Adolf Repsold

{{short description|German astronomical and scientific instrument maker}}

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Adolf Repsold (31 August 1806 – 13 March 1871) was a German astronomical and scientific instrument maker, son of the astronomer and fireman Johann Georg Repsold. He established the company A. & G. Repsold along with his brother and it was continued by his son Johann Adolf Repsold under the name of A. Repsold & Söhne in Hamburg.

File:Círculo meridiano (Repsold & Söhne, 1889). Observatorio Astronómico de Quito.jpg at the Quito Astronomical Observatory. Built by Repsold and sons, 1889.]]

Repsold was born in Hamburg, the son of fire-brigade captain and astronomer Johann Georg Repsold who died in a fire in 1830 after which he took his father's place in the fire service. Along with his brother Georg Repsold (1804–1867), they continued their father's instrument business as A. & G. Repsold company specializing in the fabrication of astronomical and scientific instruments. Collaborations with Carl August Steinheil led to several innovations including a measuring graticule within the eyepiece. Repsold's instruments were widely in use in astronomical observatories across Europe and included the Oxford Heliometer. A universal (theodolite) instrument made by Repsold was used in the geodetic surveys of Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve.{{cite journal|title=Small Instrument – Big Task. A Historical Account of how a Repsold Universal Instrument came to serve at the Arctic End of the Struve Geodetic Arc| author1=Pettersen, Bjørn Ragnvald | author2= Müller, Jürgen| journal= Zeitschrift für Geodäsie|volume=6| year=2009| pages=348-357 |url=https://geodaesie.info/system/files/privat/zfv_2009_6_Pettersen_Mueller-J.pdf }}{{cite journal|title=The repsold portable vertical circle| author=Abbe, Cleveland| journal= American Journal of Science |year=1867|volume=128| pages= 207-216|doi=10.2475/ajs.s2-43.128.207}} Repsold made his son Johann Adolf (also known as Hans) a partner in 1858. Repsold left the company in 1867 to his sons Johann Adolf and Oscar. The company continued in existence until 1919 when it was shut down.{{cite journal| author1=Fréchet, J.| author2= Rivera, L. |year=2012| title= Horizontal pendulum development and the legacy of Ernst von Rebeur-Paschwitz| journal= Journal of Seismology| volume= 16| issue=2| pages= 315–343| doi=10.1007/s10950-011-9272-5 }}{{cite journal|last=Raposo|first=Pedro M. P.|year=2013|title=Observatories, instruments and practices in motion: an astronomical journey in the nineteenth-century|url=http://johost.eu/vol8_fall_2013/Pedro_Raposo_5.pdf|journal=Journal of History of Science and Technology|volume=8|pages=69-104}}