Background
Merz was born on 26 January 1793 in Bichl, in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, now in Bavaria, Germany.
Merz was born on 26 January 1793 in Bichl, in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, now in Bavaria, Germany.
At the age of 15 he went to work in the glassworks recently set up by Joseph von Utzschneider in the nearby deconsecrated monastery of Benediktbeuern. There he became the assistant of Joseph Fraunhofer. From 1826, when Fraunhofer died, Merz was in charge of the optical division of the business.
When Ludwig died in 1858 the name was changed to G. & South. Merz.
Georg Merz died in Munich on 12 January 1867. In 1882 the firm passed to Jacob and Matthias Merz, Sigmund"s cousins, and in 1884 the Benediktbeuern works was closed.
The company moved to Munich, and closed in 1903. The 1845 Merz und Mahler 11 inch refractor at the Cincinnati Observatory
The Yellow House Observatory in Dover, Master of Arts
12½-inch Merz refractor telescope at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
135mm G. & South. Merz equatorial refractor telescope at the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
218mm Merz refractor telescope at the Brera Astronomical Observatory, Italy.