Otto Schott

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Friedrich Otto Schott

Friedrich Otto Schott (born December 17, 1851 in Witten , † August 27, 1935 in Jena ) was a German chemist , glass technician and entrepreneur .

Life

Otto Schott was the second youngest of seven children. His parents were Simon Schott (1809–1874) and Karoline Schott b. Faucets. On November 16, 1853, Simon Schott founded the Haarmann, Schott & Hahne (later Wittener Glashütte AG ) glassworks in Witten ; it was built in 1854. Karl Hahne was his brother-in-law. August Schott (April 7, 1841 - July 27, 1878), Simon's brother, also founded a sheet glass works in Annen in 1865 with Wilhelm Buchholz and Wilhelm Heidsieck .
After studying chemistry at the RWTH Aachen University - here he was a founding member of the Corps Teutonia - the University of Würzburg and the University of Leipzig was Otto Schott with a glass chemical subject at the University of Jena for Dr. phil. PhD . Back at home he experimented in his parents' house, where he developed a new type of glass, lithium glass, in 1879 . This was the first time he achieved a homogeneity that made spectrometric measurements possible. From this he developed glasses with completely new optical properties by 1884. At the same time he began to manufacture cover glasses for microscopic specimens at the sheet glass factory in Witten . In doing so, he broke through the monopoly held by the British in this field up to that point by producing these cover glasses around 20% cheaper.

He had sent a sample of his lithium glass to the physicist Ernst Abbe . A professional correspondence with him finally brought him to Jena in 1882. There, in 1884, together with Ernst Abbe, Roderich Zeiß and Carl Zeiß, he founded a glass technology laboratory, which later became the Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Genossen , today's Schott AG in Mainz. Initially limited to the development and manufacture of optical glasses and thermometer glass, the company quickly expanded its product range thanks to the invention of borosilicate glass , which is very resistant to chemicals and heat, from 1887 ( Jenaer Glas ). The mass production of heat-resistant lighting glasses (gas incandescent light cylinders for gas and kerosene lamps ) established the company's economic success. More than 30 million of these glasses were sold by 1909.

The improvements he achieved in optical glasses enabled the development of powerful microscopes and telescopes . He also succeeded in producing different glasses with finely graduated optical constants and new types of glass. The Technical University of Dresden awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1905. The German Glastechnische Gesellschaft honored him in 1925 as the "founder of modern glass technology". The "Otto Schott Institute for Materials Research of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena" bears his name.

In 1909 the successful plant had 1,090 employees. In 1919 he ceded his shares in the plant to the Carl Zeiss Foundation . Schott worked at the plant until 1926 as a "civil servant" for the glass works and a member of the management.

Grave of Otto Schott and his wife from 1935 in the north cemetery in Jena

Schott's work can be viewed in the Schott Villa and in the Optical Museum in Jena. His grave is on the Jena North Cemetery (field 14).

Fonts (selection)

  • Contributions to the theory and practice of glass manufacturing. Edited and provided with scientific-historical notes and an introduction by Jürgen Hendrich. Bussert & Stadeler, Jena et al. 2001, ISBN 3-932906-34-9 (Jena, university thesis, dissertation, 1875).
  • The correspondence between Otto Schott and Ernst Abbe about optical glass. 1879–1881 (= publications of the Thuringian Historical Commission. Volume 2, ZDB -ID 999738-6 ). Edited by Herbert Kühnert. G. Fischer, Jena 1946.

Honors

literature

  • Moritz Geuther: happiness and glass. The engagement letters from Otto Schott and Käthe Pielke (= studies of folklore in Thuringia. Volume 8). Waxmann, Münster et al. 2018, ISBN 978-3-8309-3864-4 (Jena, Friedrich Schiller University, dissertation, 2016).
  • Walter Hahland : Otto Schott's research and his collaboration with Ernst Abbe up to the establishment of the Jena glassworks Schott and Gen. in Jena (= Schott-Schriften. Volume 1, ISSN  0582-0111 ). Jenaer Glaswerk Schott and Gen., Mainz 1965.
  • Hartmut Herbst: The "Glass Doctor" from Witten. A short biography of Otto Schott based on documents. In: Märkisches Jahrbuch für Geschichte . Vol. 102, 2002, pp. 172-229.
  • Jürgen Steiner: Otto Schott - scientist, technologist, entrepreneur with social responsibility. Biographical facets on the 150th birthday. In: Jena yearbook on technology and industrial history. 2, 2000, ISSN  2198-6746 , pp. 7-23.
  • Jürgen Steiner:  Schott, Friedrich Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 487-489 ( digitized version ).

Movie

  • Otto and Erich Schott - glass for the whole world. Documentary, Germany, 2006, 29 min., Script and director: Jürgen Lossau, production: aktion.tv, MDR , series: CVs , first broadcast: October 1, 2006 on MDR ( table of contents by ARD ).

Web links

Commons : Otto Schott  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ pdf
  2. ↑ schott.com: Short biography (pdf)
  3. ↑ witten.de: pdf
  4. ↑ lwl.org: Press release of November 8, 2012
  5. ↑ www.osim.uni-jena.de
  6. ↑ visit-jena.de , schott.com
  7. ↑ Homepage
personal data
SURNAME Schott, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schott, Friedrich Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and glass technician
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Witten
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1935
Place of death Jena