# Optical Forums > General Optics and Eyecare Discussion Forum >  You Know You've Been Around Too Long If . . .

## Andrew Weiss

You know you've been around too long if:  :Rolleyes: 

 -- you have an AO Red Dot screw extractor -- and you know what it is and when you got it!
  -- you learned how to edge on an AO Trimatic edger.
  -- you can score and hand-crimp a glass lens and get a ringer (and you know what a ringer is).
  -- you used hair spray to adhere the extruded chucks to the lens.
  -- you used suction cups for blocking and considered that an advanced innovation.

 These ones are from Uncle Fester and Andrew.

 Please add your own. ;)

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## Spexvet

-- you did finishing lay out with a protractor, and thought a projectomarker was a Godsend.

-- you felt that the LEAP pad system was an innovation.

-- you'd rather drill the "semi-rimless" lenses, rather than figure out how to use that new-fangled groover.

-- you remember actual sand or salt in the frame warmer.

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## Chris Ryser

> *You know you've been around too long if:*


Dead wrong..........................If you guy's have been around that long it is NOT too long.........it is that we have followed the evolution from primitive to modern.How about nutralizing lenses without a lensometer............with trial lenses? And then marking them for cut and grind.

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## Jacqui

> How about nutralizing lenses without a lensometer............with trial lenses? And then marking them for cut and grind.


Gee, Chris, I thought I was the only one that remembered how to do that.

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## Spexvet

How about presciptions chiseled on stone tablets?

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## omisliebling

> [/left]How about nutralizing lenses without a lensometer............with trial lenses? And then marking them for cut and grind.


How the heck does that work ???  EXPLAINATION please  :Confused:

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## Chris Ryser

> *How the heck does that work ??? EXPLAINATION please*


*Neutralizing a lens without a measuring device* 

Article by Chris Ryser (Dec 10,2004)



In the old times when there were none of our todays fancy analyzing instruments that look at a lens and printout the result, the optical industry had to use the manual way of neutralizing a lens to define its power, center and axis.

In Europe Opticians used lensometers already in 30s while in England they were Neutralizing lenses until the late 1050s.



Here is how to do it:



Look through a lens at a line.move lens up and down or side ways.



If object line appears to go against movement it is a + lens.

If object line appears to go with movement it is  lens



Look through a lens at a line.rotate lens to right and left



If object line appears to move against or with rotation you have a plus and  minus cylinder which are exactly at 90 degrees from each other.



Make marks at 90 degrees on a spherical lens and were the lines seen through the lens and the actual line meet (cross), and that is you optical center.



Make marks on the edge of a cylindrical lens while rotating the lens were the line seen through the lens and the actual line meet. Do the same aty 90 degrees and draw the cross line with a marker. You now have the optical center where the 2 lines cross and you have the position of the 2 cylinders (+ or -) reading.



*Defining Power Of The Lens*



The only tool needed is a set of trial lenses as used by the optometrist or the ophthalmologist in the refraction room.



*Spherical lenses*



As the lenses have been marked with their optical centers and cylinders we now can proceed to neutralize verify the power of the lens. We will assume as an example, that we have 2 spherical lenses of 2.00D one in + and in ,



Again look through the lens at the line and move it along the marked line and you will have a countermovement in case of a + line. Now you take a  trial lens of 1.00, hold it onto the lens to be measured and you will see the countermovement to be much less. Take the next lens in .0.25 steps or as required until there is no more movement and you have arrived a plano (no more power = Neutral) 



The -lens  you have used to neutralize the power at  plano is the reciprocal power of you plus lens. Result + 2.00.



The same procedure applies for the minus lens by using plus diopter trial lenses.3


*Cylindrical lenses*



Here again you will have to follow the same rule with the trial lenses. We will assume you are using a +2,00D sphere with a -2.00D cyl lens.to make it simple.



The already at 90 degrees marked lenses are rotated against our established black line. You now will have to neutralize both values as before with the spherical trial lenses for each of the 2 marked line crossing at 90 degrees. When the movement stops you are at plano and the lens used, again is its reciprocal value.



You will have used a 2.00D lens to neutralize the sphere and a + 2.00 lens the  2.00D cylinder for an RX of:



+2.00 D  -2.00 cyl   at  180 degrees



or plano  + 2.00 cyl at  90 degrees



You can now progress to mark the lenses for cut and grind on the protractor and have made the job like they did in the old times.

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## Rich R

How about using green pitch and a gas flame to block glass lenses and rocking cylinders on by hand so they don't chip.

Those were the good old days.
Rich R

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## Chris Ryser

We used to heat the plastic Zyl frames over the flames of a bunsen burner yo get them soft before inserting the lenses. 

The ols Zyl frame were made from celluiloid and highly flammable and caught fire once in a while and you had to blow out the flames very quickly. Usually there was just some surface damage which could be corrected by sanding, filing and polishing on the buffer.:D

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## Jacqui

I repolished way too many.

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## hcjilson

Anyone remember making Temporary Cataract lenses. Carriers were either plano or cylindrical in power. Buttons ranged from +10 to +15or 16.(momory fades!) Buttons applied with pitch after carrier was heated over an alcohol burner......watch out for the first below freezing day.....many button's came off! :)

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## Billy Brock

We used Titmus Kryptok oil as a flame retardant during pitch blocking and zyl frame warming.    :)

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## Jacqui

We used bifocal cement to glue the buttons on.

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## Chris Ryser

> *Anyone remember making Temporary Cataract lenses. :)*


Used to go to the hospital and fit the poor patients with their first cataract glasses. They had been operated and had to lie there without movement for a week got the temporaries when leaving hospital and then came back to the store a few weeks later for a permanent job made in small pantoscopic metal frames.

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## chip anderson

Can you remember when you never saw a man who needed a hair cut unless he was a drunk from the very backwoods?
You never saw a man with a beard unless you went up into the most rural areas of mountainous southern states, or visited the Pensylvania Amish?
When all women wore bras and usually a girdle whether they needed either or not?

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## ziggy

...but I guess I am. Myo-disk in crown glass, when chem-treaters where a new thing. And along Chips line... remember when you could watch prime-time TV with out seeing butts/boobs or hearing "bad" words.

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## arman61

I am about to go crazy. I just started in this industry and I know nothing. When I realize how much you guys know I lose hope. I really do like my job and I am learingin alot as I go along, however there some stuff that you almost never experince. Therefore you dont learn them as you should. like the techniques used to determine the power the lense back then. I kind a did understand it however there are some points that I need to try to understand them. 
Stuff like that makes me think how long more should I be learning and studying to be a master optician. 
Wow:drop:

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## Spexvet

> I am bout to go crazy. I just started in this industry and I know nothing. When I realize how much you guys know I lose hope. I really do like my job and I am learingin alot as I go along, however there some stuff that you almost never experince. Therefore you dont learn them as you should. like the techniques used to determine the power the lense back then. I kind a did understand it however there are some points that I need to try to understand them. 
> Stuff like that makes me think how long more should I be learning and studying to be a master optician. 
> Wow:drop:


Don't sweat it. I never learned to crank a car to start it, and I do just fine driving around. My kids don't know about "dialing" the phone or how to work a record player, and hopefully, you'll never have to learn how to do most of the things posted here. The funny thing is that There are people out there that feel the same way about computers and new technology as you feel about old processes.
:cheers:

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## CME4SPECS

> We used Titmus Kryptok oil as a flame retardant during pitch blocking and zyl frame warming.    :)


That Kryptok oil was great stuff. When we ran out of it we'd send a newby to a local competitor to borrow some!

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## Jacqui

Arman61

It took most of us many, many years to get here. Don't give up it really is fun (I think). Some day you'll be talking about those D----D patternless edgers and progressive lenses.

P.S.  I've been in the business since about 1969

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## chip anderson

Lensometers have been around a long time.  But before that, you could use a lens bench (a meter stick with mounts for lenses).  You neutralized the lens until you had a focal lenght of one meter and subtracted or added the powers of the trial lenses needed to accomplish this.

