JFK's Glasses with AO Executive lenses and the letter rec'd by AO on the Day of his Assassination!
JFK's Glasses with AO Executive lenses and the letter rec'd by AO on the Day of his Assassination!
JFK's Glasses with AO Executive lenses
Thanks for sharing Dick……………Originally Posted by rbaker
Executives were the successor to the old Ultex lenses with a straight line and full field near vision and clear view of the full desk.
They were the royalty of bifocals for many years, a little heavy but we sold them to whoever needed glasses for work, and nobody cared for the visible line that often got very dirty if not cleaned properly.
Then came the ST 35 which is still the best for working close up, that many years later. I still wear them and love them even if everybody swears and screams for progressive lenses which I only wear, after my third Scotch at cocktail hour, so the distorted parts wont bother me..
For you old guys:
Ultex, as I remember learning in the '80's, was a one-piece, back surface, hemispherical segment, and I believe only on glass.
I also seem to remember that the seg gave some major BD prism effect. And that it was a square blank, probably from being crimped into four pieces.
What was the appeal of the lens, vs, say a fused front surface seg? Cost?
Was the lens ground in plus cylinder form (meaning toric curves on the front surface, not plus cylinder notation)? That would be a biyatch.
As I recall the Ultex lens was designed to conserve glass during WW2 as you could make two (or four?) bifocals from one blank. Yes drk, it was not a great design but was from a day and age when our country was at war we were all expected to sacrifice and do our part.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 08-26-2015 at 12:56 PM. Reason: tweak...
Two pieces, it was ground and polished on a large 80-85 mm lens blank, then cut in half. Phillips Lens was the last manufacturer up until about 1980 or so.
Most one-piece, or Ultex, bifocals have their segments on the ocular surface of the lens. The add power in these lenses is obtained by surfacing two spherical curves on the back of the lens blank, one for the major portion and another on the segment and then cutting the resultant blank in half resulting in two semi-finished lenses.
Executive Kurova M, Dualens and some cataract Ultex bifocals have their segments on the front surface of the lens. They are exceptions to the general statement that one piece of bifocals have their segments on the back of the lens. In such lenses the increased power of the segment is obtained by surfacing a stronger plus curve over the segment area than that on the major portion of the lens.
In addition to bifocals, Ultex A and Ultex B were available in trifocals.
Indeed, the Ultex lens exhibited much base down prism which was an advantage in reducing image jump in higher plus prescriptions. Of course, all cylindrical correction was ground on the plus surface of the lens which probably contributed to its demise as most lens surfacing switch from plus side two minus side surfacing.
Yes, the ultex A was available as a trifocal, known as the Ultex X, a strange looking beast. B&L had a panoptik version known as Ultex K. ( I believe I have a SF blank stuck back in my box of dusty stuff) I was really glad to see ultex fade away! A real pain to surface the front.
Sorry the thread about JFK's Execs was hijacked.
The advent of the fused bifocal lenses lead to the demise of all plus surface fabrications. Those who used Ultex lenses in the early sixties usually had B&L surface them as they were still grinding plus cylinders, AO had switched all od their machinery and tooling to minus cylinder surfacing. It was a great lens for the hyperope who did a lot of close work. It was lighter than the Exec and there was no "ledge" to chip.
By the way, whatever happened to image jump?
Recently went to visit the Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, Mass. On display was his specialty Ultex bifocals set in a tortoise p3 frame (maybe by Art-Craft). The bifocals were set in vertically so he could look to the left and see distance then look back through the bifocal to his art work on his easel. Very interesting.
And we know what his Optician (OD?) looked like!!!
Thanks, guys, for the trip into the past...
Great read, thanks for sharing it.
This was originally done at the Harvey & Lewis Guild Opticians in Hartford, CT. H&L is still around and is still a family-owned business, having expanded to (I think) 9 locations.
And we know what his Optician (OD?) looked like!!!
Caroline, L.O.
If you suffer from severe nonlinear waterfowl issues, you don't have your ducks in a row.
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