The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-15
HOW EYEGLASSES ARE MADE.
They Are Ordered in These Days, and
People Are Measured.
From the Now York Sun.

1t is only within the last ten or fife en-
years that the oculists have entirely sue
ceeded the opticians in the work of
measuring the human eyes for eye
glasses. Twenty-Five years ago an ocu-
lists prescription for pair of glasses
was almost unknown in New York, the
selection of glasseS being made almost
entirely by the opticians.
Now all tirst-class opticians bear the
same relation TO the oculist that drug
glsts DO TO physicians; they fill prescrip-
tions only. This has been brought about
more than by anything else, by the inven-
ton, or perfection, of the opthalmascope
by Helm COLI. It's use has specialized"
the eye, as the SCENTS say, to such de-
gree that man which business it is to
make glasses, cannot possibly do that and
also keep up with the procession of those
who are burning the midnight oil in the
study OF basal optic ganglion, optic Chi
asm, Commissure of the optic nerve sty-
iommatophora and thalamencephalon.
The optlcian sticks 10 his lens, and that
gives him plenty to do. He must know
all about the incident and emergent parts
of a ray of light as they are affected by
pieces of glass, and not by the eye. He
must be line mechanic. capable of max
ing by prescription, glasses in which are
observed all that the oculist prescribes as
to double-conveX, double-concave, plano
convex, plano-Concave, concave-convex,
and all those sorts of things He knows
that heoculist, in examining the patients
eyes, has used an apparatus by which he
may have detected variation of l-l44 of
an inch from an exact circle, where an
exact circle should have appeared in the
construction of the eyes, and equally
exact apparatus for the detection of other
variations, and prescribed 10 manner to
remedy those variations. So TIL optician
must be equally exact in his work.
The filling of these prescriptions is the
work OF artisans, who correspond to the
chemists in the drug stores. They follow
the oculist's figures relating to axis,
planes, convexes, concaves, sizes, and
shapes, as the chemists observe the pro-
portion OF drugs called for, and with
equal accuracy. They first fasten a square
Of glass on the end of tool, take it to an
other tool, which looks like a saucer
rapidly revolving, and rough grind the
glass. This saucer is selected by pre-
scr1ptlon, as it has the curve called for.
lhls glass Is ground on both sides as re-
CURED, first with rough emery. then fine
emery, and at last, for the polishing, in
iron rouge, paste which seems to be
made of lmpalpably fine iron ore powder
Even the polishing must be done so as
not to disturb the eXactness with which
the glass has been shaped, so the polish
ing cloth is fiattened on the revolving
tool, preserving the degree of the curve
desired Then the glasses are taken by
other men, who, still working by prescrip-
ton, fit the lenses with regard to the
angle of the axis called for. So the work
proceeds, until the finished pair of
specs" or nose pinchers, is turned over
to the patient, accurate in every measure
ment, and adapted to remedy the imper-
lection discovered by the oculist.
nnl KT iyore III al -
nowadays not under the direction OF the
oculist is the adjustment of the pince-nez.
Big and little, pug and aquiline, long and
short, fat and thin noses must be equally
suited by the spring connecting the two
lenses, and in doing that the opticians
clerks TRY on" the glasses to the pa
TENTS nose as dressmaker tries on
GOWN.