Chronology of American Optical History - Summary by Dick Whitney Year AO Historical Event 1826 "William Beecher arrives in Southbridge, Mass and opens a jewelry and watch shop on Main St." 1833 "AO's ""birth"" - William Beecher and 3 apprentices (Cole,,Phelps and Farrington) make silver eyeglass frames in rooms above the jewelry shop" 1839 "Beechers business expands to two story building near AO complex of today, call the business ""THE OLD SPEC SHOP""" 1843 The first steel spectacles made in America were produced on machinery invented by Beecher 1848 First gold frames made in America 1850 Gold frames (14-18K) sell for $7.50/pair 1852 "Frame sales nationwide total 14,919 pair" 1853 Old Spec Shop operation switches from Cohasse brook water power to steam power 1864 "George and brother Hiram hired by Co. now called R.H.Cole and Co, both are fired short time later" 1864 George W. Wells (age 17) arrives in Southbridge with $100 in his pocket 1865 George Wells rehired by R.H.Cole 1869 "American Optical Company formed on February 26 (Gross business of $50,000)" 1869 R.H.Cole offers 22 year old G.W.Wells partnership in business 1871 "First 3 story wood building built on present site, 20,700 sq. feet (cost of $35,000)" 1872 G.W.Wells becomes general supervisor of new plant 1874 AO introduces the first rimless spectacles 1883 "AO starts plans to make its own lenses in the U.S., to avoid dependency on foreign supply" 1884 "January 18, 1884 first AO spherical lenses of improved quality produced, avoiding 1 year wait for orders from Europe" 1886 "1,304,280 pair of spectacles sold" 1891 "R.H.Cole retires, G.W.Wells elected President of AO" 1893 AO begins to manufacture toric lenses and adopts the Dioptric system of Ophthalmic lens power 1898 U.S. Bureau of standards accepts a et of AO power lenses as the standard for the industry 1905 International operations begin with the opening of the London office 1907 "AO had 2000 employees with a payroll of $1,000,000" 1909 J.Cheney Wells founds the AO Research laboratory 1910 New Lensdale building (2L now building 50) - first to be built entirely out of cement - no wood used 1910 Kryptok Bifocals first manufactured 1913 "AO secured the rights to Crookes glasses, later called Calobar (UV and IR protecting lenses)" 1916 Dr. Edgar Tillyer hired as lens designer in the Research Lab. 1917 "E.D.Tillyer files patent for using common base curve for a range of prescriptions, allowing practical base curve choice for mass produced lenses" 1917 Cole's sell final 127 shares of company stock to Wells family for $1.25 million 1917 "AO designs and builds 8 mobile optical units for WWI, self contained eyeglass facilities for field use" 1917 Two and one half million lenses furnished to Gov't for War effort 1921 "Sales drop from $9 million to $5,250,000 - distribution system carefully analyzed" 1921 The first AO LENSOMETER introduced by Dr. Edgar Tillyer (1st to measure effective lens power) 1923 Establishes 114 National outlets (branches) selling AO products 1923 Industrial Eye protection department established 1923 Wise Owl eye safety program established 1924 Progressive Lens Patent #1518405 issued to AO (Estelle Glancy) 1925 "AO aquires De Zeng Instrument Company of America (Ear, Nose and Throat products)" 1925 "Tillyer lens revolutionizes Industry, 15 yrs in making, lens corrects for astigmatism and power" 1926 Tillyer patents ophthalmic lens series where off axis power and astigmatism errors were controlled 1930 High temple Ful-vue spectacles introduced 1931 "Ful-vue fused 3/4 segment bifocals were introduced, visual jump and cosmetics improved" 1935 "Aquires Spencer Lens Co., Expands market into precision optics" 1936 "Joel Cheney Wells, retires after 43 years at age 62 (began