%0 Journal Article
%T Rather unspectacular: design choices in National Health Service glasses
%A Joanne Gooding
%D 2017
%V Special Issue: Sound and Vision
%N Spring 2017
%K design
%K eyewear
%K government intervention in design
%K medical humanities
%K National Health Service
%K NHS
%K NHS glasses
%K optical trade
%K social stigma
%K utility
%K welfare state
%X This article considers the design and production of spectacles in Britain following the introduction of standardised frame styles under the National Health Service. NHS spectacles were provided as a functional, durable medical appliance to be delivered cost-effectively and there was no explicit concern for fashion or the patient experience. The actions of the government and professional bodies greatly affected the trade in eyewear and thus restricted opportunities for innovative design and consumer choice. Within the range of state regulation frames there was no active concern for ‘design’ in terms of appearance and it was only through the purchase of private frames that significant choice and variety in eyewear could be attained. The scope for the public to select a more fashionable frame whilst receiving an element of state aid was through the purchase of NHS hybrid private frames.
%Z In the UK 74% of people either wear corrective eyewear or have had laser eye surgery. 69% of people in the UK wear glasses (The College of Optometrists report of 2013 Britain's Eye Health in Focus – A snapshot of consumers’ attitudes and behaviour towards eye health).

%Z Design History draws from a wide number of disciplines such as business history, social history of science and technology, anthropology, and material culture studies as well as scholarship on decorative arts, and museum studies. For a discussion of the theory and method of the discipline, see Fallan, K, 2010, Design History: understanding theory and method (Oxford: Berg); Fallan, K, 2010, Design History: understanding theory and method (Oxford: Berg), p viii.

%Z Design History is a relatively new historical discipline which originated in the art education sector hence it is closely linked to History of Art; the main focus has now evolved to examine objects as material culture and as a means to uncover social and cultural histories. The Masters course at the RCA/V&A was one of the first postgraduate courses in Design History; one approach taken on this course was to consider social history through changes in a category of objects and relate this to advances in technology, materials and production techniques. For more on the development of this discipline and the role of different courses see the PhD research by Jo Gooding at Northumbria University and the Design History Society. Gooding, J V, 2013, Design History in Britain from the 1970s to 2012: Context, formation, and development. Available at: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/14688/1/gooding.joanne_phd.pdf (accessed 18 March 2016).

%Z The Science Museum Group collection online catalogue has 104 records for ‘eyeglasses’ and 264 for people registered as ‘optician’. The search results for optics returned many more records, as this includes lenses, microscopes and mathematical instruments.

%Z I am grateful to researcher Gemma Almond at the Science Museum for uncovering details relating to the collection and acquisition of items in the Museum collection. The Dunscombe collection was originally rejected in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century but later deposited by the company in 1921. The Dixey collection was deposited by the wife of a former director in 2000; judging by the Dixey correspondence, the curator wanted them because they represented fashions of the time and felt there were not enough twentieth-century spectacles in the collection in general.

%Z See for example; Lurie, A, 1992, Language of Clothes (London: Bloomsbury); Davis, F, 1985, ‘Clothing and Fashion as communication’ in Soloman, M R (ed), The Psychology of Fashion (Massachusetts: Lexington Books); and Barnard, M, 1996, Fashion as Communication (London: Routledge). Malcolm Barnard explains that the meaning communicated by garments, and by extension accessories, is external and the result of interpretations by the wearer and the spectator; he links this to semiotic theory.

%Z Due to the advertising restrictions on the trade for spectacles there is not a huge body of visual source material. Additionally, spectacle wearers often remove their frames for formal photographs. The visual material that is available is often from different countries. Professional bodies in Europe and America did not have such trade restrictions, or the frames are sunglasses rather than corrective eyewear. The author is currently planning to conduct a further research project into the memories that people have of wearing NHS frames, and how they contributed to identity.

%Z Under this system the employer paid contributions in addition to those made by the insured person, but only approximately twenty-five per cent of the population took out insurance and were entitled to benefit; the NHS opened entitlement to all (Smith, P, 1996, p 11).

