The history of Progressive Addition Lenses on Wikipedia really sucks, its thin and really vague. I know some of you were there first and second hand. I don't know if Dave Ripps still posts on here (I didn't see him in the members list) but his father Irving developed one of the first No-line bifocals in the 1950's. Any good history out there that isn't well known about Progressives, and should be?
You da man. I'd love to read your history.
How many of you remember the Grolman fitting device for taking measurements?
Probably the best site on the web is http://www.dickwhitney.net/AOFirsts.htm. Dick has done a marvelous job and this site is very extensive.
D Baker, that and the handcrankers site you had were some of my favorite reading back in the day. Dick Whitney was the man. I now follow Darryl Meister's papers and other optical news that seems relevant.Originally Posted by rbaker
Wesley S. Scott, MBA, MIS, ABOM, NCLE-AC, LDO - SC & GA
“As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” -Albert Einstein
A concise history can be found in the OptiCampus.com course on progressive lenses.
Wikipedia is not particularly good site to use for facts about spectacle lenses, historical or otherwise.
Best regards,
Darryl
Darryl J. Meister, ABOM
I know that's exactly my point... but there has never been an extensive history done on Progressive Lenses, their development and advancement. I am hoping to capture some history before some of these pioneers retire, or pass, many of them are still with us. The Opticampus history is concise, but too concise, its only one step better than Wikipedia.
What about Zeiss' advancements in the early 80's with improving binocular symmetry? I don't think many people know that Zeiss led the effort during that period to make Prog. lenses Asymmetrical to make vision more symmetrical. Its a huge advancement, among others, that should be noted on a historical timeline. I was fortunate to meet the head Zeiss Progressive designer in the mid/late 90's and he told me about Zeiss' efforts to minimize/balance distortion in the soon to be released Gradal Top by redesigning the soft-focus area that were also revolutionary at the time. The Gradal Top was the first 4th generation lens, but there are only a handful of people who knows what that even means anymore.
The Comfort was enormously successful, because its was the first adaptive design where the design adjusted with every add power increase. Again, not told, nor well known, yet historical.
Minkwitz's theorem was studied (and proven within 2mm of Umbilic) by Jim Sheedy, but we don't know ANYTHING about Minkwitz himself? He was probably German, but where was he employed? Born? Was he a physicist who wore progressives and had a hard time adapting? You probably have access to German materials that would contribute to knowing his history a little.
Irving Ripps of Younger Optics with his No-Line Blended lens in the early 1950s preceded Essilors Progressives, but how much did his work contribute to the next step? Dave Ripps his son, used to post here, maybe they have both memories and documents outlining the lens and its development? Stories his dad shared? Does Dave still post?
Darryl, you have done a lot of research. What historical information have you uncovered that is unknown? You, Mark, Robert and Steve were in the heart of Sola when I first met you in Petaluma, I think in the mid/late 90's. That was a historical time on its own, you were part of optical history (and still are). I have heard some stories from Mark recently that should be written down about creating the VIP using a TRS-80 and the drama.
Dick Whitney is still the man. He has access to most of the AO historical archives and is actively working to restoreThe Optical Heritage Museum in Southbridge, MA.
AO's best!
Also, I believe that the "2C Optics" lens was the first commercially available Free-form Progressive in the US, also lost to history.
2C lenses were interesting and I hoped the company would be successful. Their PAL lenses, to the best of my knowledge, were injection molded lenses. The company used a gasket-mold system to fabricate the lenses. Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Jenean
The first progressives i ever made was in the early 1960. My dad and i would calculate the surface curves and by hand fabricate a cam about 24 inches long. The cam would guide a panograph machine which in turn would guide a lathe, therby simulating an x, y,z machine, before electronic and computers did such things. This lathe would cut a ceramic block, which i would have to smooth out by hand. Then a lens would be put on the ceramic block and go through a rotary oven with perhaps 100 stations and slumped through a vacumn, all done in a room with sweltering high temperatures, so the lenses would have less chance to be subject to a cool breeze that could crack all the lenses as they cooled down.
