218 
troubles. There he became connected 
with Chance Bros., still one of the 
better-known manufacturers of optical 
glass. E. and C. Feil, great-grandsons 
of Guinand, worked with E. Mantois; 
this association later developed into 
the famous French optical glass com- 
pany of Parra-Mantois. In 1887, 
Edmond Feil, ason of C. Feil, went to 
England where he offered his knowl- 
edge to Chance Bros. 
Although much work was done by 
Faraday and Harcourt in England 
more than a hundred years ago, the 
outstanding study of the relationship 
between composition and optical con- 
stants was carried out by O. Schott in 
an effort to develop glasses having the 
optical properties desired by Professor 
Abbe of the University of Jena, who 
was trying principally to develop bet- 
ter microscope objectives. Except for 
a limited number of coloring agents, 
the compounds of only five or six 
elements were in general use prior to 
1880. Only two types of optical glass 
were known: crown, a lime glass, and 
flint, a lead glass. There were many 
shortcomings in lenses which simple 
combinations of these two types of 
glass could not overcome. Through 
the work of Schott and his collabo- 
rators at Jena, about 25 new elements 
or their compounds became available 
to the glass industry. Also, from this 
work developed the famous optical 
glass plant of Schott and Genossen. 
Schott discovered that the glasses com- 
pounded with these new materials 
possessed a wide range of optical 
properties, and this discovery made it 
possible to build up optical systems 
free from the defects previously ex- 
hibited. 
As nearly as can be determined, the 
first successful manufacture of optical 
glass in the United States was by 
Macbeth & Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., 
about the year 1893 (possibly earlier). 
It is in this connection that we next 
hear of Edmond Feil, as superin- 
tendent of the firm’s optical glass 
factory. This plant, according to 
Chance, finally managed to make 
ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1948 
“some beautiful glass of great purity 
and reasonably fine quality of anneal- 
iG 
Evidently Feil did not remain with 
Macbeth & Co. long, for in 1897 he 
was working with the Manhattan 
Optical Co. and operating a small 
glass plant at Cresskill, N. J. Their 
specialty was lenses for photographic 
purposes. Production started about 
1896 and continued for approximately 
6 years, after which the Manhattan 
Optical Co. combined with the Gund- 
lach Manufacturing Co. of Fairport, 
N. Y., and the glass plant ceased 
operation. Thus it seems that the 
manufacture of optical glass in this 
country was undertaken with the 
assistance of a direct descendant (the 
great-great-grandson) of Pierre-Louis 
Guinand, one of the earliest workers in 
the field. 
The National Bureau of Standards 
entered the field, in a preliminary 
way, at its Pittsburgh laboratory in 
July 1914, under the direction of 
P. H. Bates, who retired from the 
Bureau shortly after WVJ-day. Just 
prior to this (about 1912), the Bausch 
& Lomb Optical Co. started work in 
the same field. Both of these organi- 
zations have been producing glass 
ever since. 
It is evident from the foregoing 
that the manufacture of optical glass 
in the United States is a modern 
industry. Also, it is only an industry 
of moderate size except in wartime, as 
can be seen from the accompanying 
table. 
Tape 1.—Production of optical glass in the 
United States during World Wars I and II, 
in pounds 
Wortp War I Worvp War II 
1917: 
Apriletis sts 2e850i 1 93Seeree 61, 000 
Puilycneyy-ie 4800. 193955... ©1/453.000 
October... 15,645 1940.... 260,000 
1941. 32) 2801000 
1918: 1942.... 2,851,000 
January... 35,955 1943.... 3, 688, 000 
Aprile 24, 363 
ulyee ee 55, 355 
October... 79, 275 
