Prism and Lens Making: A Textbook for Optical Glassworkers, Second Edition is a unique compendium of the art and science of the optical working of glass for the production of mirrors, lenses, and prisms. Incorporating minor corrections and a foreword by Professor Walter Welford FRS, this reissue of the 1957 edition provides a wealth of technical information and hands-on guidance gained from a lifetime of experience. Although some of the techniques have been replaced by more modern methods, this classic book is still a valuable source of practical assistance as well as being a pleasure to read. About the Author Frank Twyman was a skilled craftsman in all aspects of optics. He joined Otto Hilger in 1898 to work on the production of simple spectroscopes costing less than £10 each. After the death of Otto Hilger, Twyman became Managing Director of Adam Hilger Ltd., a company known for the finest quality optical and mechanical work. He worked here from 1902 to 1946 and was very concerned with the practical aspects of instrument making; he designed many of the instruments himself and constantly strove to improve the techniques of optical grinding and polishing. In 1916 Twyman and Alfred Green, the foreman of the Hilger optical shops, patented the now-famous prism and lens testing interferometer that bears their names. Twyman also undertook fundamental studies in the annealing process for glass and invented new spectrophotometers and spectrographs.

This text examines the various ways in which prisms and small mirrors typically are designed and mounted in optical instruments. It provides analytical tools for evaluating different designs, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of various techniques. The book, in part, is an outgrowth of SPIE short courses taught by the author and is a companion to his 1995 volume Mounting Lenses in Optical Instruments. The work should be useful for engineers and other practitioners in the fields of optical engineering and optomechanical design.

Entirely updated to cover the latest technology, this Second Edition gives optical designers and optomechanical engineers a thorough understanding of the principal ways in which optical components - lenses, windows, filters, shells, domes, prisms, and mirrors of all sizes - are mounted in optical instruments.Along with new information on tolerancing, sealing considerations, elastomeric mountings, alignment, stress estimation, and temperature control, two new chapters address the mounting of metallic mirrors and the alignment of reflective and catadioptric systems.The updated accompanying CD-ROM offers a convenient spreadsheet of the many equations that are helpful in solving problems encountered when mounting optics in instruments.

From the early ground and polished prism facets of glass lighthouse Fresnel lenses to modern microreplicated flexible Fresnel lenses for solar concentrators, new applications of prismatic optical components for light control are constantly being developed. In addition, innovations utilizing single and compound prismatic and reflective optical components are emerging in the fields of metrology, polarization control, projection systems, illumination, and display lighting, among others. State-of-the-art multilayer optical coatings have enabled novel prism and reflector geometries to be developed for specific functions. The techniques and examples presented in this book should provide a good background to analyze, evaluate, and understand prismatic and reflector applications described in the literature. The material in this book may inspire readers themselves to create novel and useful devices utilizing prismatic and reflective optical components.

Prism and Lens Making: A Textbook for Optical Glassworkers, Second Edition is a unique compendium of the art and science of the optical working of glass for the production of mirrors, lenses, and prisms. Incorporating minor corrections and a foreword by Professor Walter Welford FRS, this reissue of the 1957 edition provides a wealth of technical information and hands-on guidance gained from a lifetime of experience. Although some of the techniques have been replaced by more modern methods, this classic book is still a valuable source of practical assistance as well as being a pleasure to read.