work as an office boy)" 1936 George B.Wells elected President of AO (Son of Albert Wells- past President) 1936 "1936-1939, In spite of Depression, sales increased from 16Million to 19 Million, 5,000 to 7000 employees" 1936 "Albert Wells continues as Chairman of the Board, began work in Lensdale in 1891" 1938 Dr.Edgar Tillyer was credited with the development of the additive Power Phoropter for corrective lenses 1938 AO Bureau of visual science was established 1939 The entire Legal and Patent dept. was established for handling scientific advances in AO 1941 "Due to labor shortage in Southbridge, 66,000 sq.ft. Putnam Conn facility opens for Industrial eye protection" 1942 "New Brattleboro Vt plant opens (77,600 sq.ft.) " 1942 Began to produce 18 .5 million pairs of lenses for armed services 1943 Brattleboro Vt plant had 380 workers producing 2 million lenses for safety and aviation goggles 1943 "AO research war efforts include gunsights, AR glass, new glass for military and instrument applications" 1943 AO provided 14 million prescription eyeglasses to Armed Forces and still filled civilian orders 1944 Sales doubled since 1934 1944 Fourty five % of AO sales was in Gov't contracts for war effort 1945 Sight screeners for checking vision 1945 Industrial vision protection plan begun - The American Plan 1945 "Glareless glass, one -way mirrors, new artificial eye" 1945 "Heat absorbing, color transmitting glass for motion picture projection" 1945 Monoplex eye division formed 1946 R&D begins development of Contact lenses 1947 Contact lens manufacturing begins 1947 "Metal spectacle goggles, new 10K and 14K gold alloys for frames" 1947 First successful commercial production of curved Polaroid lenses 1947 Metal frame plant in Southbridge was completed 1948 Plastics manufacturing department established to centralize AO's technical knowledge 1948 Lenticular E one piece cataract lens introduced 1948 "Microfilm reader, calobar uniform density lens" 1950 "Product diversification - camera lenses, projectors, binoulars, molded items for automobiles" 1952 Glass Executive Bifocal introduced 1953 Glass Microscopic Lenses for Low Vision introduced 1954 Student Microscopes introduced 1954 "9000 investors buy AO stock, private company now becomes public" 1954 Advantages of minus toric surfaces for finished lens series proposed 1955 E.W.Schumacher elected President 1955 Flood in Southbridge from Hurricane devastates AO (Closing of facility considered) 1955 "Diamond studded Elsa Schiaparelli frame introduced (valued at $25,000)" 1955 Todd - AO system of wide screen motion picture projection developed in conjuction with movie producer Mike Todd (Oklahoma is first movie) 1955 "AO designs, builds and patents an automatic electronic Lensometer. Device never marketed, but was exhibited at an optical show in Chicago" 1956 Sunglass sales reach an all time high 1956 Sales reach all time high of $76 million 1956 Microstar and Cycloptic microscopes and RX master Phoroptor 1956 Aquisition of British American Optical Industries 1956 AOLITE (then called Plasticor) 56mm FSV lens series - first to recognize the advantages of using minus toric surfaces for FSV 1957 "Increased emphasis on fiber optics, television , nuclear energy and military business" 1958 AOLITE Aspheric Cataract Lens introduced 1958 New products include RX master phoroptor and high lift ophthalmic chair 1959 Ultra high speed camera patent and intraveneous measurement device of oxygen in human blood 1959 Fiber Optics business developed 1959 R&D developes Sidewinder missle for the military 1960 Polarstar (polarizing) and Flouristar microscopes introduced for cancer research 1960? Justice Dept. ruling results in AO divesting from Rx laboratory's 1960 "Ophthalmic division