Russian Optics - Early 20th Century
At the turn of the 20th century, Russian optics was actively developing. Huge progress in the theory was achieved thanks to the famous works by Pyotr Lebedev, Boris Golitsyn, Torichan Kravets, Pyotr Lazarev, Dmitry Rozhdestvensky, and Abram Ioffe. Pyotr Lebedev - Professor of Moscow University and an internationally acclaimed scientist - was the most significant figure among the theoreticians of the time. He set a goal to experimentally prove Johannes Kepler and Leonhard Euler's hypothesis of the existence of light pressure. He did succeed. In 1990, Lebedev presented the results of his experiments at the Congress of Physicists in Paris. According to witnesses, his proofs of the existence of light pressure produced an impression on the scientists of the world just as strong as Marie and Pierre Curie's report on the discovery of radium.
The unique research by Dmitry Rozhdestvensky laid the foundation for the study of light dispersion. In 1915, being a practical optics enthusiast, the scientist founded the production of optical glass in Russia, and after October 1917, he became the head of all optical production in the country.
Abram Ioffe, another outstanding scientist, is considered a pioneer of semiconductor research. In youth, the scientist became interested in the study of the photo-electrical effect. Ioffe's works not only revealed the essence of this phenomenon, but also presented clear evidence of the quantum nature of light and the atomic structure of matter, which played an important role in the further development of the science of light, electricity, and properties of matter.
The early 20th century was marked by the accelerated development of science and optical production. In 1905, in Petersburg, an optical-mechanical workshop was opened at the Obukhov State Steel Plant. The establishment of that production was motivated by the needs of the army: both naval artillery and coastal defense artillery required new, advanced sighting systems. Before that time new sights had been ordered from abroad, and after the emergence of domestic production there was no more need to collaborate with foreign partners and spend substantial sums.
In 1906, the workshop started producing several types of optical artillery sights at a considerably higher level than that of foreign counterparts. The workshop's specialization did not change afterwards. It continued manufacturing optical instruments for military purposes: prism field glasses and binoculars, stereoscopic telescopes, directional theodolites with optical sights, etc. In 1912, the workshop opened a specialized department for repair, adjustment, and zeroing of distance gauges and rangefinders.
The Russian optical industry really dates from 1905 when an optical workshop was created at the Obukhov works in St Petersburg to meet the needs of the navy. In 1905, the famous German companies Carl Zeiss and C.P.Goerz opened their workshops in Riga (it was a Russian city at that time). They produced non-standard binoculars, Goerz panoramas, and large and small stereoscopic telescopes. After World War I began, the companies were nationalized, moved to Petrograd, and merged. In 1916, the first state optical plant in Russia was established on the basis of the united companies - State Petrograd Optical Plant GAU. In the next decade, that plant renamed plant number 19 changed its location several times: Voronezh, Perm, Podolsk, and eventually Banki in the Pavshino District of the Moscow Region (today Krasnogorsk).
In 1906, a branch of Th. Shvabe Merchant House opened in Irkutsk. After that, the company purchased a land plot in Sokolniki (a district in Moscow) and started the construction of a plant there. Simultaneously, a four-storey house on Kuznetsky Most street was built. By that time the physical and mechanical production of the company had become one of the largest in Europe, and the number of workers increased to 300. In 1910, the Trade and Industry Department of the Russian Empire approved the trademark of Th. Shvabe Merchant House. In 1912, in order to increase production, Th. Shvabe Merchant House was reorganized into a Th. Shvabe joint stock company with a registered capital of 1 million rubles. The range of products produced by the company exceeded 4,500.
On the eve of World War I, Th. Shvabe joint stock company received an order to produce an anti-aircraft sight. Military engineer staff captain Vasily Chetyrkin considered the Shvabe plant an ideal place to realize his idea. The anti-aircraft sight was produced in a very short timeframe, and its characteristics attracted the attention of the Defense Department. The device was eventually called Captain Chetyrkin's Rangefinder.
During World War I, the joint stock company actively functioned and produced surgical, geodesic, surveying, physical, optical, chemical tools and instruments, as well as disinfection equipment and orthopedic devices required during the war. At that time, Shvabe received orders from the General Military Technical Directorate, Kazan and Shostka gunpowder factories, Second Engineer College of Kiev, sanitary institutions of the country, including the Red Cross, military hospitals and numerous educational institutions.
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