After doing this my dad would scream at me to go clean the glass centrifuges filled with ground glass reduced to a mudlike gray substance..all containing heavy metals residue, leads, ect.
i dont like to go back in my memory much to those days...but this thread intriged me.
dave
Dave, I am glad you are still here. Your dad was a legend and if you want to share any more info like that you will never bore me!
Thanks for the great info Mamamia! And Welcome to Optiboard! Great first post!
Well, OptiCampus is at least two steps better than Wikipedia, if you consider accuracy. Case in point, Howard Beach invented the first blended bifocal lens in 1941, 14 years before Norman and Irving Rips invented a similar lens.
And their section on progressive lens history was obviously written by someone who simply regurgitated a few entries from a equally poorly researched textbook. For instance, Duke-Elder is mentioned as an early inventor of progressive lenses because someone misread someone else's interpretation of a statement made by Duke-Elder regarding a progressive lens that was available at the time.
Remember that Varilux Infinity and Essilor Adaptar actually utilized design by add power variations prior to Varilux Comfort.
That honor would probably belong to Carl Zeiss Optical, which introduced Gradal "Optimized Surface Design" progressive lenses with an atoric-like back surface that was produced using special generators in 1993.
Keep in mind that, while Jim Sheedy did a very nice job presenting a refreshed look at this topic to a relatively new audience, Minkwitz's theorem has been well-described and well-understood for many years. It is fairly a straightforward mathematical consequence of smooth surfaces when you force a line free of surface astigmatism to increase in mean curvature.
I could ramble on for hours regarding the history and evolution of progressive lenses, but I suspect that only about 3 other people would really care. Still, I may commit some stuff to paper at some point this year, if for no other reason than to record a truly accurate discussion of the topic for posterity.
Best regards,
Darryl
Darryl J. Meister, ABOM
Thanks for your response.
Funny, I searched for some verification on Stewart Duke Elder for hours and could not verify the Wikipedia entry what-so-ever, but its repeated about 20 other places now. It made no sense why a Scottish Ophthalmologist would sell progressives in Montreal Quebec in 1922. Of course I wasted 2 hours finding out what you already knew.
Thanks, I could not find an official release date for the Adaptar, its not mentioned in any Varilux history at all. the Infinity was known as the VMD as well, correct? Do you know what year was the Adaptar released?
Was the OSD lens available at all in the US in 1993? There was a long history of lenses launching in Europe well before they hit the States. I didn't know of the Gradal Top before 1999 . The Zeiss Individual was not available through any of my sources until 2000 direct from Germany, it was a great lens though. But from old price lists I don't have a mention of an OSD lens at all, nor did my Zeiss rep mention it at the time. Please update me with better US Launch dates, in addition to the German launch dates someday if you find the time. But right now I have the Gradal Top in launching in the US 1999, the Individual at 2000, what became known as the "i" and "i Short" in 2003, from my old paperwork. Although Zeiss walks away from the "i" name later for some reason, and starts calling it the Individual again at some point.
In 1996 "2C Optics" was the first company to use the name "Free-form" here in the US, and at the time make the claim as the first US lens with a backside Add, although Seiko had one in Japan in 1993. I believe 2C was purchased by Rodenstock very shortly after their launch, and that lens merged to become the Multigressiv 2, I think in 2000 with a full backside Add. I only saw the Multigressiv 1 available in 1997, but it had a split add. Is all that correct?
I had to depend on Jim's work, I couldn't find a complete copy of Minkwitz's work in English, only German, although I found English summaries. I also could not find any information about Minkwitz himself, what he did, where he worked, when he was born and died. If you have any history of him as person it would be great.
As you can see from Wikipedia, a complete and correct history would be very valuable, and a first. Count me in if you ever get a chance, I think there are more than 3 of us. I am doing an early time line I will post here, for your perusal. It would be helpful at some point to create a technical advancement time line, ie, when each lens generation launched and what it brought to the market someday.
