AO Space Eikonometer
 Catalogue Number: 989 AO Space Eikonometer Category: Equipment Sub-Category: Equipment, other clinical Corporation: American Optical Company Year Of Publication/Manufacture: c 1950 Time Period: 1940 to 1999 Place Of Publication/Manufacture: Southbridge, Mass. USA Publisher/Manufacturer: Amercian Optical Company Description Of Item: Table top ophthalmic instrument, black crackle finish. with metal label reading 'AO Space eikonometer' and metal label on top recording 'Donated by American Optical Company and Australian Optical Company 1966' Historical Significance: The eikonometer is an instrument to measure aniseikonia, which is a distortion of stereoscopic space due to unequal retinal image sizes. It is essentially a stereoscope with specially devised targets to measure the degree of unequal retinal image size by changing image size to bring stereo-viewed targets into an apparent vertical frontal plane. See Clinical Manual on aniseikonia by Robert Bannon (Cat no 473). reprints of artlcles by Bannon (Cat No 528 and 529) and Kenneth Ogle's book on Researches on binocular vision (Cat No 509 and 597) for more information about aniseikonia and this instrument. The American Optical Company was established in 1833 and incorporated in 1869. It was located in Southbridge Massachusetts USA to make lenses and spectacles and it quickly grew to be a very large company that also made ophthalmic and photographic equipment. It was, along with Bausch and Lomb, also in the USA, and Clement Clarke and Keeler in the UK, very influential in promoting innovation and the expansion of the scope of practice of optometry. How Acquired: Donated by American Optical Company and Australian Optical Company (ex VCO Optometry Clinic) Date Acquired: Nov 2008 Condition: Good Location: Archive room. West wall. Unit 5 Overhead display |