Chip

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## Shutterbug

I didn't have hair on my right arm until water based generator coolant came along!  Generators would burn photograys, and the oil would catch on fire, and burn the hair right off in a small explosion!  LOL   those were the good old days all right!


shutterbug

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## Chris Ryser

When I was an apprentice one of my daily chores was to replace broken hinges on zyl frames. You would push out the pins and put in new rivets for the rplacement hinges.

My boss was a screw fanatic and would not let me use rivets. I had to make threads into the hinge holes and then insert the stainless screws and rivet them.. After that, file off the screw slots, sand them and polish them to a high gloss.

The bad part about it when the customer came back 6 month later with another broken hinge iy was a major job to remove these screws.

In these days we used to tell the customers if they were left or right handed, because the right handed poeple always broke the left hinges or vice versa.

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## Uncle Fester

I remember when Phillips head screws were an innovation! My first phillips head screwdriver was given to me through my employer from Charmant. It had a wood handle and lasted for years! Well, come to think of it maybe there were'nt that many phillips head screws in those days (late 1970's)! To this day I consider them a mixed blessing. They may save you from jamming a flat blade into your finger but they seem to strip the head so much easier!

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## chip anderson

Don't know how long they have been in eyeglasses but they were on care door handles and other interior trim in the 1940's.  I don't remember seeing all the special heads they have in construction screws (torrx,  Square, etc) for power drivers until recently though.

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## Andrew Weiss

Early days of CR39 tinting:

-- using RIT dye from Woolworth's;
-- using antifreeze as the heat transfer fluid in tinting unit

Frame quality:

-- 30 years ago the oil embargo's saw production of gold fill and gold plate metal frames all but disappear.

Edger coolant: antifreeze as well :D

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## Bev Heishman

You have a Grolman fitting device in the closet and a Marine Tech frame or two and maybe even a few Bal Rim 51's tucked away.

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## Chris Ryser

As of 1956 we used to make hidabevels for minus lenses by handgrooving 2 grooves by hand on a small ceramic stone on a rimless bevel 3mm apart and mounted them into plastic or metal frames for an extra charge.

They actually looked better with no reflection from the grooves as you get today from the automatic edgers.

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## Shutterbug

> As of 1956


Ok Chris - now you're just showing off  LOL  :cheers:

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## Chris Ryser

> *....................now you're just showing off LOL* :cheers:


I looked at your profile shatterbug and it say's + 30 years. I am a little ahead with + 50 years, therefore I should have some more grey hair.:cheers:

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## hcjilson

I started off running errands in my dad's shop in 1954.....but they wouldn't let me near a wheel until 1959!
Blue stone-white stone......diamonds hadn't appeared in western mass yet!

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## Andrew Weiss

I started in my Dad's office in 1960 earning my allowance making all the single-vision lenses for his patients.  I graduated to bifocals in 1962.  We had an AO Trimatic edger and the "modern" AO cutter, with suction-cups for mounting -- quite an innovation back then.  The "lab" was the back closet where the air conditioning unit was. My Dad kept the Trimatic in his basement for many years after he moved his office and no longer had a lab.  He asked if I wanted it and I had nowhere to put it so he got rid of it  :cry:   Wish I'd had room.

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## Chris Ryser

> *Blue stone-white stone......diamonds hadn't appeared in western mass yet!*


Harry, what color was the diamond you had to true the blue and white stone?

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## Shutterbug

Dang!  I'm just a kid!   LOL


Started 1972

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## CME4SPECS

Remember when we use to have to put a pattern on the edger to edge a lens? And we took a pd with a ruler! 
How about the days when an optician was a trained individual that actually knew how to make and fit a pair of glasses!

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## For-Life

I had an ED trifocal walk into my store the other day.  First time and probably last time I will see one of those.

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## Eddie G's

LOL good one CME4SPECS!!!
I can relate to those one's.

Started 1992

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## Chris Ryser

> *...................... I graduated to bifocals in 1962. We had an AO Trimatic edger and the "modern" AO cutter, with suction-cups for mounting -- quite an innovation back then. ................................*


Actually I started in 1954 doing my 3 years of apprentiship. I did all the things I mentioned in my previous postings and a lot more. By 1961 as a full fledged optician I had sold hundreds of pairs of progessive lenses in the retail, made only by SL (ESSILOR today) at the time.

I could actually write a book having sold and made glasses for King Bhumipol of Siam, a race car fan (Thailand), The old Ex-Queen of Spain, The old Aga Khan (special story), The old King Farouk playboy of Egypt, and many more, just because I worked in a place were all these at the time famous and rich circulated. If you ask me nicely I could write up my story and expirience about the old Aga Khan, who was paid his weight in diamonds every 2 years. He must have been at least 200 Lbs when I saw him last and his wife the Begum was a beautiful slim looking woman.

I have been there, long time ago, but learned a lot of it and from all of them.

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## Chris Ryser

The first company to come out with plastic lenses that I know of, was in England in the mid 1950's. Called Igard......so were the lenses.

The material was so soft that they continiously scratched by just looking through them. Igard supplied a polishing liquid, slightly abrasive and we used to sit for hours with a cotton swab rubbing and ploishing by hand. Of course the optics of the lenses did not improve.

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## Andrew Weiss

Chris, what you brin gup reminds us that we have many interesting stories on our board.  I'd be glad to read yours  -- especially, where did you work that you had access to the SL progressives and ILite lenses in the late 50s early 60s?  I worked in mid-Connecticut and we saw neither:(

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## Jacqui

I seen he first pair of plastic lenses in 1969. I had managers and lab foremen from all the local labs watching me edge them, it was the first pair any of us had seen. I think they were AOlites. This was before hard coating and the only way we could protect them was by using masking tape on plus and minus surfaces.

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## Chris Ryser

> *..............................I seen he first pair of plastic lenses in 1969.*


What we worked withy in the 50 I think was some type of plexglass, anyhow that what everybody said. We had to order the Rx'S finished mounted. Only when CR39 arrived one could work it in a normal optical lab.

*CR39 came out in 1947 and celebrated 50 years in 1997:*

*CR39® Monomer*

Plastics made from CR-39 allyl diglycol carbonate monomer combine the optics of glass with excellent mechanical, thermal, and chemical resistance properties of a thermoset material.  CR-39 monomer is used for casting plastic lenses for prescription eyewear, sunglasses and other plastic products requiring eye abrasion resistance and high quality optical properties.  Lenses from CR-39 monomer give less chromatic aberration as measured by Abbe number than polycarbonate lenses.  

The history of CR-39 monomer is told in excerpts (see links) from PPG's commemorative booklet, "More Than Meets the Eye: The Stories Behind the Development of Plastic Lenses," written by Joseph L. Bruneni and published in 1997 during our 50th anniversary celebration of CR-39 monomer.

You can see all about the old and new monomers on the following PPG link:

http://corporate.ppg.com/PPG/optical...ts/default.htm

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## Chris Ryser

> *............................. I'd be glad to read yours -- especially, where did you work that you had access to the SL progressives and ILite lenses in the late 50s early 60s?*


Andrew.................it's been a long road so far........and I should get the guts together and write a book, like you did.

Here is the link: http://www.beginningmindfulness.com/pages/1/index.htm
You seem to have been successful, and I congratulate you.

Your right there would be lot of expieriences and inexpieriences to gather on the Optiboard and write about it.

As for your question in short, I got born into the optical trade. Father had one of the larger optician stores in Switzerland. There was also an optical instruments (microscopes -geodesical) , ophthalmological instruments, manufacturing of orthoptic and pleoptic instruments and a camera department. I had some good training and learning to do in all the parts of the business, which has given me good background knowdlege for the rest.

I did an apprentiship of 3 years in Lausanne on Lake Geneva in an optical business were all the European old royalties, kings, ex-queens got their glasses from. I got to know and work on glasses from the old ex Queen of Spain to Charliy Chaplin just about everybody of name and fame at the time, (while making $5.00 per month/ $ 10.00 second year / $ 20.00 third year).
After that I took courses in ophthalmic optics in London for a few years. While doing above I also became pretty fluent in the French and English while having a Swiss-German background.