maintains sales, growing acceptance of Tillyer Exec and AOLITE aspheric cataract" 1961 Optical lasers developed for the air force 1961 "Laser Inc. formed to R&D optics, electronics, lasers" 1961 " Davis, Fernald and Rayner design Masterpiece FSV glass series corrected for off axis performance errors" 1961 AO Cardiometer and DC Defribrillator 1962 AOLITE plastic lens market rapidly expands 1962 Record number of new frame styles 1962 AOLITE 62mm Finished Single Vision lenses introduced 1963 Fiber Optics 1963 Solar powered laser transmitter completed for the Air Force 1964 "Noel Roscrow (founder of SOLA) visits the AOLITE CR-39 manufacturing plant operation in Southridge, Mass." 1964 "AOLUX laser glass reached market, new endoscope introduced" 1965 Medical Division developes implantable pacemaker 1965 "Tillyer Masterpiece lens, first new SV lens in 30 years" 1965 AOLITE Executive Bifocal introduced 1967 Warner Lambert buys American Optical (becomes publicly owned) 1973 AOLITE 66mm FSV lens series introduced 1975 AO Tumble Abrasion test developed by John Young (Now to be an ISO Standard) 1976 Aspheric lens design patent - John Davis 1978 AO's First Progressive lens introduced (Ultravue / AO7 In Europe) 1979 Glass manufacturing plant closed at Southhbridge facility (6 Million Dollars in Platinum sold off) 1980 Fulvue Cataract lens patent - Donald B. Whitney 1980 Fulvue Cataract lens introduced 1980 AOLITE 71mm FSV product line introduced 1982 "Close the Frederick, Maryland Frame Plant (Out of Frame Making business)" 1982 "Photolite, the first plasic photochromic lens introduced" 1982 Warner Lambert sells American Optical to M&R (Mo Cunniffe and Rudy Wood) 1983 AO Musuem opens in Southbridge (John Young curator) 1983 ? "AO Brattleboro plant closes, Safety Lens manufacturing moves to relocates to Southbridge" 1983 AO Celebrates 150th Anniversary 1985 AO Truvision Progressive Lens Patent - Dr.John Winthrop 1985? Fused Glass Bifocal operation closes in Southbridge 1989 AO Omni Progressive lens Bi-polar patent - Dr.John WInthrop 1990 Technica Progressive lens introduced (designed for computer use) 1990 Polycarbonate OMNI product released 1990 Safety Division sold to Cabot Corporation 1992 AO Pro 15 progressive lens released 1992 ASPHERLITE (aspheric SFSV) product released 1992 Manufacturing completed its move to Tijuana (except for Glass Executives) 1993 Tijuana (AO Lens Mex) plant Flood 1993 "Aspheric single vision ""Inside out patent"" issued - Dr. Winthrop / R.Whitney" 1994 AO Pro 16 Polycarbonate product introduced 1994 Fire in glass progressive plant at the AO Lens Mex Tijuana Facility 1995 AO Force 55 Progressive lens introduced in 1.549 Nd index material 1996 Introduce AO 55 SFSV 1.549 index (Nd) aspheric single vision design 1996 SOLA International Inc. purchases AO ophthalmic lens division from AO Corporation (M&R) and renames it AO Lens Co. 1997 AO 55 FSV aspheric lens series released in the U.S. 1997 "AO Lens Co. corporate headquarters relocates from Southbridge Mass to San Diego, Ca." 1997 Reunion of Todd - AO researchers occurs / visit Southbridge complex 1998 AO Compact Progressive Lens introduced (Project name= Short Corridor) 1999 AO Lens Mex (Plastic Lens Casting) to Close (June 1999) and consolidate with SOLA OSM plant 1999 AO Compact Progressive Lens awarded Best In Lens Design at OLA Convention 2000 "DOD Lease signed on March 31, 2000; Demolition of Main Plant begins in April" 2000 "AO & SOLA Merge Sales and Marketing (East Coast Southbridge, West Coast Petaluma) " 2000 SOLA Buys Oracle Lens 2000 AO b'Active General Purpose Lens released / For Active Lifestyles - Includes Polarized version 2001 AO Southbridge Warehouse closed in June 2001 / Consolidation of AO and SOLA Distribution centers