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OHM/IEEE Oct 26, 2012
Event in Southbridge to Honor AO Fiber Optics/Eli
Snitzer / Will Hicks
View
Historical
Listings / Timelines in American Optical's History
Summary
of
Doc
Tillyers first 100 of 157 AO patents as listed
in Tim Tillyers book
Bob Haynes
recalls the AO Fredrick Frame Plant origins and startup
from Southbridg
Pdf Download - 132mb
Product
Firsts at AO
Rev 7-Feb-13
AO's Anti-reflection coating development / product historical info
Interactive Maps of AO complex, Walking tour and Optical Related sites in Southbridge
AO's
Lensometer - a ground breaking invention for Ophthalmic
Optics
May
2009 Lensometer Display (courtesy of the Optical Heritage
Museum)
at the Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center
This show which aired in Aug 2010 includes
AO/Optical Heritage Museum
Variable
Density Goggles borrowed for this production

Explorer: 24 Hours After Hiroshima premiere was on
August 17th, 2010 on the National Geographic Channel.
AO designed type E-1 dark
adaptation goggles for WWII pilots
Recollections
of
Former AO Employees
Check back for update soon - Stories are
welcome!
Rev
19-Apr-13
JFK's
Glasses with AO Executive lenses and the letter rec'd by AO
on the Day of his Assasination!
OHM info onf U.S.Presidents and
their Eyeglassews
http://www.opticalheritagemuseum.org/Industry/HistoricalPresEyeglasses.htm

Download
this tour brochure from 1974
2mb pdf
AO
Family Day photos from 1974

Download
April 1940 AO Vision Magazine (32mb pdf)

Southbridge - 1907 photo of AO, Bausch and Lomb and Zeiss
Execs (a rare get together of Industry leaders)
Optical Heritage Museum photo
AO History as described in 1933 Document
Brochure from ~1960 titled "This is AO"
American Optical logos' through the year

AO Employees with 25 or more years of service... in 1917
!!!
Newly restored image from Wellworth Magazine from
Aug/Sept 1917
Courtesy of the Optical Heritage Museum

AO
Management
Photo by the Main Plant - ~late 1920's early 1930s
Donated by Jim Alden

In
Memory Of:
Recalling
those
AO employees who have passed on - Rev. May 21, 2013
AO's
first National Sales Meeting - Dec 29-31st, 1968
(Held at Southbridge
High School)
Download Book
provided by Wade Cloyd

William
Beecher
-
The
founder of AO in 1833

William
Beechers home c1890 at 185 Main Street Southbridge (JEL
Digital Treasures image)
AO's Transportation Fleet in Southbridge - May 1964 photo
AO "The Descision is Yours"
booklet against Unionization - Feb 1962

The "AO" Optical Heritage Museum
The
"Universalist
Church" Building at
368
Main
St., Southbridge
Optical
Heritage
Museum slideshow
5mb Download of executable
Click on screen to
advance slide

A view of American Optical Southbride Complex(top) taken
from Notre
Dame Church (~1916)
Image from JEL digital Treasures:
CWMars
on-line digital Library
AO's
1921
Article titled "The story in a pair of Spectacles"
(3.5 mb pdf download)
How and why AO First made spectacle lenses in mass in 1888
AO's
Ophthalmic
Lens Designers- Rev. Sept 11, 2012
Dr. Tillyer, Dr.
Estelle Glancy and more!

Dr
Estelle
Glancy in her own words! - AO and Evolution of a Lens
Designer
Don Whitney and Ophthalmic Optics
Dick Whitney and Ophthalmic Optics
Glass
Executive
Manufacturing prior to Southbridge Closure
Longest running
ophthalmic product line in AO's history
AO's
Permalite
coating (1980)
Worlds first
tintable, abrasion resistant coating for plastic lenses
AO's
Photolite
lens - Worlds first plastic photochromic lens
Rev 28-Jul-11
AO and
Anti-Reflection Coatings

AO Southbridge R&D Building - Life Magazine for Todd AO
Todd-AO-
55th Anniversary
celebrated in 2010
New Todd AO Article posted 25-May-12

Above photo showing movie Oklahamo still courtesy of http://www.in70mm.com/todd_ao/index.htm

AO
Fiber Optics
Details of IEEE Oct 26th Southbridge event honoring AO Fiber
Optics / Dr. Elias Snitzer
Also to be Honored- Will Hicks
Come join us.


