The Adair County news., 1911-08-30
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.

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 it is hard to say. Up to
the present time no discoveries have
been made that would offer enlighten-
ment on this subject. There are, 1t is
true, a few unauthenticated accounts
as far back as the middle ages, but
the first reliable report is given by the
French surgeon Ambrose Pare in 1860.
Two kinds of artificial eyes were
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 a 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, 1t being
then found possible to do away with
the metal shell altogether and employ
enamel and glass. The material used
was a 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 Thuringia. The
Thuringian makers were not enamel
ers, but glassblowers working in con-
nection with the porcelain painting In
dustry. whose endless and untiring
experiment resulted in the discovery
of an ideal material, cryOlite glass, the
use of which led TO q new technique
in eye manufacture. Moreover, there
can now be produced all the charac'
teristics of the human eye which had
been possible in enamel work. The
new prosthetic eye received the name
reform eye" To be of value, how
ever, it must be made to exactly fl
the eye socket.
Today it is possible to give to the re
form eye any form and color desired
and in most cases it can be even worn
at night, thereby preventing the Lid
from sinking into the socket and the
lashes from sticking together A
times attempts have been made to re
place the breakable glass by vulcanitt
or celluloid, but such efforts have Ions
since been given up as useless.
In 1852 the method used in France
for making eyes was as follows: Or
the broadly pressed end of a small
cOlorless. transparent rod Of ename
the pupil was first made, and the iris
was then formed on this by means o.
a small. thin pointed, colored enamele(
rod, the designing Of the iris bein:
made possible by melting the point o.
this rod
In Paris the good eyes are now 81
made. A glass tube, closed at one enc
and of the color of the sclerodc, i.
next blown into the form Of an oval
and in the middle of this a hole /:
melted, the edges OF which are round
ed off evenly and pressed little out
ward. The iris is then placed in thi
opening and well melted in. A thicl
coating of glass remains behind Tn,
eye is rounded off, the projecting rim
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,
superfuOus back part Of the eyeball il
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 il quite diff
! ferent manner in Lauscha, the centel
of this industry in Germany, wher,
their manufacture Is altogether :
house industry. The eyes are usual.
made by one member of family. ant
the art is handed down from one gen
Grafton to another. A gas flame il
used for melting the glass. A small
drop of white glass is put on the whit,
blown ball from which the sclerotic Il
to be made and is then blown so as t,
make circle about eight millimeter
! (O.315 inchl in diameter. On this cir
Gle the structure of the iris is built b.
means of variously colored glass rods
A drop of black glass makes the pupil
Over the finished iris crystal glass il
melted In order to initiate the cornea
The further manufacture is similar t,
that given in the first description.