Recent history

[dbracer]

I'm writing a bit of free lance stuff for the general public. Magazine stuff.

I'm looking for the following:
1. Some hx on how the recent detailed aberration science and analysis got started in the spectacle industry, especially PA's.

2. What companies initiated it? Was Physio the first commercially successful movement in that direction? Was there a specific individual who said, "...wait a minute. Why aren't we taking this stuff more seriously like some other industries."

3. Why was the spectacle industry so slow in jumping to better science and production in these matters.

4. Some comparison of the production of the several of the top end free form producers of PA's...say maybe Zeiss, Verilux, Shamir, Hoya ...etc. What are the intricacies of the digital numeric design and porduction and the subtle differences therein.

Can anyone tell me where to look.

dbracer

[rbaker]

Depending how far back you want to go you might start out with the work of Dr. Edgar Tillyer, Estelle Glancey and others at American Optical in Southbridge, Massachusetts.

http://www.dickwhitney.net/AOHistoryLensDesigners.html

You will also find many interesing archived work at the Rochester Institute of Technology which contains additional AO material and< of course, Bauch & Lomb.

Also check out Zeiss in Europe. I'm not too familiar with these resources but perhaps someone here can cite some material for you.

[Chris Ryser]

3. Why was the spectacle industry so slow in jumping to better science and production in these matters.

Can anyone tell me where to look.

dbracer

The optical industry has been limping behind others for years, and have picked up long used techniques from mainly the electronics industry and hailed them as the latest inventions, llike in coatiings as AR and hydrophobics.

[dbracer]

Depending how far back you want to go you might start out with the work of Dr. Edgar Tillyer, Estelle Glancey and others at American Optical in Southbridge, Massachusetts.

http://www.dickwhitney.net/AOHistoryLensDesigners.html

You will also find many interesing archived work at the Rochester Institute of Technology which contains additional AO material and< of course, Bauch & Lomb.

Also check out Zeiss in Europe. I'm not too familiar with these resources but perhaps someone here can cite some material for you.

rbaker,

That's a pretty good source of ophthalmic hx. Thanks. Is there anything that hits the current era say.... 80s, 90s, and 00s?

Respectfully,
dbracer

[rbaker]

Yah, but its all from the marketing department. You will be hard pressed to find science.

[dbracer]

Yah, but its all from the marketing department. You will be hard pressed to find science.

Good Point. I hadn't reviewed very well.

Thanks,
dbracer

[beagleman]

Yah, but its all from the marketing department. You will be hard pressed to find science.

Dick, you put it in a nutshell. Where I work, we've dispensed over 800 Varilux Comfort lenses in the last year and almost 500 Definitys. So, if you were a car dealership, you would be trying to sell customers the 1995 Camry instead of the 2010 model? Well, in the optical business, we keep selling the 1995 model lens mostly because of marketing. We are the leaders in keeping people in an old comfortable pair of slippers, who cares if they need more arch support....

[Darryl Meister]

You cannot have a true "high-order" wavefront correction in a spectacle lens. It is mathematically impossible without introducing significant aberrations away from the center of the lens. I would recommend reading the following article, particularly pages 22 through 26:
Progress in the Spectacle Correction of Presbyopia