John Jacob Bausch | |
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Born | Johann Jakob Bausch July 25, 1830 |
Died | February 14, 1926 95) Rochester, New York, U.S. | (aged
Resting place | Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Optical instrument maker, businessman |
Known for | Co-Founder Bausch and Lomb |
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John Jacob Bausch (born Johann Jakob Bausch; July 25, 1830 – February 14, 1926) was a German-American maker of optical instruments who co-founded Bausch & Lomb (with Henry Lomb). Over six decades he transformed his small, local optical shop into a large-scale international enterprise, pioneering the American optical industry. [1]
Bausch was born Johann Jakob Bausch to Georg Bausch, a baker, and his wife Anna Schmid, in Groß Süßen (today part of Süßen) in the Kingdom of Württemberg, then part of the German Confederation. [2] [3] [4] At the age of eighteen he moved to Bern, Switzerland, where he worked as a lens grinder in an optical shop designing camera lenses. [5] In 1850 he emigrated to the United States. Upon his arrival, he made his way to a German community in Buffalo, New York, but because of a cholera epidemic there he settled in Rochester, New York, and Anglicized his name to John Jacob. [6]
In 1853, Bausch opened a retail optical shop in Rochester. Bausch sold spectacles, thermometers, field glasses, magnifiers and opera glasses. His friend Henry Lomb, also a German immigrant (from Burghaun, Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel), who had immigrated in 1849, invested his $60 in savings in Bausch's shop and in 1855, on a handshake, became his partner. By 1856 Bausch renamed the company the "Optical Institute of Rochester." [7]
In the spring of 1861, Lomb enlisted and served in the American Civil War for two years. [6] In Lomb's absence, Bausch accidentally made a fortuitous discovery: he found a piece of vulcanite rubber on a New York street. He took it home and experimented making eyeglass frames from the material. At that time wire frames were mainly made from gold, and horn-rimmed frames were made from either European deer horn or tortoise shell, so eyeglasses were considered an expensive luxury. Bausch realized he could make stronger and less expensive vulcanite eyeglass frames, but soon he struggled to keep up with demand. During the Civil War, the blockade caused the price of gold and European horn to rise dramatically. This resulted in a growing demand for the Bausch and Lomb spectacles made from vulcanite. [6]
In 1864 they renamed the company "Bausch and Lomb, Opticians", and reorganized again as the "Vulcanite Optical Instrument Company" in 1866. [6] They built the first machine in America to produce spectacles beginning in the early 1870s. Lomb was in charge of sales and finance, while Bausch concentrated on the manufacturing side of the business.
The firm took yet another name in 1876, "Bausch and Lomb Optical Company," and began manufacturing microscopes. Later that year they exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. The company also produced photographic lenses (1883), spectacle lenses (1889), microtomes (1890), binoculars and telescopes (1893). The firm was incorporated as "Bausch and Lomb Optical Company, Inc.," in 1908, the year Bausch's long-time partner died.
Bausch's company did very well during the First World War as the war created a demand for binocular telescopes, range-finders, gunsights, searchlight mirrors, periscopes and torpedo tube sights. The U.S. government became Bausch and Lomb's major customer as the company produced related optical instruments for the armed forces. [6] [8] One of their famous products was Ray-Ban sunglasses, until they sold it to the Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica. [9]
Bausch led his company for more than six decades. He died on February 14, 1926, in Rochester, New York. [2] [1] Bausch & Lomb continued to flourish under the leadership of his son Edward Bausch, remaining preeminent in its field. It was named to the Fortune 500 list of America's leading companies in 1975. [1]
Bausch + Lomb is an American-Canadian eye health products company based in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the world's largest suppliers of contact lenses, lens care products, pharmaceuticals, intraocular lenses, and other eye surgery products. The company was founded in Rochester, New York, in 1853 by optician John Bausch and cabinet maker turned financial backer Henry Lomb. Until its sale in 2013, Bausch + Lomb was one of the oldest continually operating companies in the United States.
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear with lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms that rest over the ears.