The first and longest reigning SL president Mr Cottet and family were close friends of our family since I can remember. Therefore my father who then was vice-president of the Iinternational Opticians Association was one of the first to try out Varilux lenses outside of SL, We started to sell them to the public very successfully around 1957-58. SL used to give courses in every larger town teaching opticians how to, and to whom to sell as well as to whom NOT to sell progressives.

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## Shutterbug

> Andrew.................it's been a long road so far........and I should get the guts together and write a book, like you did.


 Maybe we could do an on-line book.  Start with a table of contents and just fire away with our memories  ;)  (Before they're completely gone, that is)

Shutterbug

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## Chris Ryser

> *Maybe we could do an on-line book. Start with a table of contents and just fire away with our memories ...........................* 
> *Shutterbug*


Shutterbug, you got a point, but would we be making a buck out of anotherwise maybe bestseller ,on-line? Every movie company would steal the ideas and you would see yourself on a sit-com at 8pm and which would suddenly be the a success, and you could not collect a royalty for selling a progressive on the screen to some old lady with a 8mm height and she could not read anything?

The idea is fantastic but...................never on line. A ghostwriter would have to do it.

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## Uncle Fester

We flatter ourselves if we think an online book would become a runaway bestseller or even a successful sit-com! We're OPTICIANS not actors or writers! The producers of say "CHEERS" were not bar owners. I say Go For It!! I suggest a new thread for a new on line Book! One of the chapter's to be titled My Most Embarrassing Moment, but I'd insist on anonymity! Can we do that in this forum? Mine involves many years ago supergluing a frame to a patients----well let's just see what you think:)

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## Chris Ryser

> *...........................One of the chapter's to be titled My Most Embarrassing Moment, but I'd insist on anonymity! Can we do that in this forum? .............*


It could be posted here but would have to be published elsewhere..........or it will not become a book. Would have to be posted here and then copied to a permanent separate website. I could come up with a solution.
Will make a proposal over the next few days.

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## Shutterbug

Sure, we'll miss out on the royalties (LOL)  but just think of the money we'll make on the late night talk TV circuits  :0)


shutterbug

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## Jacqui

Let me know when this is available, I want my lab rats to read it.

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## Fezz

You know you've been around too long if......someone in the lab yells "hear comes an executive!" and you knew it wasn't the smooth talking, well dressed, "yes" man who was always stopping buy! I am only 33, but I can remember working in the lab as a teenager and having the pleasure of having to facet and drill all of those damn Elizabeth Arden, Avante-Garde, and Tura rimless jobs that the dayshift was so thoughtful to leave for me! Executives and executive trifocals in a facet drill mount were my specialty! Oh, and the glass drill jobs...talk about time consuming!

Fezz 
 :cheers:

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## Chris Ryser

*For all you guy's and girls who want an on-line book* 
I have set up a an independent page within the shell of my website which has one of the best traffic ratings of all important optical websites i know of: I am only listing the first three but have checked them all. Traffic rating is by ALEXA and the PR rating is by GOOGLE and can be seen by downloading and using their toolbars. Best traffic rating is 1 (Yahoo is a one) 

*No 1 optical website on internet is the OPTIBOARD site with an Alexa rating of 91,762*  



*No 2  optical website on internet is the OMS Optochemicals site with an Alexa rating of 114,096*



*No 3*  *optical website on internet is the ZEISS site with an Alexa rating of 115,293*Fast crawling and indexing of the page is just about guaranteed by the success of the whole site. 
You can see the modest start by going directly to the page there a no links at the time). The address is http://optochemicals.com/memories.htm (is now up and running ) So now you can make suggestions, improvements, like it, not like it, like it or whatever. It can be done, or it can be deleted by pressing a button. 

Best regards, 
Chris Ryser

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## Jacqui

Thank you, I'll have to get my notes together.

P.S. Thanks for mentioning me on the site   ;)

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## Shutterbug

> I have set up a an independent page within the shell of my website which has one of the best traffic ratings of all important optical websites i know of: I am only listing the first three but have checked them all. Traffic rating is by ALEXA and the PR rating is by GOOGLE and can be seen by downloading and using their toolbars. Best traffic rating is 1 (Yahoo is a one)


 I can see that this is going to be a real project  :0)

 Thanks for the start, Chris.   I think it may work.  How to submit ideas will have to be worked out, and which to include in the book and in what order as well.  This could be fun!  I hope there is involvement by all!

 shutterbug

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## Uncle Fester

Here's my start-http://www.optiboard.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=89630#

Edit and contribute at will!


Introduction: So you think it's easy to make a pair of eyeglasses. Think again! 
Chapter Suggesstions:

How to make glass- Fractured Fairy Tales 


Early Days- The Greeks were on to something!


Fundamentals of Optics- Gauss is a 5 letter word!


All things Prism here- It sounds and seems worse than it is!


Humorous Stories from the Front Lines-

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## Uncle Fester

Still working at making this work! Sorry I'm not computer savvy enough yet. Do we need endnotes if we use others reference? Fester

HISTORY

"In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.... and God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genisis 1:3).

The name of the world's first Optician who probably took a peice of volcanic produced glass, realized its refractive properties, then made some people see better is lost to history.

Over millenium of time secret societies and/or Guilds were formed to keep this discovery secret and therefor more profitable.

The charge of heresy during the Middle Ages and its punishment of burning at the stake undoubltly surpressed advances in optical science!

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## Joann Raytar

> I didn't have hair on my right arm until water based generator coolant came along! Generators would burn photograys, and the oil would catch on fire, and burn the hair right off in a small explosion! LOL those were the good old days all right!
> 
> 
> shutterbug


I did that once. I also set a mid-index lens on fire in a generator. That was still better than cleaning up after poly when it came along. Polycarbonate used to plug up the vacuum hole and cause a geiser of coolant to come out of the top of the boot.

The water caused another problem - the slides rusting together even when you kept the generater greased. A coworker took a sledge hammer to it. I don't think any of the modern lathes would survive that.

Heaven forbid you turned the diamond wheel motor on when someone forgot to take the wrench off after changing wheels. I had a wrench fly of the bolt, hit the plate on a hand wheel and put a ding in it then zoom through the ceiling.

I also found out the hard way that the triangle blades from old aluminum lap cutters will pierce rubbermaid garbage cans.

Lastly, acrylic demo lenses apparently catch on fire in chem-ovens. They also mean it when they say don't get water in chem-treaters.

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## Uncle Fester

A co-worker at a shop I managed by accident put a plastic lens into the Kirk tempering unit. Upon noticing the flames I sprang into action! I turned the timer off so the lens backed out. With the lens burning and melting I thought maybe I could blow it out. Believe it or not from the side of the unit it worked but not before I tried to face on. This to my chagrin blew the fire back into the 1300 degree kiln and caused a mini fireball to explode back into my face. 
My eyebrows eventually grew back.

At a shop near my wife's work a routine solder job turned disasterous when a glass bottle of acetone got knocked off a shelf and broke while the benchman was working with a soldering torch. The fire raced up the wall as everyone scattered (nobody got hurt). The sprinkler system saved the building. Insurance adjusters declared the entire frame inventory smoke damaged and paid the owner. They then threw all the frames out in the dumpster out back.
You bet the owner went dumpster diving!

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## Chris Ryser

How come this thread suddenly died off?

Where are all the funny contributions for the suggested on line book?
:cheers:

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## chip anderson

Chris:  All us folks that _admit_ we make mistakes is used up.

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## Chris Ryser

[QUOTE}

*Chris: All us folks that admit we make mistakes is used up*

[/QUOTE]

Cip,..........This whole thing is not just about mistakes, it is about the old days and the old products and the old way of working............and how we learned a profession, like me making $ 5.00 a month during my first year of apprentiship, $ 10.00 the 2nd year and $ 40.00 the third year.

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## chip anderson

Chris:  Economics like that tend to happen when you work for relatives.  Of course, you probably learned to do things very well.  Some people have to pay for such educations.

