The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-21

which speCtacies are handed down from
the older 10 the younger members as the
latter grow up to the glasses.
AruncIai eyes were huUWn long before
spectaCIes were discovered. IHey have
been round ON the faces of Egyptian
mummies- literally ON, Tor the eyes were
pasted onto Tho face and not inserted
u the vYe-sccKet. 1ne prucJICa was 10
paste tine halt OI marine onto "a pieCu
OF tlesh cOiOrrd CloIh. Tie marble was
then painted 10 resemble an eve, and
the whole was pasted onto the face over
the vacant eNc-soCket- one well may
imagine lHat tne result was not entirely
artistic. but inc mumn1es 90 not APP
pear dissatisfied with the artificial OPP
TICS. Gold eyeDails came later and these
were IN Turn followed Dy glass Is ee. Inc
art of making artificial eyes mas pro
crossed So greatly tnal opticians can now
supply eyes WhlCn the vearer may move
IN his mead ul manner perfectly nat
urdl. tt Is reliably stated that there IS
living in New York a man who has worn
q glass eye for thirty years, during which
Ume he has married and become the
father Of five children. and neither the
wife nor children know h4 was NOT born
with the two eyes he wears. He has
new one put i'm every few years i'm order
90 keep up tine perfect resemblance to
his natural eye
There are two classes of artificial eyes.
those kept in stock and those made TO
order. The former are made largely IN
Germany. and the ant Is confined 60
down from father To son. frequently as
many as ten genera tiOus passing without
q break iH the line of eye-m8keTs. The
mada-tO-Order kind are found I'm this
country as well as iu Europe. The patient
goes to the shop and sits by while the
artisan fashions AN optic which is ain exact
match for the natural eye IN size and
cOloring. IT makes 1t from a small glass
tube. and sometimes it requires a half
dozen attempts to get a satisfactory re-
suit. When the work IS done the patient
pays from S25 to SO for the Job.
Ii is said that one person out of every
three hundred wears q glass eve. OF
course these are not evenly distributed
the population. There are
said to be families in which husband wife
and two or three children have them.
The optical people declare Americans to
be largely "a gray and biUe-eyed race, but
admit that the iuflug of immigrants from
southern Europe is beginning to show
most percepubly i'm the darkening OF the
nations eyes.
Color blindness is one of the strangest
conditions of the eye with which the eve
specialist has to deal Try as he Will
he cannot formulate q fully satisfactory
definition of the cause of this ailmeut
Yet il is conceded to he growing more
prevalent as the years 20 by. Railroads
make particularly careful tests to ascer-
tain the existence of color blindness IN
their operating forces. This defect of
vision has sometimes played embarrass-
ing tricks on its victims. A story is told
of grave old Quaker official in the days
in which knickerbOCkers were worn. who
came TO the meeting house one day wear
ing scarlet hose. The congregation, of
course, were shocked. And matters were
made worse when tine wearer Indignantly
denied that he had on any other than the
regulation gray
One of the latest ideas in the optical
world is a nickel-in-the-slOt spectacle
vendor. Tt is intended to save the time
Of the salesman and to aid i'm a careful
selection EnnpTErlgE
toner drops his coin in the slot a pair
Of glasses come out. IF they suit him
the transaction is completed. If they
do not, there is another slot into which
they may be put which in turn releases |
another pair. In this way the customer
may take as much time as he desires
in the selection of his glasses without
feeling that he Is taxing the patience Of
the salesman. 1t is said that many cases
of injured sight that have been brought to
attention of Oculists recently have come
from looking at moving pictures. although
1t is believed it is possible to make the
moving picture harmless in this respect
The eve is the most perfect camera in
existence. 1t is not so quick as the best
that man makes, some of which can fix
the image of a lightning flash in a way
the eye has never beheld it. yet for adapt
ability and for taking an endless array
of pictures on the same plate IL stands
unaUprOached by anything man has ever
devised. 1t Is a camera no larger than
a marble It's Photographic plate is no
larger than a quarter. Yet on its surface
It has 131.00000 nerves. or wires" and
$4,000 600 little rods and cones which serve
rs stations on telegraph lines to the brain
The moment q ray of light strikes one
of these little stations a speaking aC-
count is telegraphed to the brain. over
a private wire. Each station makes its
own report. all of the 137.Og 600 wires pass /
ing to the brain through a cable no larger
than a slate pencil There the entire
1370990oo reports are woven into a single
story, and that story is what we think we
sec.
Copyright. 1909 by Frederic J. Haskin)
TnmnrrnN-Amarican Seed Trada