Background
Friedrich Otto Schott was born in 1851 in Witten, Westphalia, Germany. Descended from glassworkers
Friedrich Otto Schott was born in 1851 in Witten, Westphalia, Germany. Descended from glassworkers
He attended the Royal Provincial Trade School at Hagen and studied chemistry at Aachen, Wurzburg and Leipzig. He earned a doctorate at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena for his thesis “Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Glass Fabrication” in 1875, then traveled in France and Belgium to study their glass industry.
From 1877 to 1880 Schott built a chemical factory and glassworks in Spain. In Witten, he conducted research into new kinds of glass, using previously unemployed elements. In 1879 he contacted Ernst Abbe at the Carl Zeiss works in Jena, which led to a series of test melts for optical glass. In 1882 Schott moved his laboratory to Jena to continue his experiments, and in 1884 he set up the glassworks of Schott und Genossen with Abbe, Carl Zeiss and Roderich Zeiss. Along with Abbe, Schott formed the Carl Zeiss Foundation in 1889, to which he deeded his Schott und Genossen shares in 1919. He succeeded Abbe as the foundation's manager, a post he held until 1927.
Starting in 1884, the Schott und Genossen glassworks began producing a new kind of optical glass, including the classic crown and flint glasses. They issued their first price list of forty- four kinds of glass in 1886, and added thirteen varieties in 1888.