It would be remiss of me not to mention Werner Koeppen's excellent website regarding the history of progressive lenses, www.wernerkoeppen.com. Although it is a bit heavy on Essilor content, there is still a lot of good information available there.
Best regards,
Darryl
Darryl J. Meister, ABOM
Thanks, I just found that slightly before you mentioned it, I have another source to post as well. Werner has some PDF files in German that I can't read as well.
'Understanding Lens Surfacing' by Brooks has a small bit about the history of progressives, but a very small bit. I remember AO's progressive work in the 60's that I seen at Southbridge while working there and later visits. AO's work helped set the path for today's progressives. Dick Whitney would know more about this than anyone.
Last edited by Jacqui; 07-02-2013 at 03:31 PM. Reason: Added, Multiplied, Deleted.
Didn't AO invent the progressive back in the 1920's?? I think I remember seeing a photo of the lady that they were giving credit to for inventing it (maybe on Whitney's site).
Dr. Estelle Glancy invented one of the earliest single-sided progressive-like lens designs in 1923, although it was never launched commercially.
Best regards,
Darryl
Darryl J. Meister, ABOM
I found this great history written by Bernard Maintenaz himself, its probably the best single history written. In it mentions that many of the people mentioned are lost to history, re their background etc. If he couldn't find out the details probably no one can.
Interestingly he never mentions Dr. A. Estelle Glancy once, but I went through both Bernard's and Estelle's patent applications for progressives and her's seemed promising than his, her's seemed closer to the Varilux 2 than the 1. Of course Bernard solved the problem of how to actually MAKE progressive lenses. But she was 35 years ahead of her time! Great job Estelle!
http://www.optiker-peter-tewes.de/br...-maintenaz.htm
Much of the first section seems to come from AG Bennett's old article, "Variable and Progressive Power Lenses," originally published in Manufacturing Optics International in 1973. It was probably the most complete history of progressive lenses up to that point, although there were one or two minor discrepancies (in particular, regarding Gowlland). Maitenaz wrote a great article on the history of the development of Varilux lenses, "Four Steps that Led to Varilux," originally published in the American Journal of Optometry in 1974. Both of these articles are required reading for the serious progressive lens designer or optical history buff.
Best regards,
Darryl
Darryl J. Meister, ABOM
Thankfully, I have seriously ambitious type A librarian that loves challenges.
Infinity (VMD) = 1988
Adaptar = 1992
Comfort = 1993
Yeah, Duke-Elder just wrote about the fact that such a lens (Gowlland's progressive lens) was available, but someone later attributed the actual invention of Gowlland's progressive lens to Duke-Elder. This misinterpretation has then been promulgated as fact for many years since.
The US patent application was filed in 1993. I believe that it was made available locally in North America by 1994. Of course, the lenses were manufacturered in Germany and the ZEISS brand was still relatively niche at the time, so they were not selling like hotcakes over here or anything.
If I recall correctly, 2C's original system was a cast-to-Rx process that did not involve real-time optical design or free-form fabrication. I believe that they didn't get into what we now refer to as "free-form" technology until they got involved with Rodenstock in 1999 (a company that had been pursuing free-form technology in Germany alongside Carl Zeiss). And, as far as I know, 2C held no patents on free-form technology. But I'd have to dig through my old files to say for certain.
Beyond publishing a mathematical relationship inherent to surfaces with an umbilic, and a couple of patents for aspheric lenses, I'm not sure how much Gunther Minkwitz really contributed to the optical industry. Even referring to this relationship as "Minkwitz's theorem" has only really become common since Sheedy's article was published. For instance, John Davis referenced this relationship in his article, "Aspheric Lenses: What's Possible and What Isn't," published in 1978, but doesn't actually refer to it as "Minkwitz's." Several other authors have also referred to it indirectly over the years.
Best regards,
Darryl
Darryl J. Meister, ABOM
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks