Page 4
DOC
Doc's role as a teacher to those of a scientific nature was becoming more apparent during the 1930's. Often he'd invite young questioning physics apprentices or mathematicians home where they would spend hours discussing and theorizing. Doc's quick insight into their problems made him a popular mentor and guide. One example was a case where he quickly diagnosed a simple problem with a high speed radar antenna even though he had never worked with one before that evening. One of Doc's traits was that even though he did use theoretical analysis, his real interest lay more at seeing the heart of the problem and devising experiments or other methods to verify his theories.154
In 1931,155 Doc used one of the existing theories (Tscherning's theory) which said that if the optical center of a bifocal is raised, the image jump, a common phenomenon experienced when people wear bifocals, is reduced. This was the first time it was used for a practical application.
Bifocal lenses help a patient see objects faraway and close up. Traditional bifocals achieve this by combining parts or "segments" of two lenses. The top segment provides distance refractive correction and allows clear vision of distant objects. The bottom part provides near refractive correction which allows the wearer to read or see clearly at close distances. In conventional bifocals, the two completely different segments, were joined creating a visible line.156
This visible line created when the two segments were fused caused the visible image to appear to jump as the patient's gaze moved from one segment to the other.
Doc created the TILLYER Ful-Vue Bifocal which reduced the jump in the image so that it was virtually gone. The image jump appeared so small because the optical center was only 4 millimeters below the top of the segment. This lens was recommended to new bifocal wearers who are often distracted by this jump in the image as they raise their gaze.157
Intricate scientific problems were always tempting to Doc. Often, at the seemingly meaningless incident, he would seize a pad of paper and cover it with an astonishing array of mathematical computations.158
Doc in conference with Dr. A. Estelle GLANCY
and John DAVIS
Dr. A. Estelle GLANCY, Doc's right-hand person since the beginning of Doc's Research Laboratory, was the expert in matters pertaining to lens design.159 She did the "lion's share" of the computing behind the TILLYER Lens Series. That was quite a task, involving many years of work, because it was long before the days of mechanical calculations ("to say nothing of computers").160 She was distinguished in the field in her own right. She was the subject of magazine articles about "the only woman lens designer." She did some significant original work and received patents in her own name.161 Dr. GLANCY added a great deal to Doc's team and never got enough recognition or credit. Doc's family never got to know her very well but felt sorry for her. Doc never found anyone to truly replace her when she eventually left the AO.162
Dr. GLANCY was very hard of hearing. She had an electric box on her desk that resembled a radio and was equipped with a microphone and speaker to help her hear. Dr. GLANCY also carried a horn with her when she was out of the office.163 Doc became interested in hearing aids because of her. Lt. Col. Eugene MC DONALD Jr., the founder of Zenith Corporation and who was himself deaf (from naval gunfire in World War I), heard about Doc interest in hearing aid and they joined forces. Zenith became the first to produce hearing aids that were in the price range of the average person and Doc offered expertise and he offered a willing guinea pig - Dr. GLANCY. Dr. GLANCY went on to establish the Massachusetts Guild for the Hard of Hearing.164
This added to the interesting paradoxical situation of Doc's relation to women. He seemed to only respect the opinions of a woman if it was outside of the home.
John DAVIS was hired as an understudy for Dr. GLANCY as a lens designer in 1939165. He remembers Doc as an affectionate, patient man, anxious to help those around him. Many times Doc would say to DAVIS, "Now Johnny, let me show you something," and he would take out one of the many pencils from his breast pocket and draw a sketch of a remarkable simplification to a complex problem. The answers to the problem would flow across the paper.
Doc didn't carry just one pen or one pencil in his pockets. He carried a pocket full. There were two reasons for this. First, Doc liked to keep himself up-to-date. He investigated every new invention he saw. Small things like new mechanical pencils, pens or flashlights found their way into his pockets. The larger things were stashed around his office. The second reason was to be prepared to explain ideas to the young men that always seemed to be around him. There were always young engineers in his office or conference room looking for ideas or discussing problems of mutual interest. These discussions could not be made without the ever present pencil and pad of scratch paper. After these discussions, these drawings and sketches were picked up and saved by Doc's audience. Often the pencils were picked up inadvertently by the participants, also.166
Colin YATES, Master Lens Maker at the AO, ran the shop that put Doc's ideas into prototype form. Doc would walk through YATES' workshop daily inspecting and advising on projects under development. Often, Doc would say, "Colin, remember that problem we talked about yesterday? Well, I just had a wild idea. Why not try . . . " YATES later commented, "You know usually those wild ideas worked."
YATES discovered the secret of Doc's wild ideas however. One day YATES happened to go into Doc's office when Doc was not there. He saw a pile of papers filled with figures and equations suggesting that these spontaneous "wild ideas" had been developed during an all night working and thinking session at home.167
Piled next to Doc's chair in his living room were stacks of magazines, papers and books. These books, often as not, were from the research laboratory's library and were not checked out. Esther (BARNES) THORBURN, in addition to being Doc's secretary, was the librarian for the library. Often staff from the laboratory would ask her for books which could not be found only to be discovered in one of Doc's piles at home. Once, Florence called Esther.
"Esther," she pled, "you've got to come and get these books. They're all over the place."
Esther drove up to the house and filled her car with AO Research Library books that had been missing for months. What happened when Doc returned home and found the books gone will never be known.168
In 1938, Doc developed the Phoropter169 which is still in use by ophthalmologists and optometrists today. This device is a large floor mounted instruments that the patient looks through when being "refracted" or examined by the doctor.170 This device uses the additive powers of specifically designed lenses (Trial Set Lenses). By having his patients look through combinations of lenses, each with a specific correction, the doctor could determine the proper type of lens to prescribe. All the doctor had to do was to add the marking of each lens used.171
Please contact me with any comments, additions, corrections or anything else involved with Doc's biography.
We hope that you find this useful and interesting
Tim TILLYER