Visit to the musEYEum - Aug 13, 2015

We went to the College of Optometrists for a guided tour of the “musEYEum” on August 13, turning up at their door in Craven Street on a rainy morning with much anticipation, not really knowing what to expect.  There must be a link between a pair of spectacles and scientific instrument making, we thought.

 

The group was just the right size: thirteen people including one of the apprentices. On arrival we met our host Neil Handley, curator of the museum, who gave us a two hour tour of the College.  This is not an ordinary museum: many of the exhibits are kept in the various College meeting rooms (the College incorporates the examining function of The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, which was granted a Royal Charter by Charles I in 1629, and provides the Scheme of Registration for professional optometrists).

Of particular interest was the collection of original prints, paintings and objects illustrating how spectacle wearing evolved since the middle ages. We saw a number of instruments used by optometrists including ophthalmoscopes, retinoscopes,  keratometers and focimeters. One fine example was Professor Hjalmar Schiøtz Impression Tonometer. They also had a replica of Van Leeuwenhoek simple microscope, and a hand-held Gregorian-type reflecting telescope (1750). We were invited to return to the museum to inspect more closely any of the fine instruments in the collection that had caught our attention.

Replica of Van Leeuwenhoek simple microscope

For many of us the highlight of the visit was the opportunity to see an original of the first edition of Newton’s OPTICKS, published in 1704. Newton had initialled the first page of the book.  For those of us with a background in optics being able to see this book at close range was a rare privilege.  

 

Isaac Newton’s  OPTICKS, first edition (1704) initialled by the author.

 

After the visit to the museum we walked to Trafalgar Square for lunch at the Café in the Crypt, St Martin in the Fields.