Binoculars By Tiana Cartledge

History The famous Zeiss scientist and manager, Ernst Abbe created the first commercially successful prism binocular The design was soon copied or near copied by almost every optical company across the world. This is a sample of an improvement of that design in monocular form. It is known as the rotating Marineglas with 5x and 10 eyepieces. These were an 1896 design and are exceeding rare to day in both binocular and monocular form.

How Binoculars have changed  About 1905, Zeiss began to use roof prisms in their binoculars.  Zeiss made more variants of prism binoculars than any other firm. At first brass and heavy alloys were used to for the body of the binocular but over the time between 1905 and 1935, new improvement came to these glasses. Aluminum became stronger and less expensive. New oculars were computed and the quality of the glass available became better and better. In 1934, Dr. Smakula perfected the first lens coating process and they were soon incorporated into German military equipment. This pair of 8 x 60 H were a gigantic leap forward in design and coating. These were made before 1941 and were not available for civilian use. The light passage and the coating made this the best glass of their day and would challenge even the best binoculars of today. This was an example of the Nazi governments commitment to the best materials regardless of cost.

How binoculars work The functioning of binoculars is based on the principles of light refraction, distance and light reflection.. The process begins with a series of lenses. The lenses focus on an object and gather the light from it. As the light passes through a series of lenses, the image gets larger. Binoculars differ from a telescope in that they allow the image to be transmitted to both eyes at once. Binocular lenses are curved pieces of glass. A binocular can have several lenses; in fact, the more lenses that the binocular has, the better the magnification. Unfortunately, each time the image passes into the next lens, light is lost, so binoculars include a prism that bends and reflects light into the lenses. The prism also flips the image. Without it, everything you see through the lenses would be upside down.

Where it is used and who uses it.  They are used at sporting events (spectator sports), live theatre and concerts, on mountain tops, camping trips, stargazing and in wars.  Hunters, bird watches, sports fans, travellers, campers, stargazer, boaters, marines and lots of other people use binoculars. .

The Future  The binoculars of the future will be part of a digital information system. They will not only amplify your seeing but will also make video and sound recordings of your experiences. They will link wirelessly to the personal computer in your pocket, where your birding database resides. The computer, in turn, will be linked by satellite to a world-wide information network.

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