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The Binocular

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Johannes Lippershey developed the binocular at the same time that he created the monocular telescope. In fact, Lippershey’s binoculars were simply two of his monocular telescopes fixed together. Just like their monocular cousins, early binoculars were unwieldy and not ideal for spying. This didn’t stop the Netherlands military, however, from purchasing three pairs for 900 florins, approximately $1000 each today.

Use of binoculars was not widespread until the 1800s when attention was refocused on their design. At that time, new attempts were made to coordinate 2 monoculars into a single instrument.

Attempts to combine the two monoculars created a couple of problems- trying to focus both eyes simultaneously and accounting for inter-pupillary distances (the distance between the centers of the pupils). The solution to focusing both eyes simultaneously was to place an internal screw between the two barrels and then attaching a third frame. Folding bridges solved the problem of inter-pupillary distances, but other solutions included oval shaped lenses, which simply increased the field of view.
The most striking improvement in binoculars came in 1870 when Ernst Abbe of the Carl Zeiss Company created the binocular prism. The prism acted like Sir Isaac Newton’s mirror, allowing the tube lengths of the binoculars to be shortened. Thus the user was finally able to see a larger image without a long optical tube.
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