Catalogue Number: 312
Sub-Category: Book of historical note
Author: Charles Frederick PRENTICE
Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1900
Time Period: 1900 to 1939
Place Of Publication/Manufacture: Philadelphia
Publisher/Manufacturer: The Keystone
Description Of Item: 192 pages plus advertisements for ophthalmic manuals, 110 diagrams. It includes methods of determining the power of combined cylindrical lenses, a long section on ophthalmic prisms and advocates the dioptric system for measuring and numbering prisms.
Historical Significance: Review of Optometry Jan-Feb1991 describes Prentice as the 'Father of Optometry' because of his pioneering studies of optics and advocacy of optometry. He was trained as a mechanical engineer in Germany but his father, James, was an optometrist, trained in England. Charles Prentice described the law of decentration in 1890. He was highly regarded 'refracting optician' and one of the first to charge a fee for refraction but he was not loved by ophthalmologists. He lobbied unsuccessfully for registration of optometrists in New York in1896 and persuaded Columbia University to establish an optometry course in 1910. The American Academy has a lecture in his honour. The Keystone Publishing Company published a journal called the 'The Keystone' which was the organ of the Jewelry and Optical Trades.
Location: Nathan Library. Aitken collection