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## hcjilson

Chris, that must have been in the days before the punch press! Does anyone still have a punch Plier? You used to have to file the rivet end of the plaque (who remembers that term?)smooth with the top of the hinge, and postition the hole end of the plier over the rivet or plaque.....while not marring the frame!! Glad we don't see anymore of those jobs! :)

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## Chris Ryser

In the midd 1960's Metzler was the first one to come out with hidden hinges. These were the newest thing without pins. Soon after everybody copied them.'

But also those hinges broke..............and opticians told the patients they could not be repaired abd sold them new frames. *NO Warranties then*, you broke and you paid to repair or by new.

We soon found out how to fix them.................

These hinges were glued in under a clear piece of plastic. We ripped out the broken hinge, heated a new one over a gas flame and pushed it into the plastic  which was melting right over it and a new hinge was solid in place. That was a 2 minute job.

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## hcjilson

I saw my first spring hinge in 1959. It was a man's frame called the "Sir Walter". It was Italian and imported by Safilo....(I think the name of the company was different, but later became Safilo) The temple had a channel into which a coil sprint fit. A small ball bearing fit on top of the spring and the trick was to balance it while bringing the front hinge assembly over it, rotating it 90 degrees and trying to align it to get a screw into it. It was while doing this that my first rabbi  (nothing to do with Judaism) Jake Zabecki taught me how to swear in Polish! It was not easy....but did increase my vocabulary!

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## Chris Ryser

I think it was SFEROFLEX. They had temples with a spring in them and could be bent forth and back.

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## hcjilson

Cris, do you remember trying to put one together??????

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## k12311997

> I am about to go crazy. I just started in this industry and I know nothing. When I realize how much you guys know I lose hope. I really do like my job and I am learingin alot as I go along, however there some stuff that you almost never experince. Therefore you dont learn them as you should. like the techniques used to determine the power the lense back then. I kind a did understand it however there are some points that I need to try to understand them. 
> Stuff like that makes me think how long more should I be learning and studying to be a master optician. 
> Wow:drop:


Dude keep the hope, your desire to learn is all you need. I started as a lab tech at a chain with no experience 10 years ago.  Fast Forward ABOC and an Office Manager for a private practice.  I'd be making more $ with the chain but it isn't worth the stress and my hours are almost 9-5 which is important to me and my family. You have chosen a field which is very rewarding, can be a little challenging, and most importantly is a carrer not a job.

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## jediron1

Andrew said:*You Know You've Been Around Too Long If . .*

*You can sing along with the Beatles "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or " You Belong To Me" sung by Jo Stafford or you remember trying to reverse your records to hear the strange sounds or was that the joint you just smoked!*
*Or you were at Woodstock and everybody goes Wood what?*


 :Cool:

----------


## jediron1

You have been around too long if you remember and even worked with ribbon segments or ultex k's or Panoptic bifocals! Wow my head hurts from remembering those Panoptic lenses!  :Cool:

----------


## jediron1

When you can still remember doing glass drill mounts and having them out in less than 5 hours. You young hot shots try drilling a glass lens and get it out with in a 5 hour time span, now that was pressure! :Cool:

----------


## Uncle Fester

Young and dumb at seventeen, fresh out of high school and without a clue as to what to do with my life I took my best friends advice and applied to OSF, Opticians School of Framingham! 
Started in the garage of Bela Biskei (I hope I spelled his last name right) my freshman class of 18 students began our career as opticians in classrooms. Bela as many old time Boston area opticians know owned a contact lens buisness specializing in hard contact lens adjustments. This was the mid 70's when gas perm's and soft contacts were just hitting the market. Bela by the way escaped the Russian tanks as a radical youth and immigrated to America as a Hungarian Revolution refugee in the late 50's. Upon arriving in "The Land of Opportunity" he was surprised at the lack of formal education this country offered opticians. He built from scratch a successful buisness and sought a way to give back to his adopted country something for his sucess. Few schools then and now for that matter offer formal education in opticianry. In gratitude he and his devoted wife Martha (who really ran the school) founded OSF.
The school was in its infancy and trying to gain state accreditation. 
Our first year optic theory course was spent doing lots of mathematics.
We would be given thicknesses and materials of a lens (index of refraction mattered) blank size and base curves and would figure powers and thicknesses from all these formulas I never have used since!
But I think it made me a better optician!
Then there was Gauss!! (I hope I spelled his name right.) This guy I think had way to much time on his hands as he figured "What the heck lets trace a theoretical ray of light through several substances and see where it focuses at 5 decimals points. New York's and I think Forida's exam had a Gauss equation for one of it's questions, so being the complete school OSF strove to be required we learn it. I have never needed to use it since.
But I think it made me a better optician! 
We had to make 10 glass lens jobs by scoring and crimping then hand beveling before we could move on to the automatic edgers. It didn't take long before we realized the final rx should be written AFTER the job was done! Combination prism with different seg heights jobs were common!! Our lab teacher was a retired B+L pro who's skills were amazing. Just by feeling the lens he could tell you its power. Many master benchman on this website undoubtly carry on this ability. I've never scored and crimped since.
But it made me a better optician!
Sixteen of us graduated OSF and took the State board at Worcester Poly Tech in 1977. The Cape Codger himself signed my license!
Time for bed I'll write some more later

----------


## varmint

> Chris, that must have been in the days before the punch press! Does anyone still have a punch Plier? You used to have to file the rivet end of the plaque (who remembers that term?)smooth with the top of the hinge, and postition the hole end of the plier over the rivet or plaque.....while not marring the frame!! Glad we don't see anymore of those jobs! :)


you won't believe I just had one of these repairs this Monday!!! Matter of fact it had red dot screws and took me an hour to locate my ole red dot extrator, and beyond more belief, I even have a couple unused red dot screws laying in the tray.  I was thinking the whole time,I wish I had my digital camera with me today so I could take some photos with step by step of this repair.

----------


## popeyes

How about those first lemay edgers where you would slide a weight along a rod to control the bevel. Of course you had to pick the head up from the flat stone and lay it carefully onto the bevel wheel. And this was a great innovation from crimping. 

I used to do edging for the optometrist back then and they would send only one lens for a half eye. It was cut into two and the optical center line placed at the top.

----------


## Chris Ryser

> .  
> *I used to do edging for the optometrist back then and they would send only one lens for a half eye. It was cut into two and the optical center line placed at the top*.


Those were the old days of glass lenses................you also had to true the ceramic stone occasionally.

Today you can still cut a poly or high index in plastic  in 2, to make two half eyes.
:bbg:

----------


## harry a saake

you have been around when you have cut laps on the old original OLDFIELD lap cutter, used a shuron 173a bowl edger, and made glass 3 piece rimless glasses using the old B@L ceramic edger that edged down both lenses at the same time, at a very slow rate, so they would both be the same size and have nice sharp corners, about one hour per pair

----------


## CDOT

Who _is_ the  oldest of the old timers here? my father (who still works with me in finishing) has been at it for 49 years.

----------


## BucksCoeye

Wow, I've been doing Opticianry since '82 but haven't heard of a ringer on glass?  What is it anyway? Thanks BucksCoeye.

----------


## Jacqui

> Wow, I've been doing Opticianry since '82 but haven't heard of a ringer on glass?  What is it anyway? Thanks BucksCoeye.



Danged kids.

----------


## cocoisland58

Ok, some of you guys are really old.  Though I've been around the biz almost thirty years I never worked much in a surface lab.  The practice I work for however employs the OD's dad in the finish lab.  He grew up in the business and he is in his sixties now.  I am amazed at what he knows and the stories he tells.  I love to pick his brain.  The only thing I can think of that shows I've been around too long is that the frame styles I remember when I started out are coming back, YUCK!

----------


## Uncle Fester

Wow! Iwas just thinking about restarting this thread last night for all the new members to Optiboard!

I remember using a "glass brush" for stuff stuck on glass lenses. Is this still being used by the industry or was it peculiar to the place I worked?

----------


## Framebender

rubber balling glass lenses??

