Bausch & Lomb are one of the oldest companies that operate within the United States today. The company can be traced all the way back to 1853 when John Jacob Bausch started up a tiny optical goods shop in Rochester, New York. Bausch was a German immigrant in America and started his business by ordering spectacles from his brother in Germany. He then attempted to sell these to New York but found that he could not afford his rent with the income and returned to his previous trade of wood making.
Bausch & Lomb may well have never happened if Bausch hadn't suffered from an accident that lost him two of the fingers on his right hand. Bausch had recently married before the accident and then found himself in financial difficulties. He and his wife had to live off money borrowed from his employer and generous donations that were collected from his friends. One of these friends that collected money for the couple was another German immigrant called Henry Lomb.
Bausch returned to work but found that the fear of the saw stopped him, so decided to return to the optical trade, well aware he could fail once again. Again his brother sent him spectacles from Germany which he advertised in the German language papers in New York and sold the optical goods from home. After six months he was then able to open a small store, but it took another eight years before he saw any profit from the business.
The partnership between Bausch & Lomb began on the sixty dollars that Lomb loaned to Bausch at the beginning. Lomb left in 1861 to fight in the Civil War and by this point Bausch's debts to Lomb had risen to one thousand dollars. Throughout the entire war he sent his army pay to Bausch to help keep the business afloat. Once Lomb returned from war, Bausch made him an official partner in the business and renamed the company the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company.
Today the company is one of the leading manufacturers of optical products and Bausch & Lomb products are available in over one hundred and sixty countries across the globe. Sales outside of the United States account for around 60 per cent of total revenues and if it wasn't for the sixty dollar loan from Lomb the company may well have never came to be the success it is today.
Author Resource:-
Dom Donaldson is a historian.
Find out more about Bausch & Lomb and the services offered from Lenstore.co.uk.
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