1752 James Ayscough A short account of the Eye and nature of vision p30

James Ayscough (born 1720, died 1759) was an English

optician An optician, or ''dispensing optician'', is a technical practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses lenses for the correction of a person's vision. Opticians determine the specifications of various ophthalmic appliances that will give the nec ...

and designer and maker of scientific instruments. He was apprenticed to an optician named James Mann from 1743 to 1747. James Ayscough became known for his

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisi ...

s. His shop was in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

between 1740 and 1759. Around the year 1752, James Ayscough introduced

spectacles Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear, with lenses (clear or tinted) mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms (known as temples o ...

with double-hinged side pieces. Although he made clear lenses, he recommended lenses tinted blue or green to treat some vision problems. These

with tinted lenses are believed to be the precursors to

sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...

. In February 1755 he began to contribute to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' a daily register of the weather, month by month. It included barometric reading of pressure, and two temperature readings, in the early afternoon, and late in the evening. There was also a brief comment on the day's weather. He may have begun the record with instruments that the magazine already owned, (as it had been recording pressure and temperature sporadically since 1747, initially printed at the end of the monthly stock market report.) Initially barometric pressures were read to 1/10th of an inch, but that soon changed to 1/100th, suggesting that he made his own instrument. His published register attracted the attention of George Smith near Carlisle, who began to contribute a matching record for Cumberland. This continued until Ayscough's death in 1759; his last entry in his record at London (Clerkenwell) was 23 August 1759.

References

1759 deaths British opticians British scientific instrument makers Year of birth unknown Optical engineers {{UK-scientist-stub