes and telescopes, in particular an orthoscopic eyepiece he himself invented (an orthoscopic eyepiece corrects for distortion and gives a very flat image). Rudolf Virchow and Justus von Liebig (see Chapter 20) were customers of Kellner’s.
    After Kellner died at the age of twenty-nine, a colleague, Charles Behltle, took over the company, and it was Behltle who recruited Leitz as a partner ten years later. From 1869 on, when Behltle died, Leitz became the sole proprietor of the company, which by then had developed the microscope side of the business much more than the telescope side. By 1889 it too was expanding into binoculars and also into still and cine projectors. Just before the First World War two men—Oscar Barnack and Max Berek—joined the company and moved it more in the direction of cameras. It was Berek who computed the dimensions of the first camera lens to bear the name of the company that was to become so famous in the twentieth century—Leica. 39
    The microscope, more than anything else, is the symbol of the laboratory. Its rise also symbolized a change that took place in science as the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth. In the middle of the nineteenth century, chemistry and engineering had led the way—in the creation of electrical machines, dyes, and pharmaceuticals. These scientific industries continued to advance, but the microscope also enabled progress to be achieved in the biological sciences. In particular, it made practical the investigation of those microorganisms that caused disease. 40

Masters of Metal: Krupp, Benz, Diesel, Rathenau
     
    A lfred Krupp, the “cannon king,” was born in 1812. The firm that bore his name was only a year older than he. His father, Friedrich, was a not altogether successful businessman—when he died (Alfred was fourteen), the firm was close to bankruptcy, and Alfred had to be removed from school on financial grounds. He complained all his life that he got his education “at the anvil.” 1 The son did not take after the father, however. Friedrich was a romantic and weak man, whereas Alfred was resolute, not at all sentimental. Those qualities were needed—it took two decades, half a working lifetime, for him to turn the firm around. 2
    Even then it was achieved partly by accident. After Napoleon’s defeat, Prussia was awarded large parts of the Rhineland to compensate for the loss of her Polish territories. At the time, the agricultural land to the east was much more valuable, but with the growth of industry in the nineteenth century, and the burgeoning needed for coal, the situation was reversed. This reversal caused Prussia to