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| Ernst Abbe and Robert Koch |
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For centuries, infectious diseases posed the greatest threat to health and life all over the world. In Europe endemic tuberculosis triggered just as much fear in the population as cholera, a disease which broke out time and time again in the period after 1830. However, medicine was close to discovering the mechanisms involved in the infection and transmission of these diseases. Microscopes with considerably improved performance – such as those produced by the Jena-based optical enterprise Carl Zeiss on the basis of Abbe’s epoch-making theory of image formation in the microscope – played a truly pivotal role in these endeavors.
One example is the intensive collaboration between Robert Koch, the founder of modern bacteriology, and the Jena-based optical enterprise. In 1878 Robert Koch visited Ernst Abbe for an exchange of ideas. The oil immersion objectives with a high resolving power later introduced by Carl Zeiss enabled medical research to achieve ground-breaking advances, overcoming the limitations which had previously existed, e.g. the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Robert Koch.
Koch also successfully used Abbe’s microscope illumination apparatus and himself made suggestions for its possible improvement. The achromatic condenser for photomicrography was also developed on his initiative. – In 1904 the Management of the enterprise Carl Zeiss presented Robert Koch with the 1000th 1/12“ objective for homogeneous oil immersion as a token of their gratitude and appreciation. In his letter Robert Koch attributed part of his success to the “excellent microscopes from Carl Zeiss“.
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