Before television and computers, people amused themselves in parlors looking at photographs, stereo pictures and even early versions of movies. Devices used for this are featured in this section.

Microscopes and telescopes have been of interest to almost anyone who has had the privilege of viewing celestial objects or microscopic particles through these tremendous inventions.

Invented in 1851 by Helmholtz, the ophthalmoscope did more to revolutionize the specialty of ophthalmology and the treatment of eye disease than any other discovery.

Over the centuries eye specialists have developed some of the most interesting equipment in all of medicine. Here is a sampling of these fascinating instruments.

Operations on the eye are discussed as far back as recorded history. Some of the

items used in treating surgical 

eye disease are fascinating and some scary looking.

Here are objects which are related to the eyes and the vision system but not quite classifiable in the other categories. Teaching instruments,optician devices, lenses and such objects are found here.

The history of spectacles is somewhat debatable. Many authorities feel they originated 

in Italy in the thirteenth century. Before that Nero supposedly used emerald crystal to view objects.

As the gateway to the soul, the eyes have been the subject of literature from antiquity. Here are items ranging from old magazine articles to entire books devoted to one small category of ophthalmology.