----------


## Chris Ryser

> *12-07-2004, 10:57 AM*


 
Above is the start date of thread.................I just hope that anybody with dementia is not going to post the same old hat he or she did 2 years ago.

:D :bbg: :D

----------


## harry a saake

i,m not the oldest one on the board here in this business, but one of   them at 42 years in the business, started in 1964.

remember being in atlanta , georgia when a salesman from corning heard us talking and asked us if we were opticians, upon repyling yes he said he had the first samples of a lens that would turn dark when exposed to sunlight. we went outside and sure enough it turned.

At B@L where i started, we had an old grouchy generator guy named walt, one of us would distract him, while the other one turned up the thickness wheel, and then watch him blow up the lens, nothing like and old shuron 193b, when that thing blew up a lens the whole floor would seem to vibrate.

----------


## SarahMP584

> Can you remember when you never saw a man who needed a hair cut unless he was a drunk from the very backwoods?
> You never saw a man with a beard unless you went up into the most rural areas of mountainous southern states, or visited the Pensylvania Amish?
> When all women wore bras and usually a girdle whether they needed either or not?


Call me old fashioned...But I am a Southern Girl....Now to quote steel magnolias if I may. "I bet she spent $500 on that dress and didnt have the decency to wear a girdle. I havent left the house without lycra on these thighs since I was 14." "You were raised RIGHT."

I may only be 22, but I totally agree. :cheers:

----------


## mrmac

If you remember,
 Block or script press on initials (Uncle Fester.. I need a script Q in gold)
  or
 Press on Zodiac signs

----------


## Jacqui

I had a nightmare last night, I dreamt I had to crib glass Execs with cribbing pliers like we used to do.

----------


## Dave Nelson

Ah yes, the press on zodiac signs, along with the initials, or hobby ones, like the golfer or tennis raquet.  That was great when you had an acre of lens to work with. What about edge coating? Put a -800 in a "small" 56 mm frame, with a 1.49 index plastic lens, then paint the lens edge the colour of the frame to "hide" it. :D

----------


## motelska

I love reading about the trials and tribulations of the old timers. I just recently started doing opticianry about 6 years ago. I'm 26. I kinda fell into it and I'm always reading how things work and there is not a day that goes by in this field that I don't learn something new. I'll be taking my ABO in May and within the next 2 years I'm probably gonna be going to Optometry school... Trade in my hat. Keep posting... I love reading the stories and if I learn a new skill even better.

----------


## Cindy K

> Ah yes, the press on zodiac signs, along with the initials, or hobby ones, like the golfer or tennis raquet. That was great when you had an acre of lens to work with. :D


Hey Dave, go into the back lab and in the bottom drawer of the tint unit cabinet I think you will find the little brown 'binder' with the pages of these things still there, transplanted from the Tower office. Right about in that same drawer you may even come across the old facet parts box. I think we've kept them knowing that lenses and frames with 'acreage' would return some day. 

Oh, and whilst looking for something in that same drawer not long ago I came across a vial with a couple little 'rhinestones', the kind we used to mount into lenses. Well, peoples, Bling is IN!:D

----------


## Judy Canty

Not only do I have the little brown binders of letters and signs, I have the box of drill mounted deco "charms".

----------


## Uncle Fester

When CR-39 was new you referred to them as "half weights" because plastic held a negative connotation:D

----------


## FVCCHRIS

What an A/o Red Dot is?  Anybody?  I loved them--and hated them:D

----------


## CME4SPECS

> What an A/o Red Dot is?  Anybody?  I loved them--and hated them:D


I have a re dot extractor here that is so dusty, I'm going to rename it a brown dot extractor.

----------


## chip anderson

Anyone remember when:  If you were a dealer for B&L ophthalmic lenses and/or several other opthalmic lines you were entitled to buy one camera or one rifle scope at wholesale a year?

----------


## Jacqui

> What an A/o Red Dot is?  Anybody?  I loved them--and hated them:D


Used thousands of them when I was at AO, starting in 1969

----------


## Dave Nelson

How about Aos "grolman fitting system" for measuring progressives. Big monstosity you clamped to a frame, then turned a bunch of screws, then read you mono pd and hights from it. Loved the ao red dot, people would lose the screw, but the sleeve stayed in for years.

----------


## DragonLensmanWV

> -- you did finishing lay out with a protractor, and thought a projectomarker was a Godsend.
> 
> -- you felt that the LEAP pad system was an innovation.
> 
> -- you'd rather drill the "semi-rimless" lenses, rather than figure out how to use that new-fangled groover.
> 
> -- you remember actual sand or salt in the frame warmer.


I still have some of my old spring-loaded felt blocking holders and my old layout blocker that could decenter a whole 5mm!
And we still use salt in our pans!
And I remember the first time I saw a grooved frame. Someone brought in a frame they had purchased in California. It was a regular bevel mount frame but had about 15m of nylor groove on the temporal side. I think it was an Eastern States frame. We had no groover, so I had to use a slot file to make a groove in the edge. Shortly after that, the Tom & Jerry show (as we called our Logo reps) appeared with groover in hand and the rest is history. I still have patients wanting to get another Epsilon.


Good post,Chris about "shaking out" lens power.
Say, does anyone know how to get the reticle target centered on an old AO Lensometer Jr? The reticle is centered but the light target is about 1D  prism down.

----------


## DragonLensmanWV

> I did that once. I also set a mid-index lens on fire in a generator. That was still better than cleaning up after poly when it came along. Polycarbonate used to plug up the vacuum hole and cause a geiser of coolant to come out of the top of the boot.
> 
> The water caused another problem - the slides rusting together even when you kept the generater greased. A coworker took a sledge hammer to it. I don't think any of the modern lathes would survive that.
> 
> Heaven forbid you turned the diamond wheel motor on when someone forgot to take the wrench off after changing wheels. I had a wrench fly of the bolt, hit the plate on a hand wheel and put a ding in it then zoom through the ceiling.
> 
> I also found out the hard way that the triangle blades from old aluminum lap cutters will pierce rubbermaid garbage cans.
> 
> Lastly, acrylic demo lenses apparently catch on fire in chem-ovens. They also mean it when they say don't get water in chem-treaters.


I can vouch for that!! I dropped a oh-so-slightly damp rack of lenses into the chem hardener once. Took me three steps to reach the sink 30 feet away! Nice combo heat/chemical burn on the side of my thumb.
Once our generator guy put a lens through the window on the old Coburn and embed it in the ceiling. After that, he was a bit leery of loud noises so of course we would sneak up behind him with an inflated frame package and pop it.

----------


## LKahn

You know you have been around to long if you have used a slide rule.

----------


## Scott R

Started in 1995.

Thought time in was determined by how far you could jab a screwdriver into your finger befor you flinch.

----------


## Jacqui

> Started in 1995.
> 
> Thought time in was determined by how far you could jab a screwdriver into your finger befor you flinch.


Danged kids

----------


## Jacqui

> You know you have been around to long if you have used a slide rule.


Still have one, still use it once in a while. :bbg:

----------


## The Mighty Mutt

_Chris, that must have been in the days before the punch press! Does anyone still have a punch Plier? You used to have to file the rivet end of the plaque (who remembers that term?)smooth with the top of the hinge, and postition the hole end of the plier over the rivet or plaque.....while not marring the frame!! Glad we don't see anymore of those jobs!_ 

Actually, I think I might still have one of those animals stashed away!

~TMM

----------


## Shwing

A few of you mentioned slide rules.

Let's be more specific, shall we?

You know you've been around too long if you have used (let alone heard of):

-Empire datum rule
-Willesden datum rule
-Pyle universal rule

or better yet:
-Pulzone/Hardy rule
-Bishop Harman rule
-Rosen rule
-Earjoy rule
-Specangler (no, I did not make that up)
-Fairbanks facial gauge


Or even better still, if you were taught from a textbook that broke down various vocational dispensing consideration based on gender:  
men are:
shopkeepers, gardeners, truck drivers, school teachers, carpenters, Executives (management), musician or dentists.
women are:
housewife, typist/ receptionist, theatregoer, nurse or hospital sister, needlewoman, or socialite...

