Georg Merz

Georg Merz (26 January 1793 – 12 January 1867) was a Bavarian optician and manufacturer of astronomical telescopes and other optical instruments.

Life

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. On the death of von Utzschneider in 1839 Merz, in partnership with Joseph Mahler, bought the firm. After Mahler's death he ran the business in partnership with his sons Ludwig and Sigmund. When Ludwig died in 1858 the name was changed to G. & S. 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.

Telescopes

• The 1845 Merz und Mahler 11″ refractor at the Cincinnati Observatory
• The 1847 15″ Harvard Great Refractor at Harvard College Observatory
• The 1839 Merz und Mahler 15″ refractor at Pulkovo Observatory
• The 1838 Merz 6″ (160 mm) refractor at Leiden Observatory
• The Yellow House Observatory in Dover, MA
• 12½″ Merz refractor telescope at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
• 5″ (135 mm) G. & S. Merz equatorial refractor telescope at the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
• 8.05″ (218 mm) Merz refractor telescope at the Brera Astronomical Observatory, Italy
• Georg Merz and Sons, vintage 7¼″ refracting telescope at the Sydney Observatory
• Georg Merz and Sons, vintage refracting telescope at the Quito Astronomical Observatory
• An equatorial mounted achromatic refractor from his firm was used in discovery of Neptune.

References

1. Merz (surname)
2. Sydney Observatory
3. Deus absconditus (Christian theology)
4. Georg Ohm
5. Heinrich Hellwege
6. German Social Union (East Germany)
7. Quito Astronomical Observatory
8. Brera Astronomical Observatory
9. Merz Peninsula
10. Georg Wüst
11. Hermann Lindrath
12. Gabriele Schöttler
13. Franz Müntefering
14. Alfred Merz
15. 1867 in Germany
16. Leader of the Christian Democratic Union
17. Johannes Müller (theologian)
18. Offenbach-Hundheim
19. Bezirksamtmann
20. Christine Bergmann