Editing Bausch & Lomb (section)

==Company history==

===Early years===
[[File:US-NY(1891) p639 ROCHESTER, THE BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL COMPANY.jpg|thumb|right|250px|New York headquarters of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company in 1891]]
In 1853, [[John Jacob Bausch|John Bausch]] and [[Henry Lomb]], both German immigrants, established a small but ambitious workshop producing [[monocle]]s in Rochester, New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=18|title = John Bausch|date = 2014|access-date = May 20, 2014|website = Immigrant Entrepreneurship: The German-American Business Biography, 1720 to the Present|last = Kolbow|first = Berti}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/atol/bausch.html|title=German American Corner|publisher=German Heritage|date=2014|access-date=2014-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912002241/http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/atol/bausch.html|archive-date=2009-09-12|url-status=dead}}</ref> By 1861, their operation had expanded to manufacturing [[Ebonite|vulcanite]] [[rubber]] eyeglass frames and other precision vision products.<ref name="Kingslake">{{cite web |url= http://www.nwmangum.com/Kodak/Rochester.html#Bausch%20and%20Lomb |title= A History of Bausch and Lomb |work= nwmangum.com |quote= Source: Kingslake, Rudolf, 1974, ''The Rochester Camera and Lens Companies'', Rochester NY, Photographic Historical Society. }}</ref>

===Early growth of the company===
During the [[American Civil War]], the [[Union blockade]] caused the price of gold and European horn to rise dramatically. This resulted in a growing demand for the Bausch + Lomb spectacles made from [[Ebonite|vulcanite]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044103067088?urlappend=;seq=353|title=Journal of applied microscopy. v.6 (1903).|website=HathiTrust|hdl=2027/hvd.32044103067088?urlappend=%3Bseq=353|language=en|access-date=2018-01-31}}</ref>

In 1876, [[Ernst Gundlach]] joined the company as it began to manufacture [[microscope]]s. Later that year, the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company won a distinction at the Philadelphia [[Centennial Exposition]]. The company also produced [[photographic lens]]es (1883), [[spectacle lens]]es (1889), [[microtome]]s (1890), [[binoculars]] and [[telescope]]s (1893).<ref name="LOMBbio">{{cite web|url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlomb.htm |title=Henry Lomb bio |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026134714/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlomb.htm |archivedate=2007-10-26 }}</ref> From 1892 in cooperation with [[Carl Zeiss AG|Zeiss]] in Germany, the company produced optical [[Lens (optics)|lenses]]. In this manner, at the end of the 19th century, the product range included [[eyeglasses]], microscopes and binoculars, as well as [[Movie projector|projector]]s, [[camera lens]]es and [[Diaphragm (optics)|camera diaphragms]].
<gallery>
File:The American monthly microscopical journal (1883) (17536609574).jpg|Microscope, 1883
File:Universal Microscope, Bausch and Lomb, c. 1890 - Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) - DSC06400.JPG|Universal Microscope, Bausch and Lomb, c. 1890
Image:Optic Projection fig 169.jpg|Bausch & Lomb Convertible Balopticon projector, c. 1913
</gallery>

===Expansion of production at the beginning of the 20th century===
With the growth of the US army, under President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and the buildup of the naval fleet, Bausch & Lomb received the commission, through the supplier [[George N. Saegmuller|Saegmuller]], to manufacture high-precision lenses for optical measurement and founded a [[joint venture]] with Saegmuller. At the same time as this new expansion, a research department with five members was started to develop new products and improve old ones. A new alliance with the Zeiss company in Germany ensured competitive advantages for the three participants, Bausch & Lomb, Saegmuller and Zeiss, in terms of patent use and opening new markets.  In 1902, William Bausch, the son of the founder, developed a process to create the desired lens shape directly by casting molten glass. Previously, the glass parts for the lenses had to be separated, ground and polished in a complicated process, and this brought significant savings in time and materials.

The company produced the first optical-quality glass in America during the early to mid-1900s. By the year 1903 the company began manufacturing microscopes, binoculars, and [[camera shutter]]s.

===The First and Second World Wars===
The further development of the firm was affected by political events. Because of the World Wars and the consequent need for optical instruments such as field glasses, [[range finder]]s, camera lenses, binocular telescopes, searchlight mirrors, torpedo tube sights, and [[periscope]]s, the product range could be considerably broadened. Until [[World War I]], optical glass and the instruments made from it (including many military instruments) were often imported into most European and North American countries from Germany. The same was also true of chemical products and laboratory equipment. The outbreak of the war, with Germany's new enemy status, created a scramble to rapidly enhance the domestic industries.<ref name="PopSci1920v96n2_BLadvert">{{Citation |author=Bausch & Lomb Optical Company |date=February 1920|title=The end of a foreign monopoly (Bausch & Lomb Optical Company advertisement) |journal=Popular Science |volume=96 |issue=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9CkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PP2 |postscript=.}}</ref> In 1933, Bausch + Lomb started to honor outstanding high school science students with the Bausch+Lomb Honorary Science Award. In the 1930s, military products represented 70% of total production. The [[Ray-Ban]] brand of sunglasses was developed for pilots in 1936.

