To mark our 175th anniversary, Oran McNaughton, a trainee patent attorney in our Chemistry & Life Sciences team, shines the light on optometry and how the aspiration to imagine better drives innovation in this space, through the lens of an invention from 1927.
It is an interesting exercise to look back on inventions of almost 100 years ago. The level of ingenuity demonstrated by these early inventions cannot help but demand the respect of the reader. Although innovation can take many shapes and forms, it starts with an inventor and a problem to solve... and for 175 years a patent law firm called HLK, formerly Haseltine, Lake & Co., has been around to prosecute and protect inventions!
Early signs
An interesting example in order to demonstrate impressive earlier innovation is GB276480A.
Figure 1: Schematic diagrams of the instrument in GB276480A.
At first glance, it may appear to be just like every other eye examining instrument from 1927, but you would be wrong.
The patent, filed by Haseltine, Lake & Co. in 1927, describes an instrument in which a beam of light is passed through a system of lenses which may be varied so that the beam when finally projected into the eye is either divergent, parallel or convergent.
Divergent beams are useful in ophthalmoscopes when examining the structures inside the fundus of the eye, such as the retina. On the other hand, convergent and parallel beams are useful in retinoscopes when measuring the refractive error of a patient's eyes.
In fact, there are numerous variations in the concentration or diffusion of the beam that can be obtained. So, with just a variable system of lenses you get two medical devices i.e., a combined ophthalmoscope and retinoscope, for the price of one!
The inventor, Charles Henry Keeler, is said to have been an accomplished inventor. This was the first instrument he patented, with further patents for improving ophthalmic instruments following in 1927, 1929 and 1934.
The new age
A constant need to develop and overcome is perhaps something we all share, yet this trait seems to manifest itself in a most amplified way within the context of innovation, inventions and inventors. It comes as no surprise that there are countless examples of this desire to improve. For example, keeping within the same field of medical devices for examining eyes, HLK still represents at least one applicant in the optometric space.
Modern eye examination can make use of new refraction techniques and eye exam apparatus to improve measurement accuracy, and even enable automated self-measurement in or outside clinical settings. In other words, the field has certainly come a long way!
The future and looking back
I think I can speak for all when I say that innovation is not going to slow down anytime soon. Therefore, it is vitally important that we continue to help inventors protect their own inventions to help promote investment and competition.
While it is important to look towards the future and prepare accordingly, sometimes it is just as important to look back. By doing so, we can see how far these fields have progressed, and as such, one can only imagine what inventions will appear in the next 100 years.
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