Tools

The Optical Institute manufactured scientific instruments of all kinds. In addition to surveying instruments and astronomical telescopes, they also produced instruments for natural sciences.

The polarization apparatus, for instance, was used to study how certain samples affect the polarization of light. (This effect can be experienced firsthand at a demonstration in the exhibition.)

Much like the telescopes, the microscopes utilized achromatic lenses — meaning lenses free of chromatic aberration, a major specialty of the Optical Institute. It was only through this innovation that compound microscopes became truly competitive. A century and a half earlier, single-lens microscopes were still preferred because they exhibited fewer chromatic aberrations.