Ernst Karl Abbe

Ernst Karl Abbe (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905) was a German physicist, developer of optical instruments entrepreneur, and social reformer. Abbe was professor of physics and observatory director at Jena.

He worked on optical theory and with Carl Zeiss (1816–88), an instrument maker, and Otto Schott (1851–1935), a glass maker, was able to improve several devices.

These include the Abbe condenser for converging light on microscope specimens; the achromatic lens, which is free from colour distortion (1886); and the Abbe refractometer.

From 1888 he was the sole owner of the Zeiss company, whose optical instruments were of the highest standard. In 1893 he patented the nowfamiliar prismatic binocular.