The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1911-06-16
ARTIFICIAL EYES.
The Art of Making Them Resem-
BILE Their Human Patterns.
MATCH IN SHAPE AND COLOR.

| They Fit the Eye Socket Perfectly and
May Even Be Worn During Sleeping
Hours--Made of Glass, For Which
No Substitute Has Yet Been Found.
| Germany leads all other countries In
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 or
remedy any flaw In their appearance,
such as the loss of an eye would
cause. How this was done by the va
rious nations 1t is hard to say. Up to
the present time no discoveries have
been made that would offer enlighten-
ment on this subject There are, It Is
true, q few unauthenticated accounts
ms far back as the middle ages, but
the first reliable report is given by the
French surgeon Ambrose Pare in 1ooo.
Two kinds of artificial eyes were
known to him, the ekblepharos and
the hypoblepharos. The ekblepharos
was made by painting the eye and all
surrounding parts as far as the brows
on a plate, which was placed in front
of the eye socket and held In position
by string tied over the head the
hypoblepharos was used in q 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
zenith century that these artificial eyes
really became of practical use, 1t 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 destructibie, and ar
eye had to be renewed every three oil
four months to prevent the socket
from becoming affected.
1t is known that in the middle Of thu
nineteenth century eyes were made by
enamelers in Dresden, Prague, Londoi
and Stockholm, and In Thuringia. Th
Thuringlan makers were not enamel
ers, but glassblowers working In con
nection with the porcelain painting In
dustry, whose endless and untirinf
experiment resulted In the discovery
of an ideal material, cryolite glass, tn
use of which led to a new techniqu
In eye manufacture. Moreover, Their
can now be produced all the charae
teristics OF the human eye which ha
been possible In enamel work. Th
new prosthetic eye received the nam
reform eye" To be OF value, how
ever, 1t must be made to exactly 4
the eye socket.
Today 1t is possible to give to the re
form eye any form and color desired
and In most cases 1t can be even worl
at night, thereby preventing the II,
from sinking into tho socket and tn
lashes from sticking together. A
times attempts have been made to re
place the breakable glass by vulcanit
or celluloid, but such efforts have lonl
since been given up rs useless.
In 1852 the method used In Franc
for making eyes was as follows: o.
the broadly pressed end of a small
colorless. transparent rod of enams
the pupil was first made, and the III
was then formed on this by means 0
a small. thin pointed, colored enamele
rod, the designing of the iris bein
made possible by melting the point G
this rod.
In Paris the good eyes are now s
made. A glass tube, closed at one en-
and of the color of the sclerodc,
next blown into the form OF an ova
and In the middle of this a hole
melted. the edges of which are round
ed Off evenly and pressed a little out
ward. The iris is then placed In TIL
opening and well melted in. A thicl
coating of glass remains behind. TIL
eye is rounded off, the projecting rin
of the white coat is smoothed with
metal rod. and this coat is thereb.
joined to the sclerotic. BY means of |
thin, pointed red rod the blood vessel
to be seen on the hard coat of tn
human eye are then melted In. TIL
superfluous back part Of the eyeball
melted Off, thereby giving to the ey
the desired form. The eye is finall
placed on hot sand. where It become
gradually cooled off.
Glass eyes are made in quite n di1
ferent manner in Lauscha, the cente
of this industry In Germany, wher
their manufacture is altogether
house industry. The eyes are usual
made by one member of n family, an
the art is handed down from one ger
GRAFTON to another A gas fame
used for melting the glass. A smal
drop of white glass is put on the whit
blown ball from which the sclerotic 1
to be made and is then blown so as {
make circle about eight millimeter
W.315 Inch, In diameter. On this eli
Gle the structure of the iris is built b
means of variously colored glass rods
A drop of black glass makes the pupi
Over the finished iris crystal glass
melted in order to initiate the cornei
The further manufacture is similar
that given In the first description.