An everyday tale from lens folk. 

Manufacturing optics is such a delight as you can never predict from one day to the next what can pop in through the door.  Now I’ve never seen one of these sparkly lenses before you couldn’t feel the lines / cracks from its surface, only when touched by oblique light, then it sparkled as a diamond.

Enquiring of the sender they said “it’s the woodman’s spectacles”. CR39 HC progressive as well. He keeps them for years and always knocks the life out of them, Spending a lot of his time with mega bonfires during clearing and burning we put the crystalised lens surface down to bonfire heat.  You would have thought it would have toasted his face as well, perhaps it fell out of his pocket and then became toasted or was it all just a country tale the DO constructed for townies! 

One thing it won’t have been is through putting the specs in a washing machine as they were just so dirty, but the key question why just one lens. Could be similar to the microwave oven story, no not putting the specs in but a few years back now we saw a number of issues with one lens of a pair going milky (CR39). The lady in question had a very narrow kitchen and the microwave was always on her right, yes the right lens was the milky one whilst the left looked as normal. It was concluded the wearer’s nose likely absorbed any escaping radiation reaching the left lens. Whether a not dissimilar episode triggered this particular woodman’s lenses we likely will never know! Something else to list with those other mystery lens stories.

Either way the effect was most eye catching, and no we can’t replicate it to order, but somewhere in those Devon woods is an old codger who might just know how it really happened!

Manufacturing Optics is such fun