More fun with old pat-ents
Patent 1460954, by Carl Fairbanks of Wichita, 1923.
![](http://ockhamsbungalow.com/blog131/eyestrain.jpg)
The title is 'Educational Sign'. Why was it educational? The innards of the sign had a complex set of worm gears turning two disks behind the two awful peepholes. Each step of the disks showed a nearsighted eye with a scene blurred appropriately, or a farsighted eye with an unblurred scene, etc. Yet another application of the
wheel chart idea, which was extremely common in the '20s.
There was only one real ed-u-ca-tion involved. If you managed to look at this hor-ri-ble thing long enough to get ed-u-cat-ed, you'd definitely need the services of the op-tom-e-trist. Or a stiff drink of al-co-hol, which was unfortunately un-a-vail-a-ble in 1923.
(Calibrating: This resembles an animation I've done in neurology courseware. In that context the internal anatomy is appropriate and necessary. It's not appropriate for an advertising billboard.)
Labels: Entertainment