Originally posted by GLXLR This was posted before (as said before)
It really is interesting how they USE to make lenses and how they do it now. A lot of it is not machine operated.
Yeah, as I mentioned in the OP I found these a few months back...I searched here and found no reference to them...so thought I would share them in case of newer users who might not have run into them before. I swear one day someone will create a search for vBulletin that actually works.
But, hey it has been that way since it first came out. And for the price, it's a bargain no matter what.
It is fascinating that so much of the process is labor intensive. If someone are not familiar with glass making in general, they are usually surprised to learn how many ingredients are used in a given glass formula. Also just how much energy is needed to make a single lens. Glass formulas are as guarded a secret as perfume (another rather interesting industry that is easily overlooked, lots of O-Chem involved there).
Ever glass maker has their own formula. interesting also is in the old days, if the workers in a glass factory wanted to leave early, it was not unheard of to simply toss a penny into the molten glass...a single penny has enough copper and other metals to ruin a batch of glass in terms of color and if it were for lenses, optical purity.
Been interested in glass making for over 40-years now, as part of collecting antiques. Yet I really never appreciated the whole thing until I learned more chemistry and really researched the history and how it got made.
Lots of fun info in there for sure...