Simon Plößl

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Simon Plößl, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1836
Plößl microscope in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Simon Plößl or Simon Plössl (born September 19, 1794 in Vienna ; † January 29, 1868 ibid) was an Austrian optician and had an optician's workshop in Vienna since 1823. From humble beginnings he became one of the most important telescope and instrument makers in Central Europe. In 1835 he received a gold medal for his work at the Vienna Industrial Exhibition.

A life for optics

Born in Vienna as the son of a carpenter, he was apprenticed to the lens grinder and later lens inventor Voigtländer and opened his own factory in 1828. He soon became known for his precise glasses and loupes and began to design larger instruments that greatly satisfied his customers.

So Joseph Franz von Jacquin , University Professor of Chemistry and Botany, became aware of him and got his microscopes from him instead of Voigtländer . He suggested that he also grind lenses for microscopes and telescopes , so that Plößl soon met the astronomer Joseph Johann von Littrow . He built the first of these instruments from his own production in 1830 and received the order from the emperor to make a lens telescope ( refractor ) for the Istanbul observatory as a gift for the Turkish Grand Sultan .

Also Andreas von Baumgartner , the first president of the newly founded Academy of Sciences , attention was drawn to the quality of Plossls instruments and recommended them in his publications. In 1835 Plößl was granted Viennese citizenship and many of its products were awarded prizes. The highlights of the awards were a gold medal from the industrial exhibition in 1835 and the Great Gold Medal for Art and Science in 1867 . Not far from his workshop, near Belvedere Palace , Plößlgasse in the Wieden district was named after the famous optician in 1875 .

Mechanical and optical innovations

Plößl produced the first dialytic telescope in 1830 . In the open collection of the Vienna University Observatory, where the aforementioned Littrow worked, there is a dialytic telescope manufactured by Plößl with an objective diameter of around 10 cm and a focal length of 1.25 m.

On the microscope , he not only improved the sharpness of the image, but also the mechanical parts. Around 1840 he developed the later named after him Plössl eyepiece , the first in the history of optics clean color microscope and telescope eyepiece . Due to its relatively simple design and low manufacturing costs, it is still widely used today. A meaningful further development only succeeded 50 years later, Zeiss co-founder Ernst Abbe .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of the company Kahles International Vienna ( Memento of the original from 23 August 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kahles.at
  2. ↑ Small hand-held telescope from "Plößl in Vienna", Museum of Optical Instruments ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musoptin.com
personal data
SURNAME Plößl, Simon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian optician
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1794
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1868
Place of death Vienna