The start of a general plate measuring facility at ESO was made in 1974 with the purchase of an OPTRONICS S-3000 machine placed at the ESO headquarters in Geneva. The facility was complemented around 1977 by a one-dimensional GRANT Series 800 Comparator previously used by ESO Santiago and finally by the acquisition of a PDS 1010A microdensitometer installed in 1979. After the ESO headquarters were moved to Munich in 1980, the measuring machines were reinstalled in the basement close to the ESO plate vault. Due to the declining usage of Coudé plates, the GRANT machine was taken out of service in 1988.