MR LOWE'S SPECTACLES.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2547, 6 March 1877, Page 3

MR LOWE'S SPECTACLES.

In a sketch of the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, the World refers as follows to his fondness for .reading and his defective sight:—lt may be said of Mr Lowe that he is an almost incessant reader. . Nothing comes amiss to him—pamphlets, philosophical treatises, essays,- and novels. Early in the morning or late at night, at every odd moment he has a yellow-cbvered-romance in his hand, novelreading being the wildest form of dissipation in which he indulges. He is a subscriber to -the London Library, and sends up a list which astonishes the officials of that institution. What is most extraordinary is, that all this reading, saving for an hour or two in the evening, when he engages some one ..to read to him, is done by a man who is compelled to follow each and every line of printed matter from end to end, word by word. This tedious toil is imposed by peculiar condition under which only he can read at ail with any kind of comfort. The eyes under his white, bushy, almost Thurlovian eyebrows are so defective that their possessor can read neither with nor without spectacles. Destitute ofpigmentum nigrum, the delicate pupils require protection from the top-searching sunlight, and assistance in magnifying power without the disadvantage of rei'ractien. Ordinary spectacles are therefore useless, and Mr Lowe, haring tried in vain the devices of opticians, excogitated for himself an instrument which has proved completely successful. Observing the fondness of children for looking through a piece of paper pierced with a couple of minute holes in order to magnify object, he was struck with the idea that a somewhat similar contrivance, which should magnify without refracting and exclude the rays of intolerable day at the same time, would serve his purpose exactly. !After various experiments he produced the famous "goggles " that he now wears. They are cosaposed of a couple of the pieces of .metal known to anglers as spoonbait, connected with a bit of elastic webbing across the nose,, and a longer piece to fit round the back of his head. The spoon-baits—with the convex side outward, of course—fit (the writer has tried them) very comfortably over the eyes. ' On first putting them on the light is almost entirely excluded; but as they are more perfectly adjusted, a small but clear field of vision appears through a tiny perforation opposite the pupil of- each eye. The aim is completely attained; the object is magnified, and. the eye relieved from the torture occasioned by refraction. There is but one disadvan r tage in the .use of goggles—the field is so small that the head must in reading be kept constantly on the move."