Zenit Prisma Carl Zeiss, belonged to Charles Le Baron Goeller, circa 1910

Zenit Prism, produced by Carl Zeiss around 1910, and owned by Charles Le Baron Goeller.

This Zenit Prism could be installed on most refracting telescopes made by Zeiss to allow for more comfortable observation.

In fact, the diagonal mirrors and prisms are responsible for reflecting the image 90º upwards, preventing the observer from twisting their neck during observation.

It is therefore an accessory created to allow the observer a comfortable and prolonged view.

Charles Le Baron Goeller was born on February 21, 1884, in the Bronx, New York. His father, Christian F. Goeller, supported Henry George in his campaign for mayor of New York City in 1886. George ran as the United Labor Party candidate and narrowly lost to Democrat Abram Hewitt in a close race that also included Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt, who came in third.

Goeller worked in the New York banking industry until 1906, when he founded the Henry George Tract Society. The Society's goal was to keep Henry George's ideas at the center of public debate through the publication and free distribution of pamphlets. Although documentation of the Society's printing in its early years remains patchy, Goeller stated that it printed over 1.4 million pamphlets between 1932 and 1954.

In 1910, Goeller moved to Endicott, New York, where he purchased a weekly newspaper called the Union-Endicott News from his uncle. In 1915, Goeller launched the Single-Tax News, published weekly under the title "Justice the Aim, Taxation the Means."

In addition to his publishing activities, Goeller was a lecturer at the Progress and Poverty Lecture Bureau, author of numerous pamphlets on the single tax, and an active member of the New York State Single Tax League.

References:

"Advertisements", The Single Tax Review (September-October 1913), 58.

Goeller to Mr. Rees, 16 November 1954