Georg von Reichenbach, German engineer and instrument-maker, c 1820.

Lithograph by Hohe after a painting by Joseph Karl Stieler. Georg Friedrich von Reichenbach (1772-1826) was born in Durlach, Germany and trained at the School of Army Engineers in Mannheim. After a short period in England studying scientific instrument-making, Reichenbach established a firm manufacturing precision instruments in Munich. In 1805 he invented the Theodolite, the most accurate surveying instrument of the day. He also introduced the meridian, or transit, circle, a specially designed telescope for measuring the time and angle of celestial bodies above the meridian. He was created a peer in 1811 by the Bavarian king, Max Joseph I. From a collection of portraits of scientists published by Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin, c 1910. Dimensions: 460mm x 340mm.