Page 92 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2017

VISION PROTECTION
How Protective Eyewear Has Changed Dramatically Over the Decades
Today’s safety eyewear can be so lightweight and comfortable that at times workers don’t even notice they are wearing it once it’s on. BY GILBERT R. IGO
88 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2017
www.ohsonline.com
Protective eyewear has come a long way since it was first invented in 1880. P. Johnson’s pat- ented “eye protector” used two layers of semi- opaque cloth. His goal was to have firemen,
furnace-men, and others exposed to bright lights use them to reduce the intensity. However, his “eye protec- tor” did not yet offer any impact protection.
Today, safety eyewear is worn by those working in the manufacturing, construction, and medical indus- tries to protect their eyes from impact, particles in the air, glare, and, in some cases, harmful ultraviolet light rays. In honor of National Safety Month, below is an overview of the history of vision protection leading up to 2017, where recent and continued advances in safety eyewear—from style and fit to functionality— give great reasons for workers to want to wear modern day protective eyewear.
The History of Safety Eyewear
In 1903, French scientist Edouard Benedictus made a clumsy mistake that led to his invention of safety glass. He was climbing a ladder in his laboratory to retrieve reagents from a shelf when he knocked a glass flask to the floor. He heard the glass shatter but then, to his astonishment, discovered that the pieces of the broken flask still hung together, essentially in
their original contour. Benedictus inspected the situ- ation and found the flask had recently held a solu- tion of cellulose nitrate, a liquid plastic. Although it had evaporated or been washed out of the flask, it appeared to have deposited a thin coating of plastic on the flask’s interior.
Shortly thereafter, when reading a story in the Paris newspaper about a recent rash of automobile accidents in which drivers were seriously injured by shattered glass windshields, Benedictus had the idea to experiment with the liquid plastic by using it to coat glass and thereby create safety glass that could be used in automobile windshields.
Meanwhile, around the same time in the United States, America’s first teacher of optics, Julius King, grew concerned about industrial eye injuries. As a re- sult, his company set up an industrial safety and eye protection department and, in 1909, the Julius King Optical Company developed the first safety goggle in collaboration with American Optical. They were called SANIGLAS. A few years later, in 1914, Ameri- can Optical urged the industry to also pay attention to the importance of providing prescription lenses in the safety goggles of workers with imperfect vision.
By 1935, Furnace Goggles were invented for “fur- nace men and forge workers” to protect their eyes
3M PERSONAL SAFETY DIVISION