----------


## chip anderson

Anyone old enough to have seen gasoline fired heater inside an automobile that had to be lit with a match?
And before you ask, I have.

Chip

----------


## rep

In the 40's there was a major optical company in a major city in the South. The owner was a former A.O. manager. 

His requirement for all new employees was..........................

You were given  various narrow strips of gold filled metal - Your task  was to make a frame in a particular eyesize and bridge size. With a saddle bridge by hand. That included forming the temples, eyewire, bridge, hinge, everything. The only other thing given were screws. 

If you did it you were hired if not tough luck.  This has been verified by more than 15 former employees most of whom are still living today.

Rep

----------


## kmc

did you guys have to write with a feather?:bbg:

----------


## hcjilson

> In the 40's there was a major optical company in a major city in the South. The owner was a former A.O. manager. 
> 
> His requirement for all new employees was..........................
> 
> You were given  various narrow strips of gold filled metal - Your task  was to make a frame in a particular eyesize and bridge size. With a saddle bridge by hand. That included forming the temples, eyewire, bridge, hinge, everything. The only other thing given were screws. 
> 
> If you did it you were hired if not tough luck.  This has been verified by more than 15 former employees most of whom are still living today.
> 
> Rep


As of the mid 80's, I was told if you wanted to be licensed in Germany, you had to be able to fabricate a spectacle frame as well.

No we didn't have to write with feathers, but all of our patterns were made of metal, and lenses were edge ground on flat stones (blue and white), and bevels were made by hand. I just read what I've written and can't believe how primitive it was. We SHOULD have been writing with feathers!! :):)

----------


## Jacqui

> In the 40's there was a major optical company in a major city in the South. The owner was a former A.O. manager. 
> 
> His requirement for all new employees was..........................
> 
> You were given  various narrow strips of gold filled metal - Your task  was to make a frame in a particular eyesize and bridge size. With a saddle bridge by hand. That included forming the temples, eyewire, bridge, hinge, everything. The only other thing given were screws. 
> 
> If you did it you were hired if not tough luck.  This has been verified by more than 15 former employees most of whom are still living today.
> 
> Rep


I never had to make a frame for a customer or a job interveiw, but I did make a couple for personal use. Used gold filled wire, the only outside parts were nose pads, screws and temple tips. If I can find them, I'll post pics.

----------


## Jacqui

> As of the mid 80's, I was told if you wanted to be licensed in Germany, you had to be able to fabricate a spectacle frame as well.
> 
> No we didn't have to write with feathers, but all of our patterns were made of metal, and lenses were edge ground on flat stones (blue and white), and bevels were made by hand. I just read what I've written and can't believe how primitive it was. We SHOULD have been writing with feathers!! :):)



Wish I could find one of the old rimless edgers, like you mention. I think they produced a much better job than these new fangled pieces of donkey doo-doo that we have now. We still make a lot of *GLASS* rimless for the Amish and Mennonites and it would be nice to be able to do a better job on them.

----------


## chip anderson

I can remember roughing (Grinding with steel tool, coarse grit) Fining (grinding with finer grit on steel tool) smoothing (grinding with steel tool even finer grit) Polishing with lacquer soaked wool pad pressed and adhered steel pad). Had to true the polishing pads with a piece of hacksaw blade. As well as I remember it was about 10min rough, 20 min fining, 20 min smoothing and about an hour and fifteen minites polishing. Had to keep the polisher (18 spindles on 15 foot machine) refreshed with polish applied with a paint brush.
Surfaces were all checked to neuton's ring accuracy.


Chip:cheers:

----------


## DragonLensmanWV

> you have been around when you have cut laps on the old original OLDFIELD lap cutter, used a shuron 173a bowl edger, and made glass 3 piece rimless glasses using the old B@L ceramic edger that edged down both lenses at the same time, at a very slow rate, so they would both be the same size and have nice sharp corners, about one hour per pair


Heck I still have an Oldfield. I use the generator to make laps now. Anyone want an old Oldfield?

----------


## Uncle Fester

Just wonder if some of the new Optiboard old timers will enjoy a walk down memory lane and maybe want to contribute to this old thread? 

Also some of you youngsters get to see that life in the trenches has gotten better (or worse :D).

----------


## hcjilson

You know you've been around too long if you have ordered lenses in tempross thickness. The first Anzi standards made it mandatory for all glass lenses to have 2.2 center thickness but in 1959 it was a $5 add on.

----------


## harry a saake

you have really been around too long if you can remember the kryptok glass lens being advertised as the first invisible bifocal, well almost invisible

----------


## just eyes

I grew up in the business, my Dad was an optician.  
I emember him opening a store and nailing pegboard into the wall and inserting golf tees to hold the frame.

If a customer wanted a black frame, he grabbed the hinge area with a pair of pliers and inserted a tortise frame into a bottle of ink. 

And way way back, tortise frames were made from turtle shell.  I remember my dad calling plastic frames 'shell'.

You started out in the business in the surface room cleaning blocks and worked your way out front to take of patients.

I remember when we charged $1.00 for case hardening of a glass lens and it was an option.

If you wanted photogray, it had to be an exec or an ultex.  No flat tops.

I met an optician that was trained in France.  To pass his certification, he was given a rx.  He had to grind the lenses and MAKE the frame.

----------


## popeyes

Your first job required you go next door for a bucket of steam or the lead optician asked you to get the lens stretcher.

We edged glass lenses for Optometrist who would supply just one lens for a half eye. We scored and crimped the lens in half on its optical center then placed the centers to the top!

How about hanging weights on the first Lemay edgers to control the bevel?



The good ole' days?  :finger:

----------


## hcjilson

[QUOTE=just eyes;212447]I grew up in the business, my Dad was an optician.  

/QUOTE]

Mine too and his father before him. I am living proof you can make the same mistake in three generations!!:D ( I SAY that all the time but I don't mean it. The Optical business has been good to my family)

I bet no one on Optiboard can match this one.

You know you've been around too long when you can still remember your grandfather in front of the white stone, grinding a watch crystal by hand. Yes folks, when I was a kid, that's what they were made of. When my grandfather left AO he opened an optical shop. To make ends meet he ground watch crystals. His shop was called The Crystal Shop.

----------


## bob_f_aboc

I found this thread while searching for another.  I am absolutely amazed by the skill of the members here.  Does anyone know of an apprenticeship program to learn these nearly obsolete skills? (preferably in TX)  I have been doing this for over 9 years and have become very proficient with modern (1990-ish +) lab equipment and on the sales floor.

Nothing puts me back in place and deflates the ego quite like reading about the "good old days".

----------


## chip anderson

Bob:
List the "nearly obsolete skills" you want to know.   I can probably put you in touch with some people there and I am sure other Optiboarders can help.

Chip

----------


## bob_f_aboc

> Bob:
> List the "nearly obsolete skills" you want to know. I can probably put you in touch with some people there and I am sure other Optiboarders can help.
> 
> Chip


Frame fabricating from scratch, both metal and plastic, proper soldering technique, rather than ordering a new frame under warranty, in general the skills that are not taught anymore when you start out working for a retail giant mall store.

I know that there are books available, but that only goes so far.  I have read how to build a house, but don't think I would attempt it without experienced supervision.

----------


## Johns

> Bob:
> List the "nearly obsolete skills" you want to know. I can probably put you in touch with some people there and I am sure other Optiboarders can help.
> 
> Chip


How to dress for work.
How to spit out your gum before you get there.
How to clean your finger naels.
How to talk w/out saying "like".
How to speak w/o using double negatives.
How to listen to s customer.
How to show up on time.
How to take your time w/an adjustment
How to answer the phone so it doesn't souned like your sitting in a bean-bag chair in your basement.
How to...AARRGGHHH!!!
:hammer:












ok...I feel better now.