Optical
Heritage Museum collection-
AO Gift to Charles Prentice c1900; he designed the first trial lens set for the
Industry and AO

AO Vision 1930s
article

Feb 2010 photo of Optical Heritage
Museum collection of AO
Trial set from the early 1900s
(restored by Donna Silverberg- Assitant Curator)
Dr.
Bernie Grolman 2002 Interview on his Non Contact Tonometer
Invention (provided by David Taylor)
AO Clock - Time set in 1916 synchronized by Radio

AO Wellsworth
Nov 1919 Catalogue cover
showing a Fits-U-Windsor style Frame
AO
Frames
Rev 14-Aug-12
Dave LaMarre / Wes Reed Article on AO Sunglass History (1975)
Ear Protection Boston Herald article - April 1962

AO
Monoplex Plastic Eye Division info / 1949 Brochure
/recollections
Rev 15-Aug-12
1971 AO Product Directory Catalogue
Pope Pius XII and his gift - AO Glasses in early 1950s
AO
Main
Plant Demolition ("DOD Project" /
Southbridge
Hotel and Conference Center) Construction
Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center - Former AO Main Plant
Clarifying when AO closed in Southbridge

Newly discovered 1940s model of the AO Main
Plant (Optical Heritage Museum)
Jeanine McElroy helps to assemble the puzzle!
June 16, 2010 Dick Whitney Photo above

A rare view of the AO Main Plant (Left - new brick
construction, Right Old wood building) ~1895
Image from JEL digital Treasures:
CWMars
on-line digital Library
March 12. 2009 photos of the Former AO
Main Plant, now the Southbridge
Hotel
and Conference center.
November
1945 AO News Article about "Steeple Tom"
Dick Whitney photos
A
look inside the AO Main Plant Clock Tower

Former AO Lens Plant "2L",
now building 50 and Power plant image from http://local.live.com/

AO Parking lot (behind Main Plaint) ~1938; John Wells
had the marking for latitude and longitude put on the roof of
the car shed,
to use in his approach to the Southbridge Airport
AO
Southbridge
Facilities Rev 06-Jul-11

A view from the air in the early 1970s of the AO
Southbridge Facility -
The AO
Main
plant is shown in the upper left, power
plant
smokestack in the middle.
The
Lens, Frame and Warehouse
buildings are the three prominent ones in the upper part of
the photo.
Note the "claw" on the Glass
Plant to vent the heat from the glass operation
Optical Heritage Museum photo
Read
about the Oct 8, 2005 Walking Weekend "AO Complex"
tour -
Article courtesy of the Southbridge Evening News
Check
out the CWMars on-line digital Library
Southbridge Images courtesy of Jacob Edwards Library
AO
Flood's
-
1938 and 1955 Destruction at Southbridge Facility
Download Audio Excerpt of WESO August 19, 1955 Broadcast
taped by Robert Haynes

Image provided Courtesy of Walter Alan
Stewart Famiily
For more info, also check out the recollections page below
Ophthalmic Industry Heritage Info
Recollections
of
Former AO Employees
Stories are welcome!
Daniel Wells Schreck, Direct descendant of George W. Wells
(Portrait) in Southhbridge at
Wells
Family Reunion - June 2004

AO 1933 Emblem with George Wells for the 100th Anniversary
In
Memory Of:
Recalling
those
AO employees who have passed on
The AO Reunion of May 28, 2002

AO Reunion Group photo (Courtesty of Village Photo)

AO News Books from 1940s and 1950s (Optical Heritage Museum)
AO
1933 Jon Swanson Medallion
Courtesy or Jay \Galst
June 2004
Don
Whitney 1958 Talk
on
AOLITE (AO's CR-39 plastic lenses)
AO
Reporter Magazine from 1972 (include article on AOLITE)
download pdf
The influence of CR-39 (sixty years after its introduction) - 2006 article by Dick Whitney
AOLITE Plastic Lens Casting Background (Don Whitney 1975 Writeup)
Family photo in front of the AO Main Plant in the Fall of 1954
AO
Wellsworth
Workers "Americanization" Education - April 1926
Check out Mass Moments Look back at AO's 150th (June 18, 1983)

The
June
1983 AO Parade - celebrating 150 years!!
Photos of AO Employees in the 1920's ?
Snapshots in Time (Past Regional Newspaper Coverage describing AO)
Excerpts / Articles of Interest from the American Optical News
Quinebaug Valley Historical Society Text (G.Wells 1909 Speeches)
AO Life Publication (1930 Excerpts)
The AOCentenial Historical Publications (1933)
125th Anniversary Articles (1958)
150th
Anniversary Historical Notes (1983)

AO Stock certificate from 1869 - Courtesy of
the
Optical
Heritage
Museum
Learn
about the underground Tunnel on the AO Complex

AO Postcard of Southbridge Facility at its prime- 1965
(Date Approximate)
Photos below were taken on
the Stairway in the Main Plant Center building
which remains with the DOD
Facility Demolition / Construction.


Aug 1999 photo and Jan 2002 in the newly opened Southbridge
Hotel and Conference Center
"AO Room"
at UC
Berkeley
School
of Optometry
Photos of the Fall, Winter, and Spring at AO Southbridge (1999-2000 photos)
About
the Author (Dick Whitney) and his AO Background
Rev 25-Jan-12
My 38th year
Anniversary with AO/CZV on 9/16/12
Interested in the History Antique Spectacles?
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