my country’s glasses have a long history. Both Chinese and foreign historical records record that glasses originated in China and are a heritage of my country’s ancient culture, medical treatment, and skills. Its development and changes have gone through thousands of years of history.
We say that glasses were introduced from China to foreign countries. This is documented in history, and it was at the end of the 13th century. In Western countries, glasses first appeared in the late 13th century. At that time, there was an Italian named Marco Polo. He had lived in a small country for seventeen years, working for the Yuan Dynasty court and traveling all over China. At that time, he saw someone wearing glasses in the Yuan Dynasty court, and he was very touched by this. Interested in glasses, he spread the glasses to the West when he returned to China. Therefore, the earliest place to manufacture glasses in the West was Marco Polo's hometown, Venice. In addition, Marco Polo's travel notes also contain records of old people wearing glasses to read novels and small print.
The most primitive glasses originated from lenses (magnifiers), and their manufacture and application are closely related to the emergence of optical lenses. It is said that the first discovery of the optical refraction principle that glasses can magnify the image of objects was discovered accidentally in daily life. At that time, someone saw a mosquito caught on a drop of rosin resin crystal. Through the rosin crystal ball, he saw that the mosquito was extremely large. This inspired people to understand the role of optical refraction, and then use natural crystals to ponder. It can be used as a convex lens to magnify small objects to solve people's vision difficulties. This is the shape-reforming period of glasses in our country.
According to "The Best of the World": "In 2283 BC, the Chinese emperor observed the stars through lens meters. Glasses were introduced from China to foreign countries. According to Confucius (551-79 BC) ) said: At that time, some people in China wore glasses made of crystal and other transparent minerals to treat their eyes or protect them from the sun.
Preliminary research shows that the history of lenses and glasses in my country dates back to During the Warring States Period (2300 years ago), Mozi's 15th volume contains many of Mozi's discussions on light and flat mirrors, convex mirrors, and concave mirrors. In the third century BC, ancient Chinese people used lenses to make fire. . In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng discovered the initial causes of the moon's waxing and waning and lunar and solar eclipses, also with the help of lenses.
The oldest glasses in China are single-piece circular glasses made of water or transparent minerals. Mirror (now known as a magnifying glass), it is said that Zhu Zhishan, a great scholar in the shop, once used such glasses. In the Song Dynasty, some people used crystal mirrors to cover the sun to improve their eyesight.
It has been called this since the Ming Dynasty. "Glasses".
In the Yuan Dynasty of the 13th century, our country was able to use the refractive index of crystal to make glasses to help solve the problem of insufficient vision, but not many people wore glasses at that time [During the Xuande Period of the Ming Dynasty]. AD 14.6-1435), "single-photography" mirrors (similar to today's magnifying glasses) began to appear. In view of the processing technology at that time, there were only reading glasses, and their circulation was limited to the palace. The emperor often gave them to elderly ministers as imperial gifts. To correct the defect of presbyopia. Since then, glasses have entered human life. For ease of use, some lenses are sewn on hats and some are installed in iron rings.
Double glasses mounted on the bridge of the nose only appeared in the 16th century, and the two ends of the frame were tied with threads and hung on the ears. After that, the production of eyeglass frames continued to improve, gradually from complex to simple, and from rough to sophisticated frames. Rings, patent leather, meridian, tortoise shell, copper rings, etc.
These different frames continued until the late Qing Dynasty, and began to be replaced by temples, which were both beautiful and convenient, and even the use of glasses (flat lenses) appeared. ) was the trend of fashion. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Li Xingnan's "Zhongjiang Bamboo Stick Ci" contains the sentence "Young people are not in a romantic mood, and Li Cong glances at the red makeup", which refers to the fact that people in the Jiangnan area are wearing glasses, which is also fashionable. During wedding ceremonies, the bride wears colored glasses to cover her face.
The evolution of the material and form of glasses in our country has changed with the progress of the times and the development of industry and handicraft production. And the evolution of frames (frames). The oldest glasses in our country have only one lens without a frame and are used hand-held. Later, for the convenience of holding, the lenses were framed with wood (later metal) and fixed on a single-handle frame. , still used hand-held (such as today's single-handle magnifying glass). By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the lenses made of crystal in the Fangshan Mountain area of ??the small country of Suzhou (now Suzhou) were mounted on a single-handle copper frame, called single-handle glasses. . Suzhou is the birthplace of crystal glasses production in my country. It has been passed down through the ages and is sold all over the country and overseas.
