pharmaceuticals and environmental samples. This development was made possible through the experience gained in the high temperature furnace technology needed for melting of platinum, which has a high melting point of 1770 degrees Celsius. Building on the know-how in handling high temperatures for chemical processes, Richard Küch, a researcher at the Heraeus Platinum Smelting Factory, was able to produce quartz glass of very high purity, which is still the material of choice for combustion tubes used in modern combustion analyzers. Richard Küch's invention together with the experience in high temperature furnace technology resulted in the commercial production of automated and semi-automated elemental analyzers. Due to the too low profitability and different nature compared to the precious metal core business of Heraeus, the Analytical Technology Division was sold in 1995 to form Elementar. Speciality products Quartz glass Heraeus began to continuously expand its product portfolio starting at the turn of the 20th century, moving into areas such as the production of optical instruments, infrared emitters and laboratory equipment. It produced plates, prisms and corrective lenses for the optical industry (under the names Homosil and Ultrasil) plus opaque quartz glass under the name Rotosil. In the late 1960s, Heraeus also produced ultra-pure isotropic/homogeneous quartz glass for space exploration. This special optical quartz glass was used in retroreflectors set up on the moon during the Apollo landings. These were used to measure the exact distance between the earth and the moon and are still in use today. Heraeus also developed a new process for making high-quality synthetic quartz glass from silicon tetrachloride. In the late 1960s, this opened up a completely new market for the company: quartz fibre technology for the optical transmission of data in the telecommunications industry, followed by product developments in the field of optical fibres in 1972. In 1986, the first synthetic waveguide tubes were developed, and in 1992, production of synthetic quartz glass began in Bitterfeld. Heraeus has established itself as a supplier of devices and optical components for the semiconductor industry. Speciality lighting In 1904, Richard Küch discovered that evaporated quicksilver (mercury) in a quartz tube acted as an intense light source when stimulated with electricity. In light of this discovery, Heraeus joined forces with AEG and founded a quartz lamp company, culminating in the development of the ‘Original Hanau Synthetic Sunlamp’ which flooded onto the German market as early as the 1930s. By the 1950s, the