Luxottica Group S.p.A. is an Italian eyewear conglomerate based in Milan which is the world's largest eyewear company. As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands all through its own subsidiaries.
Ray-Ban is a brand of luxury sunglasses and eyeglasses created in 1936 by Bausch & Lomb. The brand is best known for its Wayfarer and Aviator lines of sunglasses. In 1999, Bausch & Lomb sold the brand to Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica Group for a reported $640 million.
An optician is an individual who fits eyeglasses or contact lenses by filling a refractive prescription from an optometrist or ophthalmologist. They are able to translate and adapt ophthalmic prescriptions, dispense products, and work with accessories. There are several specialties within the field.
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Eyewear is a term used to refer to all devices worn over both of a person's eyes, or occasionally a single eye, for one or more of a variety of purposes. Though historically used for vision improvement and correction, eyewear has also evolved into eye protection, for fashion and aesthetic purposes, and starting in the late 20th century, computers and virtual reality.
GI glasses are eyeglasses issued by the American military to its service members. Dysphemisms for them include the most common "birth control glasses" (BCGs) and other variants. At one time, they were officially designated as regulation prescription glasses (RPGs). This was commonly said to mean "rape prevention glasses" due to their unstylish appearance. Similar glasses can be issued to inmates in state and federal prisons.
The Institute of Optics is a department and research center at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. The institute grants degrees at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels through the University of Rochester School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Since its founding, the institute has granted over 2,500 degrees in optics, making up about half of the degrees awarded in the field in the United States. The institute is made up of 20 full-time professors, 12 professors with joint appointments in other departments, 10 adjunct professors, 5 research scientists, 11 staff, about 170 undergraduate students and about 110 graduate students.
Browline glasses are a style of eyeglass frames where the "bold" upper part holding the lenses resembles eyebrows framing the eyes. They were very popular during the 1950s and 1960s, especially in the United States of America. The glasses were first manufactured by Shuron Ltd in 1947 under the "Ronsir" brand, and quickly emulated by various other manufacturers. The design became the most common style of eyeglasses throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s before it was surpassed in popularity by solid plastic styles. Browlines enjoyed a renaissance as sunglasses in the 1980s before returning to popularity in the 2010s, with the rise of retro style and the hipster subculture. Chinese Premier Li Peng wore browline eyeglasses for 30 years from 1989 until his death in 2019.i
Henry Lomb was a German-American optician who co-founded Bausch & Lomb and led a group of businessmen to found The Mechanics Institute, the forerunner of Rochester Institute of Technology.
Lomb may refer to:
Bausch is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Tannereye Ltd is the first company in the world to produce leather covered sunglasses.. It was established in 1976 by Peter and Maureen Leunes on Prince Edward Island.
Ernst Gundlach (1834–1908) was a German-American inventor specialising in the design of optical instruments.
The optometer was a device used for measuring the necessary spherical and/or cylindrical corrections to be prescribed for eyeglasses, from the middle of the 18th century until around 1922, when modern instruments were developed. The term, coined in 1738 by W. Porterfield to describe his Scheiner slit optometer, and used for 200 years to describe many different inventions to measure refractive error of the eye, has completely fallen out of usage today as the task of measuring eyes for spectacles is done with modern instruments, such as the phoropter.
Edward Bausch was an American engineer and business executive, who served as president of Bausch & Lomb Optical Company from 1926 to 1935. He was awarded the twelfth ASME Medal in 1936. He served as chairman of the board until his death.
The American Optical Company, also known as AO Eyewear, is a luxury American eyewear and sunglass company based in Vernon Hills, Illinois near Chicago. AO designs and manufactures in the United States.
Windsor glasses are a type of eyeglasses characterised by circular or nearly circular eyerims and a thin metal frame. The style emerged in the 19th century and first became popular in the 1880s. Traditionally the bridge of Windsor glasses is a "saddle", and hence to prevent the glasses slipping off the face the temples are "riding bow temples" ; however, in a modern and extended definition, Windsors typically have a bridge with nose pads and gently curved temples.