With the progress and development of the times, due to the inconvenience of using single-handled glasses, two single-handled glasses were initially connected together through pin pins or riveting. As shown in Figure 1, the rotating axis can be opened and closed up and down. , hang it on your head or hat with a rope, or clamp it on the bridge of your nose using pressure. The oldest frames (frames) were made of wood, paper, animal horn, leather, and tortoiseshell. Later, the Han Dynasty gradually adopted gold-plated materials such as copper, iron, gold, silver, and various modern alloys. Gold-plated, gold-plated, K gold, stainless steel and plastic materials. The shape of early glasses was round or oval, and some had only frames and no legs; some had legs, which were not like the style of modern glasses.
For example: the footless frame is foldable: (that is, it is used on the ears with a silk cord) The legs of the footed frame are also foldable: the mirror box is made of paper and painted. It's also very particular. It can be hung on the belt as a decoration, and its styles are round and oval. (Figure 1 and 2) In addition, there are lens covers and lens bags for glasses, which mainly protect the glasses and facilitate portability.
The formation and development of my country's eyewear industry can be roughly divided into three historical development stages.
The formation of industry gangs during the Ming and Qing Dynasties
With the development of individual handicrafts in our country's history (about the 14th and 17th centuries), the materials used for glasses developed from natural crystal stones to the use of glass Later, the scope of use of glasses began to be promoted and expanded to the private sector, and the production technology also experienced new developments.
China's Suzhou (Suzhou) is the birthplace of my country's glasses. The production of glasses in Suzhou not only has a long history, but also plays a great role in promoting the development of my country's glasses industry. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty (1628 AD), an outstanding technical commander appeared in the history of Suzhou glasses. His name was Sun Yunqiu, also named Wenyu and Sibin, who was originally from Wujiang. He was diligent and studious since he was a child. At that time, he saw that his vision It was painful for people with weak health, but "single-view" lenses were inconvenient to use, so he devoted himself to developing a lens that could be permanently placed on the eyes. After repeated experiments, he invented it using mechanical principles. Lens grinding machine - a pulley. This pulley is the so-called classical processing method. It is turned by a pedal and uses ore sand, white mud, brick dust, etc. as abrasives or polishing materials to grind the lenses into a polished shape. He used convex and concave lenses to meet the refractive needs of the eyes, and finally mastered the "grinding" technology to grind lenses from natural crystal stones. At the same time, he also mastered "optometry"
Now known as optometry). Using advanced technology, we have developed lenses for presbyopia, myopia, farsightedness and various luminosity according to people's age and different vision, and compiled a set of original optometry methods of "following the eye to the mirror". Used to check the visual environment. In this way, the glasses can be worn according to the eyes, and the effect is not bad at all. It is also more convenient and comfortable to wear on the face to meet the needs of each person's vision. This is the beginning of subjective optometry in our country.
Later. Sun Yunqiu also invented and developed optical lenses for different purposes, including hundreds of flower mirrors, mandarin duck mirrors, magnifying glasses, polygonal mirrors, phantom mirrors, and dozens of others. Since then, the glasses made by Sun Yunqiu have become famous all over the world. It is a pity that such a promising technical talent died of illness at the age of 33. But he left behind a scientific and technological work called "Mirror History". It played an immeasurable role in promoting future generations of glasses manufacturing technology.
After Sun Yunqiu, during the Qianlong and Jiaqing years of the Qing Dynasty, another glasses-making talent emerged in Suzhou, named Chu Sanshan. He further developed the technology of making glasses and was quite influential.
As Suzhou produced two outstanding technical talents for manufacturing glasses, Sun Yunqiu and Chu Sanshan, they promoted the formation and development of the glasses industry in Suzhou at that time. In 1735, handmade workshops specializing in the production of glasses had appeared in Suzhou.
By the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the production and sales of glasses had flourished in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other places. Glasses have become a specialized commodity.
