Bausch & lomb

The company's history began in 1853 , when immigrant from Germany John Jacob Bosch and his friend Henry Lomb opened an optics shop in Rochester . Production company began with the release of spectacle frames. Later, Bausch and Lomb was specializing in the production of high-precision and special optics: microscopes , binoculars , telescopes , sights , etc. In 1883, the company began producing lenses . In 1888, the company began supplying lenses for Kodak cameras . The company also produced shutters for cameras . Since 1913, the company began to produce optical glass . Production of lenses for cameras continued until the 1930s . The company stopped producing lenses for cameras, but continued to produce lenses for projectors and movie cameras. In the 1930s, the range of optical products produced by the company included 17 thousand items of goods, the company accounted for 28% of contact lenses produced in the USA and a significant percentage of the national production of microscopes and binoculars. Despite the gradual consolidation of the business, he still retained a family character — family members and their relatives were owners of large blocks of shares and occupied positions in top management ^[1] .

In the years preceding the First World War , the German industrial concern Zeiss acquired a fifth of the Bausch and Lomb shares and became a member of the company's board of directors, it was agreed that the company would now buy glass for the military needs from its European warehouses, and he, in turn, abandons his plans to build a plant of the Zeiss glass in the USA and enter the American market. Thus, the American optical industry became dependent on the supply of glass from abroad and when in 1915, Zeiss, which actively supported the Kaiser government, refused to supply glass to the United States, the production of optical products for military needs, and when the United States entered the war in 1917 year, there was an acute shortage in these funds for the army and navy. In this regard, under pressure from the American government, members of the Baushey and Lombov families were forced to buy back the share of "Zeiss" in the authorized capital, however, relations with "Zeiss" were not interrupted and soon after the war ended, an unspoken agreement was reached to sabotage the conditions of both companies the treaty of Versailles , "Zeiss" in particular undertook to pass on to their American partners technological secrets Zeiss branded glass and certain other products in exchange for seven percent p yalti on all military products (except for field glasses). Moreover, these two companies divided the entire international market of military optics among themselves, and the Zeiss played a dominant role in the cartel formed and its influence was so great that it was he who appointed the head of the military production department at Bausch and Lomb his, this person acted as an agent of the German military-technical intelligence in the United States). Regarding technologies for the production of military optics, there was an agreement on regular bilateral technology exchange. All of these agreements were reached in confidence, of the officials only the US naval attache in Berlin was notified of them and only in the part directly related to the fleet (under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, "Zeiss" was forbidden to make any kind of military products). ^[4] In fact, in the interwar period , with the assistance of its German partners, Bausch and Lomb, monopolized the production of instruments such as artillery, bomb and torpedo sights, range finders, periscopes , telescopes , altimeters , etc. ^[5] tacit agreement included a condition regarding prostanovki brand "Nedinsko Zeiss" on any product that uses the Zeiss technology ( "Nedinsko" - the name of the Dutch branch of concern "Zeiss", created specifically to circumvent the requirements of Treaty of Versailles). This cartel agreement was a great help in the process of remilitarization of Weimar Germany ^[6] . Moreover, receiving these or other orders from the army and navy, Bausch and Lomb immediately transferred to the German partners the technical specifications of the military secret ^[7] .

Meanwhile, as part of the preparation of the American military industry for World War II in the late 1930s, corporate management reoriented the purchase of raw materials from external suppliers ("Zeiss") to domestic ones, whose raw materials-producing capacities were located within the continental states and were not dependent on possible supply disruptions dictated by the course of hostilities or other circumstances, as happened in 1915, thus ensuring the stability of military production stey armed forces in the course of the coming war ^[1] . Along with this, the US Department of Justice and the Senate Commission headed by Harry Truman , acting in the interests of the country's state-monopoly complex , liquidated the US-German optical cartel in 1940 as threatening the US national security ^[8] . During the war years, the company joined the program to supply the US military (for these achievements during the Second World War, the company was awarded )

From the 1920s to the 1990s, the company produced sunglasses under its own name, as well as under the Ray-Ban , Arnett , Killer Loop and Revo brands.

In the late 1960s, the company began producing soft contact lenses made from hydrophilic materials. In the 1980s, she finally decided to focus on contact lenses, selling off the rest of the production.

In 1999, the package of Ray-Ban, Arnette, Killer Loop and Revo sunglasses brands was sold to the Italian company Luxotec for $ 640 million ^{[9] [10] [11]} and the production of sunglasses was discontinued.

In subsequent years, the company has accumulated new debts and was first acquired in 2007 by the private joint-stock company for $ 4.5 billion ^[12] . In May 2013, the Canadian company announced the acquisition of Bausch and Lomb; transaction amount - $ 8.7 billion ^{[13] [14] [15]} . The transaction, approved by the shareholders, also included the payment of Bausch Lomb's corporate debt to creditors in the amount of $ 4.2 billion and was completed on August 5, 2013.

Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of the company - Brent Saunders ( Brent Saunders , 2010 -)

Civil products

Bausch and Lomb is one of the world's largest manufacturers of contact lenses and solutions for them, as well as equipment for the ophthalmic industry. Medical instruments are also available. The company's products are sold in more than 100 countries.

Military products

To meet the needs of the US military-industrial complex in various glass and glass-like transparent materials in the structure of the company, the Military Products Division was created, which developed and manufactured the following product names: ^{[2] [16]}

• ray filters, optical modulators, mosaic receivers of infrared radiation of homing heads of air-to-air missiles ( Seyuaynder and Falcon missiles ), anti-aircraft guided missiles ( Stinger );
• infrared transmitting elements, periscope azimuth error indicators, periscopic guidance and emergency navigation devices for submarine ballistic missile carriers ( Polaris family of missiles);
• infrared tracking devices of onboard fighter control systems for rocket armament ( Starfighter );
• range finder-sights for various weapon systems (developed on a competitive basis along with similar projects of the Kodak , Polaroid , companies );
• optical sights of all types ( rifle , artillery , bomb and torpedo );
• cockpit lights of fighters and other military aircraft made of heat-resistant refractory glass;
• high- resolution optical-electronic systems of military reconnaissance satellites .

Staff

The total number of staff - 13 thousand people ( 2007 ). The company's sales in 2006 amounted to $ 2.29 billion, net profit - $ 14.9 million.

• International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 25. (Ed.) / Edited by Laura E. Whiteley. - Detroit, Mich .: St. James Press, 1999. - 725 p. - ISBN 1-55862-367-1 .
• Maddox, Robert Franklin . The War Within World War II: The United States and International Cartels. (eng.) - Westport, Connecticut: Praeger , 2001. - 232 p. - ISBN 0-275-96274-1 .

• Russian company website
• Official site of the company (English)
• Bausch & Lomb at Camerapedia (English)