----------


## Andrew Weiss

[quote=hcjilson;212492]


> I grew up in the business, my Dad was an optician.  
> 
> /QUOTE]
> 
> Mine too and his father before him. I am living proof you can make the same mistake in three generations!!:D ( I SAY that all the time but I don't mean it. The Optical business has been good to my family)
> 
> I bet no one on Optiboard can match this one.
> 
> You know you've been around too long when you can still remember your grandfather in front of the white stone, grinding a watch crystal by hand. Yes folks, when I was a kid, that's what they were made of. When my grandfather left AO he opened an optical shop. To make ends meet he ground watch crystals. His shop was called The Crystal Shop.


I don't remember that, Harry, but I still have three pliers that my optometrist grandfather used, that he gave to my optometrist father, and that my father gave to me.  They're all Arrow pliers; my two favorites are a needle-nose and a double-round, both far better than anything I see being made these days.

My father was an optometrist; his brother was an optometrist; his sister married an optometrist whose brother was an optometrist.  Family get-togethers were like optometric conventions.

I am the only one in my generation of the family involved in any of the "three O's".

----------


## DragonLensmanWV

> How to dress for work.
> How to spit out your gum before you get there.
> How to clean your finger naels.
> How to talk w/out saying "like".
> How to speak w/o using double negatives.
> How to listen to s customer.
> How to show up on time.
> How to take your time w/an adjustment
> How to answer the phone so it doesn't souned like your sitting in a bean-bag chair in your basement.
> ...


ESPECIALLY - don't not never use no double negatives nohow.

----------


## Uncle Fester

The owner somehow got Polaroid Inc. to give the shop I worked in at that time, as well as several other  area opticals, new polarized in CR-39 lenses. Worked great for a couple months then they ALL delaminated. They went back to the drawing board and made improvements but still some, though not all, had delamination issues. The percentage was low enough to release to the market. Just in time for the 54 eye frame being the "small" style on the board.

----------


## chip anderson

Bob:
I am sure you have noticed that I have been b****** about our "education" and "continueing education"  includes non of this.   Seems almost all of it is on the latest and greatest progressive, or coating.
I have been to a lot of courses on catarct surgery, refractive surgery and the like all of which was neat but virtually useless to an optical dispenser.

I will be happy to share what I know and prehaps we could get in touch with those countries and organisations that still teach opticianry and compile a book, bunch of tapes, CD's, DVD's or something to preserve the knowlege.

Sometimes I think we are in the society presented in Rollerball where only a few corporations have all the knowledge and do everything, present it to the "consumer."  No libraries, no books, only a liquid insane computer storing knowledge.  Everyone else, sells, distributes, and buys period.

Chip

----------


## Jacqui

I'm teaching a young lady (17) now how to do the old time things that I do here, real glass lenses (including drilled and notched rimless), Franklin bi's, high power lenses, frame fabrication, ptosis crutches, etc. In this day and age of instant gratification, she seems to be one of the few that will take the time to do things right and will be one of the good ones in a few years.

----------


## Ginster

> Remember when we use to have to put a pattern on the edger to edge a lens? And we took a pd with a ruler! 
> How about the days when an optician was a trained individual that actually knew how to make and fit a pair of glasses!


Finnaly something I remember, I started in 1983, I hated generating glass, it was scarry to me then.

:cheers::cheers:

----------


## Ginster

> We flatter ourselves if we think an online book would become a runaway bestseller or even a successful sit-com! We're OPTICIANS not actors or writers! The producers of say "CHEERS" were not bar owners. I say Go For It!! I suggest a new thread for a new on line Book! One of the chapter's to be titled My Most Embarrassing Moment, but I'd insist on anonymity! Can we do that in this forum? Mine involves many years ago supergluing a frame to a patients----well let's just see what you think:)


 

To a Patients Eyebrow??? Ouch!!

----------


## Uncle Fester

> I'm teaching a young lady (17) now how to do the old time things that I do here,


How is she related?

----------


## Ginster

1. I did put a lens through a wall once when I first learned on an old Colburn generator, it was plastic, the store in a mall next to a glass walled gift shop, when I guff up, I do it in style.

2. You know you've been around a while when you stick a screw driver through your index finger and the head stay's there when you pull the dang thing out, your finger is so callused from doing it so many times before and you play guitar. Oh and did I forget to mention that the newbee Girl standing next to me passed out and hit the floor, that was funny, she was ok thank God,

3. And yes I did set a Hi-Index lens on fire once and this guy polishing lenses across from me started screaming like a Girl...

Auh yes the good old day's of the early 1980's.

:cheers::cheers::cheers:

----------


## finefocus

> We used to heat the plastic Zyl frames over the flames of a bunsen burner yo get them soft before inserting the lenses. 
> 
> The ols Zyl frame were made from celluiloid and highly flammable and caught fire once in a while and you had to blow out the flames very quickly. Usually there was just some surface damage which could be corrected by sanding, filing and polishing on the buffer.:D


That was cellulose nitrate, the ORIGINAL zylonite

----------


## Jacqui

> How is she related?


 :Confused: 

She's not.

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## Jacqui

> Finnaly something I remember, I started in 1983, I hated generating glass, it was scarry to me then.
> 
> :cheers::cheers:


When I started it was all glass, no one surfaced plastic except in the factories.

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## finefocus

> you won't believe I just had one of these repairs this Monday!!! Matter of fact it had red dot screws and took me an hour to locate my ole red dot extrator, and beyond more belief, I even have a couple unused red dot screws laying in the tray. I was thinking the whole time,I wish I had my digital camera with me today so I could take some photos with step by step of this repair.


Are those the new-fangled Red Dots with the screw slot, or the real ones that needed a Red Dot Wrench?

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## finefocus

> you have really been around too long if you can remember the kryptok glass lens being advertised as the first invisible bifocal, well almost invisible


And for golfers, etc, grinding the front side to make 16mm round segs which were fitted either very low, or only one in the lower temporal corner

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## finefocus

> I never had to make a frame for a customer or a job interveiw, but I did make a couple for personal use. Used gold filled wire, the only outside parts were nose pads, screws and temple tips. If I can find them, I'll post pics.


Never had to fabricate an entire frame, but we did lots of ptosis crutches using real gold-fill (!) metal

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## finefocus

> Andrew said:*You Know You've Been Around Too Long If . .*
> 
> *You can sing along with the Beatles "I Want To Hold Your Hand" or " You Belong To Me" sung by Jo Stafford or you remember trying to reverse your records to hear the strange sounds or was that the joint you just smoked!*
> *Or you were at Woodstock and everybody goes Wood what?*


*Fly the ocean in a silver plane, see the jungle when it's wet with rain, just remember 'til you're home again, you belong to me*

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## chip anderson

Fine Focus:  
You a baby.  When you can sing BlueBerry Hill, Ain't that a shame, Earth Angel, and Bop ting a ling.  Den you be old.
Shoot, I can remember when Fats Domino was selling records faster than Elvis Pressley.
A little later the Coasters had the really cool stuff.

Chip

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## Uncle Fester

> She's not.


No offense meant Jaqui. Just felt like the post was from a proud aunt training the  niece from a much older sister or brother.:)

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## Ginster

When Michael Jackson was normal, or close to it.:hammer:

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## finefocus

> Fine Focus: 
> You a baby. When you can sing BlueBerry Hill, Ain't that a shame, Earth Angel, and Bop ting a ling. Den you be old.
> Shoot, I can remember when Fats Domino was selling records faster than Elvis Pressley.
> A little later the Coasters had the really cool stuff.
> 
> Chip


I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill, on Blueberry Hill, where I found you
The moon stood still, on Blueberry Hill, it lingered until, my dreams came true
Earth Angel, Earth Angel, will you be mine, my darling dear, love you all the time
So Chip-how 'bout those chops?

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## Jacqui

> No offense meant Jaqui. Just felt like the post was from a proud aunt training the  niece from a much older sister or brother.:)



None taken, Fester. 

She's a high school student that just walked into the lab one day and asked for a job. Jobs for high schoolers are very very scarce here, so I gave her a rag and told her to start cleaning. She's up to doing most of the surface work (except write-ups and some blocking) and knows enough finish work to actually help me there. She works 10 - 15 hours a week and gets paid the royal sum of $8.50 per hour. She'll be working full time this summer and hopefully she learn how to do at least most of the more "normal" jobs.