2． The rise of the glasses industry in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China
Since the Opium War in 1840, Western eyewear technology was introduced to our country, opening up a new path for the rise of the glasses industry. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, John Goddard, an Englishman, first opened the "Goddard" in Shanghai, specializing in machine-grinding of optometry glasses. Later, other foreigners followed. For example, TobiM opened the "Mingjing Company", and the British Jew Ram5n opened the "Raymond Company".
After that, in 2019, Chinese people raised funds from "Gaode Yangxing" to open "China Lean Eyewear Company".
Due to the opening of Jingyi Glasses Company, my country's glasses industry has experienced new development. In particular, there have been great reforms in the field of optometry and optics:
① The long-used "dual light brand" optometry and optics in old stores has been abolished, and optometry technology that combines subject and object has been adopted.
⑨ The purely manual method of making lenses was eliminated, mechanical grinding and processing equipment was installed, and grinding technology was developed. At this time, not only could lenses of various properties and specifications be ground, but also lenses of various sizes could be ground automatically. Standard supervision and production of various types of frames (frames).
③In terms of inspection, grinding, cutting, assembly, correction, and manufacturing techniques, some foreign new technologies and equipment have been adopted, thus cultivating a generation of professional talents for making glasses and providing a good foundation for my country's glasses industry. A new technical team was quickly formed and a solid foundation was laid.
Because the glasses produced by Jingyi Glasses Company adapted to the needs of the Chinese people and were priced lower than foreign products, they soon occupied the market across the country and opened branches in various places. By the time of World War I, Jingyi Glasses Company had established operations in Beijing, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Jinan, Shenyang, Dalian, Harbin, Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Hankou, Changsha, Nanchang, Kaifeng, Guangzhou, Chongqing, etc. Branches were opened in eight places.
Before the Anti-Japanese War, the products of Jingjian Eye Basket Company also won awards at the Panama International Exposition. In 1919. Mr. Sun Yat-sen once went to the branch of Guangzhou Jingyi Company for optometry and glasses, and wrote an inscription for it: "Striving for Excellence".
Around 1935. In addition to Jingyi Glasses Company, Shangmei has also opened several large-scale professional glasses companies, including "Maochang Glasses Company, Wu Liangcai Glasses Company" and so on. These professional glasses are equipped with advanced optometry equipment and special machines for lens processing, grinding and edge cutting.
At the same time, Beijing's glasses industry has also developed greatly. Beijing has successively opened Shenchang Watches and Glasses Store. Daming Eyepiece Company (founded in 1937) and other companies also have eyeglass fitting and lens processing workshops in front of the shop and in the back. At the same time, the original old-fashioned production methods of cottage industry workshops have also developed and increased, and they have constantly innovated their production techniques and adopted some imported materials to update the old-style glasses in form. From then on. The glasses industry in Beijing is even more prosperous, and the glasses trade union has been established. Coordinate common issues across the industry. This is the rough formation process of the glasses industry in Beijing, old China.
3. The changes and leaps in the glasses industry after the founding of New China
Old China. Although the development of the eyewear industry has begun to take shape, and there are industry organizations such as industry gangs or industry associations, its production and distribution are all private shops and family handicraft workshops, and most of its products are decorations serving the ruling class. , the output is small and the price is expensive, so the development is slow. Especially the production industry. Until the eve of liberation, there were only a few manufacturers of glasses in the country. They were all one household, with production workers ranging from ten to one or two. Moreover, the production technology was very backward, product quality was low, and the varieties were monotonous. They had been produced for decades. Consistent system.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, under the guidance of the Party’s correct line, the production of glasses began to evolve from small family workshops to small businesses organized for cooperative production. For example: Before Beijing became cooperativized and public-private partnership, there were only a few optical industries and businesses.
In industry, there are nearly a hundred small workshops with about 270 employees; in commerce, there are 39 specialized and part-time shops with less than 300 employees, of which only ten (namely: lean, Daming, Dongfang, Jingming, Changming, Siming, Baolong, Liu Mingzhai, Sun Yongliang Changji)
It has a production workshop with a front store and a back factory and a spectacle lens processing workshop affiliated with the Ophthalmology Department of Tongren Hospital, *** There are 46 production workers.
