Erker's Optical Co. of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

is an

optical Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

company started in 1879 by A.P. Erker. A.P. Erker's brother,

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

gold medalist

August Erker August Casimir Erker (January 16, 1879 – November 29, 1951) was an American rower who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics The 1904 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the III Olympiad and also known as St. Louis 1904) were an i ...

later joined the business. It was the first manufacturing optical firm in St. Louis and provided all manner of spectacles, opera and field glasses, telescopes, microscopes, artificial eyes, drawing instruments, magic lanterns and stereopticons. The company also provided a full line of mathematical and surveying instruments as well as providing a repair service for optical apparatus. Mr. Erker was one of the official photographers of the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 mi ...

. Erker's is still run by the Erker family; the current president being Jack Erker Jr. Erker's owns many photos of the 1904 World's Fair, as the company sponsored its official photographer. Erker's also supplied

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

with the goggles that he used in his 1927

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, bal ...

The Spirit of St. Louis The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that Charles Lindbergh flew on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight ...

References

External links

Official homepage
Companies based in St. Louis {{Improve categories, date=September 2023