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## Jana Lewis

*You Know You've Been Around Too Long If .....*

*A welsh 4-drop is not a drink served in europe! :cheers:*

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## FullCircle

> None taken, Fester. 
> 
> She's a high school student that just walked into the lab one day and asked for a job. Jobs for high schoolers are very very scarce here, so I gave her a rag and told her to start cleaning. She's up to doing most of the surface work (except write-ups and some blocking) and knows enough finish work to actually help me there. She works 10 - 15 hours a week and gets paid the royal sum of $8.50 per hour. She'll be working full time this summer and hopefully she learn how to do at least most of the more "normal" jobs.


That is so great! Actually learning a career-based skill rather than flipping burgers. Not that there's anything wrong with  burger flipping, it's just not something that you can directly build a career off.

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## HarryChiling

> That is so great! Actually learning a career-based skill rather than flipping burgers. Not that there's anything wrong with burger flipping, it's just not something that you can directly build a career off.


Neigther is ophthalmics :D, wow she's gonna be a real gem if you ever let her go Jaqui.  Watch out Darryl youngest master optician on her way.

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## hcjilson

You know you've been around too long if you can remember looking forward to the monthly issue of "Optical Index" which was our first Trade Magazine!

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## Uncle Fester

> You know you've been around too long if you can remember looking forward to the monthly issue of "Optical Index" which was our first Trade Magazine!


Did you save it so the grandkids can sell it on ebay for a gazillion dollars?:)

Question for Chris Ryser- What was the first  trade publication you can recall?

Can anyone else recall an even earlier one?

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## Chris Ryser

> *Question for Chris Ryser- What was the first trade publication you can recall?*


It is actually the "Swiss Optician" existing since I could not tell you, but I can recall it as young boy. Father used to read it and when I got into the profession I also read it. It is still published in the three official languages.

There where also 2 German magazines one of them an independent publication which was always more interesting than the optical associations ones.



I also remember the Optical Index.....................

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## SarahMP584

> None taken, Fester. 
> 
> She's a high school student that just walked into the lab one day and asked for a job. Jobs for high schoolers are very very scarce here, so I gave her a rag and told her to start cleaning. She's up to doing most of the surface work (except write-ups and some blocking) and knows enough finish work to actually help me there. She works 10 - 15 hours a week and gets paid the royal sum of $8.50 per hour. She'll be working full time this summer and hopefully she learn how to do at least most of the more "normal" jobs.


This is how I got into optical 6 years ago, and now that I am at costco, I know how to do more tricky repairs and know more about unusual segs and glass lenses than anyone there  :Cool:  I am not sure that anyone there has even ever edged a pair of lenses...
I am proud of the calluses I am building on my fingers, it hardly hurts if I get a frame too hot or poke myself with a screwdriver anymore!

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## Jacqui

> This is how I got into optical 6 years ago, and now that I am at costco, I know how to do more tricky repairs and know more about unusual segs and glass lenses than anyone there  I am not sure that anyone there has even ever edged a pair of lenses...
> I am proud of the calluses I am building on my fingers, it hardly hurts if I get a frame too hot or poke myself with a screwdriver anymore!


Good Girl !!  Keep it up and someday you'll know enough to go to work for me :D  I pay $2.00 per hour and all the cheese and coffee you want :D:D

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## chip anderson

Jacqui:  
 I think I remember getting in the optical business at $1.35 an hour (and this was after the plant had unionised) and a nickel extra for working nights.

Chip

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## Judy Canty

My take-home pay in the early '70's was $69.02 per week and I supported myself and my daughter.

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## Jacqui

When I started at AO in 1969 I was paid $2.00 and I supported myself rather well

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## hcjilson

I made the minium wage.in 1959- One dollar an hour! My take home pay was 31.75 after deductions. Out of that I paid my grandmother 10 bucks a week room and board. I was in college at the time,  in the evening division and, there wasn't enough money left over to get into trouble so I managed to spend an appropriate amount of time on studies and did reasonably well academicaly.

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## Uncle Fester

From my co worker- You still have have an AO Grohlman (no h?) Fitter now in the attic!

What pH pV did you get for that AO Quasar? :bbg:

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## wel52

kinda off topic, but got me to thinking...When I was working in the early 70's as an apprentice optician, I worked at a downtown location with about 3 other competitors within a 2 block radius as well as a wholesale lab...all the newbies were sent around the different places trying to borrow a lens stretcher and a quart of panoptic oil...you'd be surprised at what they came back with...

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## chip anderson

When you fit a fourteen year old with contacts and realize you are now fitting her fourteen year old grandaugher with contacts, you've been around too long.

Chip

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## JRS

1965 for me. Although I grew up around the industry before I worked in it. My uncle was an OD (and I could refract at age 10), my grandfather was an OD (mothers side), and both my other grandfather - then my father owned a wholesale lab.

Got $1.00/hour and started with grunt work in the surface room. You learned by spending your spare time working with others. Touched nothing unless the "expert" said you could. You had to know the entire surfacing operation before you could even think about working in finishing (we called it bench work back then).
And yes, I could make a "ringer". It was kinda a prestige thing.

Got married in 1966, and they gave me my first real raise (in their mind it meant I was committed). One year later, after another raise, and I bought my first house - at $100.00/week gross.

Went on to other things starting in 1972 (quit optical and was a police officer in Texas) for 5 years. Then went back to lab work until 1982 when I got into computers - with reference to optical software, as a consultant and program designer. Moved on to manage another lab for 2 years (after 12 with the software) then went to Essilor as a Techncial Services Mgr. moved around in Essilor a bit since i started with them in 1997.

Seen a lot of changes over the 44+ years now.

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## finefocus

You know a Panoptic from a Sovereign, and a Tillyer D from a Kryptok (and you used to front-surface Kryptoks to get 14mm round segs for golf glasses). You lost your Quasar, so you went back to your Manhattan. You remember when AO used to subsidize B&L in certain markets to avoid anti-trust problems. You wonder why you haven't fit a ptosis crutch (or a moisture chamber) in years, when they used to be more common.

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## Jacqui

> You know a Panoptic from a Sovereign, and a Tillyer D from a Kryptok (and you used to front-surface Kryptoks to get 14mm round segs for golf glasses). You lost your Quasar, so you went back to your Manhattan. You remember when AO used to subsidize B&L in certain markets to avoid anti-trust problems. You wonder why you haven't fit a ptosis crutch (or a moisture chamber) in years, when they used to be more common.



Done all that, but I still make ptosis crutches now and again.

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## Uncle Fester

Bump---
Has it really been ten years since this thread faded away?  :Eek: 

A fun read for those who haven't seen it- started by my co worker and me when we first found Optiboard...

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## Jacqui

OMG !!! 10 years ??

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## GAgirl

I have really enjoyed this thread!!

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## Carissa

I find comfort in a lot of the old school ways of doing things because it helps you learn and apply concept. Many of the newbies use apps to help but I don’t think truly understand why the old ways work so well.

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## Uncle Fester

Was it the VIP we could hold an intense uv blue light lamp over to show the progressive stamped markings?

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## Quig

> Was it the VIP we could hold an intense uv blue light lamp over to show the progressive stamped markings?


I find it interesting how some markings are sooooo easy to see and others can be so faint. Way back when we used A LOT of VIP's and I recall they were really easy to see. Nowadays, it seems the laser engravings are either too faint which is a pain in the *** (we order ALL un-cuts and I do all the lab work) or in some cases they're too bold. 

I have a UV blue light and now I can't wait to use it to see if it helps...

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## Andrew Weiss

> Was it the VIP we could hold an intense uv blue light lamp over to show the progressive stamped markings?


Yep.

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## kdw613

I actually had one recently....the Opticians summoned me to the office, as the lady wanted the same thing (Blended Lenticular, RND 22). I called the local lab, oldest lab guy there had FT in stock. Was totally up to the challenge! Had them in 2 days...

Of course when I asked for the RVD...they were dumbfounded...lol

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