INTRODUCTION. 



Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Mechanik und Optik. 



Collective Exhibition of Scientiflc-Instruients and Appliances, 



Group 21. 



Group 21 comprises a collective exhibition of the ,,Deutsche Gesell- 

 schaft fUr Mechanik und Optik'', an association of German mechanicians and 

 opticians formed to encourage and support the manufacture of scientific instru- 

 ments and appliances in every direction. 



The manufacture of scientific instruments and appliances implies a high 

 standard of technical skill and equally advanced scientific knowledge. The 

 progress of this department of applied art and science depends in a greater 

 measure than any other department of industry upon the national standard of 

 political and social requirements ; its development is, therefore, greatly influenced 

 by the political and social condition of a nation. In England the requirements 

 of navigation in the 17th and 18th centuries respecting improved astronomical, 

 nautic and chronometric instruments had reacted beneficially upon the scientific 

 instrument trade and given life to a number of prominent makers whose suc- 

 cessors profited by the traditional fame of their predecessors down to the 

 present day. The case was quite similar in France. Here the introduction of 

 the metric system, the construction of good astronomical and surveying instru- 

 ments and the manufacture of exact weights and measures resulted in a general 

 development of the scientific instrument trade. In Germany the manufacture 

 of scientific instruments has an old place in technical history, as such well- 

 known old names- as Brander of Nuremberg or Ludolph of Leipzic testify. 



Mechanical art attained in Germany real importance only in the begin- 

 ning of this century when the inventions of Keichenbach, the optical discoveries 

 of Fraunhofer, the high skill and achievements of Kepsold, Pistor, Breit- 

 haupt and others obtained for it the universal appreciation of the scientific 

 world. During the years 1860 to 1865 the German instrument trade seemingly 

 degenerated. There was, it must be admitted, a race of able and clever mecha- 

 nicians and opticians who were producing excellent work, but they had not the 



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