With the rapid development of my country's economic construction, the glasses industry has also developed vigorously. In terms of industry, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and other major producing areas all have a certain scale of glasses production base. For example, Shanghai Glasses Factory No. 1, Shanghai Glasses Factory No. 2, Beijing Glasses Factory, Beijing 608 Factory, Beijing 603 Factory, Suzhou Glasses Factory, etc. have become large-scale backbone enterprises in my country's glasses industry, and are national medium-sized enterprises with nearly a thousand employees. The quantity, quality and supporting capabilities of its production staff rank first in the country. Some of its products are municipal or national-level high-quality products, and some famous brand products have been exported for many years. It is sold nationwide and well-known at home and abroad.
In addition, some defense industry enterprises and some enterprises in the instrumentation industry have turned to the production and processing of the glasses industry, and the commercial service department has also continued to expand or increase sales outlets and add optometry equipment and instruments. Some cities also attach great importance to theoretical education. For example, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chongqing, etc. have also opened short-term training courses on Ding glasses technology and individual professional technical schools for employees, cultivating a large number of professional and technical talents for the glasses industry.
In April 1985, initiated and led by the Ministry of Light Industry, the founding conference of the "China Optical Association" for the national optical industry was held in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province. There were 140 collective member companies *** present at the meeting, including 85 large-scale key companies, which were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Light Industry, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Machinery Industry, the Ministry of Ordnance Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Health and National Science and Technology Commission; located in 31 cities including 14 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions; with 27,237 employees. Among them, there are 393 technical personnel: 15 units with more than 500 people, 29 units with 200-500 people, and 41 units with less than 200 people. According to economic nature: 15 national enterprises, 49 collective enterprises, township enterprises Io, several Sino-foreign joint ventures. These 85 units have a net fixed asset value of 145.22 million yuan. The annual production capacity in 1984 was: 20.18 million pairs of frames (including 5.9 million pairs of metal frames). 16.09 million pairs of lenses, 16.94 million pairs of blanks; total output value 140 million yuan, total sales I. 900 million yuan. The total profit is 34.49 million yuan. It exports 1.5 million pairs of frames and lenses every year and exchanges US$750,000 in foreign exchange. More than a year after the establishment of the Optical Glasses Association, nearly a hundred manufacturers and merchants applied to join the association. By the end of 1986, it had grown to 240 collective member companies with more than 30,000 employees.
my country's Optical Glasses Association The development of the industry has gone through thousands of years of development and changes. So far, it has formed a large industry with a certain scale and certain supporting production capabilities. It has become an indispensable part of the entire national economy and has made due contributions to the country and the people.
The glasses industry Properties and functions
1. What are glasses?
The so-called glasses are a tool worn on the forehead and eyes of a person's head, used to beautify the face, correct vision, and protect the eyes. Glasses are composed of lenses and frames (i.e. frames, legs) (contact glasses are worn outside). Without frames, they are called lenses, and without lenses, they are called frames. The changes in its shape, frame, and legs are due to changes in the times and the invention of new materials and techniques, and are symbols of the art works of the times.
2. The nature and function of glasses
Glasses are not only necessary to protect your eyes, but also a beauty decoration. In terms of the function of the lens, it has the function of adjusting the amount of light entering the eye, increasing vision, protecting eye safety and clinically treating eye diseases. For children with strabismus caused by refractive abnormalities and patients with refractive abnormalities accompanied by headaches, after wearing glasses All can be treated. As for the function of spectacle frames, in addition to supporting the lenses and constituting glasses to be worn on people's eyes, they also have beauty and decorative properties. Modern fashionistas emphasize that glasses should be in harmony with the facial makeup and clothing of people of the era, and reflect the symbols of social class, elegance, fashion, etc. Therefore, the previous summary of the historical status and role of glasses is: "Currently, glasses protect the soul and correct vision and benefit the people." It basically summarizes the nature and function of glasses.
The so-called protection of the "window of the soul" is based on the evaluation of the status and role of the eyes in various organs of the human body as the "window of the soul" by foreign optical circles, ophthalmology experts and scholars. Therefore, glasses are said to be a tool to protect the "window of the soul".
With the rapid development of social technology, the continuous improvement of people's culture and living standards, and the development of vision care work, glasses are playing an important role in protecting the "window of the soul". will play an important role in people's lives.