University Health Network - Academy of Medicine Collection
Category
Diagnostic & Treatment Artifacts
Vision
Classification
Optometry
Vision
Vision Tests
Accession Number
1982.21.4
Description
A length of wood with the numbers 1 through 62 printed on it in green ink; a movable piece of wood has a "reading" chart and numerals printed on paper and pasted on the "rider"; fixed at the opposite end of the stick is a magnifying glass stapled into a pressed cardboard frame.
A length of wood with the numbers 1 through 62 printed on it in green ink; a movable piece of wood has a "reading" chart and numerals printed on paper and pasted on the "rider"; fixed at the opposite end of the stick is a magnifying glass stapled into a pressed cardboard frame.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Acquired from the Academy of Medicine.; source: Dr. L. Cherkas, Ministry of Health, Peel Regional Health Unit, Brampton, Ont.
"Antique Medical Instruments," by Elisabeth Bennion, London, 1979, p. 150
Research Facts
A device for measuring ocular refraction. Instrument for measuring the refractive state of the eye. There are two main types of optometers: subjective and objective. Subjective optometers rely upon the subject's judgment of sharpness or blurredness of a test object while objective ones contain an optical system which determines the vergence of light reflected from the subject's retina.
It was illegal for optometrists to use optometers after 1919, but they were frequently given away by mail order companies with the spectacle order forms.