properties. Schott shared this discovery with Ernst Abbe, a professor of physics at Jena University whose comments on glass had stimulated Schott's interest in the subject.

Not long after Schott had completed his formal university training, he had become aware that Abbe had articulated the deficiencies in glass that was available at the time. The deficiencies were particularly acute in scientific instruments for which optical performance of the glass in lenses such as for telescopes and microscopes