The Royal Society's Glass Workers' Cataract Committee; Sir William Crookes and the development of sunglasses

Abstract

After the inclusion of a number of industrial diseases and injuries in the Workmen's Compensation Acts of 1896 and 1906, the government asked the Royal Society to investigate how and why glare and heat apparently caused glassworkers to develop cataracts during their working lives. The activities between 1908 and 1928 of the Glass Workers' Cataract Committee, which was made up of chemists, physiologists and ophthalmologists, are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the attempts by the octogenarian William Crookes (PRS 1913–15) to formulate a spectacle glass that was opaque to infrared and ultraviolet radiation. While providing relief for industrial workers, the research also laid the foundation for the modern sunglasses industry. Other significant work of the Committee concerned the biochemistry of the eye.

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