The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-06-14
ARTIFICIAL EYES.
The Art Of Making Them Resemble
Their Human Patterns-Match
in Shape and Color.

Germany leads all other countries il
the manufacture of artificial eyes
The American consul general at Co
burg relates that probably ever since
the beginning of the world civilized
people have endeavored to hide OF
remedy any flaw in their appearance
such as the loss of an eye would
cause. How this was done by the va
rious nations it is hard to say. Up tt
the present time no discoveries have
been made that would offer enlighten
ment on this subject. There are, it is
true, few unauthenticated accounts
as far back as the middle ages, bu1
the first reliable report is given by the
French surgeon, Ambrose Pare, in
1860.
| Two kinds of artificial eyes were
known to him, the ekblepharos anG
the hypolepharos. The ekblepharos
was made by painting the eye and al
surrounding parts as far as the brOWs
on plate, which was placed in front
of the eye socket and held in position
by string tied over the head. The
Ihypoblepharos was used in manner
similar to that of today, being put be
hind the eyelid, in the eye socket it
self, and was composed of a metal
shell OF copper, silver or gold, covered
with enamel and glass fusions.
1t was only at the close of the eight
eenth century that these artificial eyes
really became of practical use, it being
then found possible to do away with
the metal shell altogether and employ
enamel and glass. The material used
was soft lead glass, easily shaped,
but also easily destructible, and an
eye had to be renewed every three or
four months to prevent the socket
from becoming affected.
1t is known that in the middle of the
nineteenth century eyes were made
|by enamelers in Dresden, Prague,
London and Stockholm and in Thurin-
|gia The Thuringian makers were not
|enamelers, but glassblowers working
in connection with porcelain paint
ing industry, whose endless and I'M
firing experiment resulted in the dis
|covery of an ideal material, cryOlite
glass, the use of which led to new
technique in eye manufacture. More
over, there can now be produced all
the characteristics OF the human eye
which had been possible in enamel
work. The new prosthetic eye received
the name reform eye" To be of
value, however, it must be made to
exactly fit the eye socket.
Today it is possible to give to the
reform eye any form and color de-
sired, and in most cases it can be
even worn at night, thereby prevent
ing the lid from sinking into the sock
ct and the lashes from sticking to-
gether. At times attempts have been
made to replace the breakable glass
by vulcanite or celluloid, but such eff
forts have long since been given up as
useless.
In 1852 the method used in France
for making eyes was as follows: On
the broadly pressed end of small,
colorless, transparent rod of enamel
the pupil was first made, and the iris
was then formed on this by means of
a small, thin pointed, colored enam-
eled rod, the designing of the iris be-
ing made possible by melting the,
point of this rod
In Paris the good eyes are now SO
made. A glass tube, closed at one end
and of the color of the sclerotic, is
next blown into the form of an oval,
and in the middle of this hole is
melted, the edges of which are round
ed off evenly and pressed little out
ward The iris is then placed in this
opening and we'll melted in. A thick
coating of glass remains behind. The
eye is rounded off, the projecting rim
of the white coat is smoothed with a
metal rod and this coat is thereby
joined to the sclerotic. BY means of
thin, pointed red rod the blood vessels
to be seen on the hard coat of the
human eye are then melted in. The
superf1uous back part OF the eyeball is
melted off, thereby giving to the eye
the desired form. The eye is finally
placed on hot sand, where it becomes
gradually cooled off.
Glass eyes are made in quite diff
ferent manner in Lauscha, the center
of this industry in Germany, where
their manufacture is altogether
house industry. The e.s.s are usually
made by one member of a family and
the art is handed down from one gen.
Grafton to another. A gas flame is
used for melting the glass. A small
drop of white glass is put on the white
blown ball from which the sclerotic is
to be made and is then blown so as to