Eye examination equipment

What would a typical eye exam consist of 100+ years ago? The Eye-seum has acquired a number of instruments and devices used during an examination from the 1800s to the early 1900s. Some are still in use today, while others have been made extinct by technology. We also have a large assortment of color vision tests. Why? Because they’re colorful and fun!

First off, we would check your vision, both far and near, using Wood’s ophthalmic test types, dated 1881. This came in a huge 12” x 24” wooden box that contained 10 charts for doing eye exams and a version of Holmgram’s color vision test (see below).

Or we would use this light up rolling eye chart that would be hung on the wall, circa 1910.

This is a combination ophthalmoscope and retinoscope, designed to measure one’s prescription and look inside one’s eye. Manufactured by the Geneva Optical company in 1902. There are very few of these still around today.
This is an ophthalmometer or keratometer, used to measure the curvature of the cornea. It was invented in 1851.  This one is dated 1912.

We would then get an approximation of your prescription using this Tait retinoscope with changeable fixation targets, circa 1930.

We would then check your prescription by using this primitive phoropter made by William DeZeng, around 1915. This used hand-held trial lenses.

This is a later version of the phoropter, with rotating lenses , dated 1924.

To measure the pressure in the eye, we would have used a McLean tonometer, circa 1919. Although a useful tool to check for glaucoma, it was often inaccurate.
A more accurate tonometer was this Bailliart tonometer made in France, dated 1928.
Or this Tonomat, a rather complicated means of checking the pressure,1950
Or the ever popular Schiotz tonometer, invented in 1908.
This is a malingering test, used to determine if someone was “faking” their eye exam, either because they wanted glasses or were trying to get disability or workman’s comp. This was made in 1938.
To check your color vision, we would use Professor Holmgren’s worsted wool yarn color vision test, which you would match different shades of yarn to a standardized color. This test is from 1904. It was the first commercial color vision test made.
An earlier version of Professor Holmgren’s test that came with the Woods Test Type and Color Blindness test (see above).1881
Stilling’s Pseudoisochromatic plates, Germany, 1918. This was the first book of its kind, using circles of various sizes and colors designed to confuse the color deficient.
Preceding the Stillings book, Prof. F.W. Eldridge, in England,came up with a similar idea using hand painted cards in 1903.
1913 Jennings self recording color vision test. Designed for the US military, this original test was found to fail a number of normal color vision males, so most of them were destroyed. Only a few remain today.
Giles-Archer color tester, rarer aviation model. This hand-held device was used in the 1930s to simulate colors used by aviators to check to see if a pilots’ vision was suitable for flying. There was also one for railroad and maritime workers.
Color vision test from 1944 that used the principle of afterimages to determine if someone is colorblind.

This is another military color vision device, the MacBeth color vision tester. Circa 1940.
This is a C.H. Williams lantern color tester used to determine eligibility for working for the railroad. Circa 1900-1910

The Westcott color slides were designed to check the color vision of a large group of students at one time, by projecting the test on a large screen.
George Young color threshold test. Used in the early 1900s to test color vision, it used colored dots of varying saturation levels, one dot per page, to test color vision.

We would have looked inside your eye with an ophthalmoscope, invented in 1856 by Herman von Helmholtz. This a Loring scope from 1865. You would place a candle light source behind the patient and reflect the light into the eye. There were many different ophthalmoscopes invented by different doctors back in the 1800s.
Moton’s -1883 w/ ivory handle
Huschle’s- 1910
Leibrich’s 1884
Landolt’s with ivory handle, 1888
To learn to use the ophthalmoscope, doctors would practice on Dr. Marice Perrin’s Artificial or Phantom Eye, c. 1886. This was a brass eyeball with 12 hand-painted interchangeable discs designed to simulate various pathological conditions. This particular one, unfortunately, has 3 missing discs.
Here is another training eye, Dunn’s, c. 1910, this one with 18 discs.
1920s synoptophore, an instrument designed to diagnose, quantify and treat binocular disorders including amblyopia and strabismus (also called “squint” colloquially)
If you had an eye muscle problem, we would use this unusual looking Genophthalmic Kratometer, circa 1926, to help correct your muscle imbalance issue.
If you had a lazy eye, or amblyopia, we attempt to correct it with this Worth-Black amblyoscope made by American Optical, dated 1937.
Firle Eye Magnet, c. 1890-1910. With the Industrial Revolution at full swing during Victorian era England, penetrating injuries of the eye with steel and iron were quite common. This powerful magnet (able to lift and hold a one pound weight) was used to pick pieces of metal out of one’s eye.
French ophthalmodynamometer, a device used to measure the pressure of the central retinal artery, c. 1920-1930
Lensometer (or focimeter) used for measuring the prescription of a lens. This one uses an outside light source (such as a candle) to shine light rays through the lens to measure the focal distance.
We would then measure the distance between your eyes with a pupillometer, like this French one from the mid-1900s.
After the exam, one would get glasses. Here is a lens making device circa 1830, from Vienna, Austria.
This instrument from 1920 was deigned to cut lenses by hand to put them into frames.
American Optical radiuscope, used for measuring the curvature of rigid contact lenses, c. 1970