===After 1945===
At a time when the cinema was being superseded by television, Bausch & Lomb developed improved optics for the [[CinemaScope]] process, which popularized the film-based [[anamorphic format]] and led most cinemas to double the widths of their screens.

In 1965 Bausch & Lomb acquired the patent for the hydrogel contact lenses created by Czech scientists [[Otto Wichterle]] and [[Drahoslav Lím]]. In 1971, after three years of development work, two years for the medical approval by the United States [[Food and Drug Administration]] and an investment of three million USD, Bausch + Lomb launched [[contact lens]]es made of [[Polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate|Poly-HEMA]]. In contrast to the contact lenses previously available, made of glass and Lucite ([[acrylic glass]]),<ref>[http://www.luciteinternational.com/ Lucite International]. Retrieved on 2013-08-23.</ref> the new lenses were softer. They were marketed under the brand name "Soflens".

In the 1970s, the company was a major producer of [[spectrophotometry|spectrophotometers]] for the dye and chemical business, such as the [[Spectronic 20]].

A massive restructuring of the company began in the mid-1980s. What had been the core divisions, the production of lenses for various purposes, were sold off. The sunglasses division was continued as [[Ray-Ban]] and kept selling well due to effective [[product placement]]. By the planned acquisition of other firms, such as Polymer Technology Corporation and Dr. Mann Pharma, existing business areas such as contact lens production were strengthened and new ones were initiated.

In 1997, as a result of a series of company acquisitions, the division for the manufacture of surgical products was established. The [[Ray-Ban]] brand was sold in 1999 to the Italian [[Luxottica]] Group.

===Company developments in recent years===
Since then, Bausch & Lomb has developed into a globally operating company which is one of the largest producers of contact lenses. As of 2022, about 12,900 employees in approximately 100 countries work for the firm.<ref name="sec10k2022"/>

Competitors in the international eye care products market are [[Johnson & Johnson]], [[Allergan]], [[Alcon]], [[Merck & Co.|MSD-Chibret]], [[CooperVision]], Menicon Co., [[Hoya Corporation]], [[EssilorLuxottica]] and [[Carl Zeiss Meditec]].<ref name="fortune"/>

In 2023,  Bausch + Lomb Corp announced it would it would buy [[Xiidra]] from Novartis  for $1.75 billion and pay additional $750 million in linked to future sales for Xiidra as well as two pipeline asset.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-06-30 |title=Bausch + Lomb to buy Novartis dry-eye drug for $1.75 bln |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/bausch-lomb-buy-dry-eye-drug-novartis-175-billion-wsj-2023-06-30/ |access-date=2023-06-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-06-30 |title=Novartis Sells Eye Drugs to Bausch + Lomb for Up to $2.5 Billion |language=en |work=Bloomberg.com |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-30/novartis-sells-eye-drugs-to-bausch-lomb-for-up-to-2-5-billion |access-date=2023-06-30}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''Chief executives'''
|-
! Name
! Title
! Tenure
|-
| [[John Jacob Bausch]]
| President
| 1885–1926
|-
| [[Edward Bausch]]
| President
| 1926–1935
|-
| M. Herbert Eisenhart
| President
| 1935 – December 1950
|-
| Joseph F. Taylor
| President
| January 1951 – November 1954
|-
| Carl S. Hallauer
| President
| November 1954 – March 1959
|-
| William W. McQuilkin
| President
| March 1959 – May 1971
|-
| Jack D. Harby
| President
| May 1971 –
|-
| Daniel G. Schuman
| CEO
| – April 1981
|-
| Daniel E. Gill
| CEO
| April 1981 – December 1995
|-
| William M. Carpenter
| CEO
| 1996 – June 1998
|-
| Ron Zarella
| CEO
| 2001–2008<ref>{{cite web|url=http://readwrite.com/2012/05/03/10-executives-who-lied-on-their-resumes-and-2-who-got-away-with-it|title=10 Executives Who Lied On Their Resumes - And 2 Who Got Away With It - ReadWrite|date=3 May 2012}}</ref>
|-
| Gerald Ostrov
| CEO
| 2008 – March 2010<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archive.boston.com/business/articles/2010/03/15/new_ceo_chairman_appointed_at_bausch__lomb/|title=New CEO, chairman appointed at Bausch & Lomb|first=Ben|last=Dobbin|newspaper=Boston.com|date=15 March 2010|via=The Boston Globe}}</ref>
|-
| [[Brent Saunders]]
| CEO
| February 2010 – August 2013
|-
| [[Joseph C. Papa]]
| CEO
| May 2016 – March 2023
|-
| Brent Saunders
| CEO
| March 2023 – present<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/bausch-lombs-ceo-inks-first-big-deal-since-return-5f2ec13 |title=Bausch + Lomb's CEO Inks First Big Deal Since Return |date=30 June 2023 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |last=Hopkins |first=Jared S.}}</ref>
|}