%Z The additional benefits supplied by The National Health Insurance Approved Societies (Insurance Companies) funded 15 million eye examinations between 1923 and 1948 (Smith, P, 1996, p 11).

%Z Comprehensive registration would not be obtained until the second half of the twentieth century and the 1958 Optician Act. For further discussion of the various factions within the profession see the detailed account offered by Smith, in The History of the AOP.

%Z A Harrods catalogue from 1915 shows examples of spectacles and eyeglasses, although it does invite customers to use the services of the experienced optician in the department. Spectacles could be bought for 6d. over-the-counter at Woolworths stores in Britain up until the 1950s (Timmins, N, 1996, p 107).

%Z On the Utility Design Scheme see: Attfield, J, 1999; Geffrye Museum, 1974; Sparke, P, 1986; Maguire, P, Woodham, J, 1997; Woodham, 1996. On promotion of design ideologies at the Festival of Britain see Forgan, S, 1998, ‘Festivals of science and the two cultures: science, design and display’ in the Festival of Britain, 1951, The British Journal for the History of Science, 31, pp 217–240 doi:10.1017/S0007087498003264

%Z The oldest British optical organisation is the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers (Spectacle Makers Company), which became a livery company in 1809. Robert Alt petitioned King Charles I for a charter, which was granted on 16 May 1629. This charter ensured quality in the making of spectacles, providing quality control and an early form of consumer protection (Smith, 1996).

%Z In 1890 a reader’s letter to a London newspaper requesting information about spectacle lenses led to Charles Hyatt-Woolf setting up The Optician – The Organ of the Optical, Mathematical, Philosophical, Electrical and Photographic Instrument Industries and Review of Jewellery and Allied Trades. The first issue was published on 2 April 1891. The name was altered on several occasions. In 1907, 1916 and again in 1926 when the title became The Optician – The Optometrist and Optical Engineer.

%Z An ophthalmologist is the most highly medically qualified, they can identify eye disease and may practice eye surgery; they may test sight and give a prescription but they do not dispense spectacles (under the National Health scheme they were also referred to as an ophthalmic medical practitioner). An ophthalmic optician is trained to test sight and recognise abnormalities of the eye; they may prescribe and dispense spectacles. Spectacles can also be obtained from a dispensing optician, who can make up spectacles to a prescription but is not qualified to test sight.

%Z There were several acts covering England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Smith, P, 1986, p 25. On the National Health Service also see Berridge, V, 1999, Health and Society in Britain since 1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); Cutler, T, Waine, B (eds), 1998 Managing the Welfare State, The Politics of the Public Sector (Oxford: Berg); Fraser, D, 2000, The Welfare State (Stroud: Sutton Publishing); Grimes, S, 1991, The British National Health Service – State Intervention in the Medical Marketplace (New York: Garland Publishing.); Macpherson, G (ed), 1998, Our NHS – A celebration on 50 Years (London: BMJ books); and Timmins, N, 1995, The Five Giants – A biography of the Welfare State (London: Fontana)

%Z The National Health Service Acts of 1946 introduced wide-ranging changes to healthcare and these were effective from 5 July 1948. The optical care provision via the Supplementary Ophthalmic Services were initially a temporary measure – the intention was for comprehensive eye care centres.

%Z Measures such as rationing and the Utility scheme remained in place until 1952 to control the production and pricing of goods whilst shortages lasted. The Geffrye Museum catalogue, Utility Furniture and Fashion (1974) states the period of Utility to be 1941 to 1951, with the Festival of Britain and the end of the Attlee government to signal the end. Although Judy Attfield’s anthology Utility Reassessed (1999, p 2) cites the period as 1942–1952. Rationing was withdrawn in 1952.

%Z Although some frames were still hand-produced by individual opticians under the NHS scheme the majority were batch produced on a large scale.

%Z The committee was formed from the representatives of the Association of Wholesale and Manufacturing Opticians National Health Committee, The Joint Emergency Committee for The Optical Profession, and The Guild of British Dispensing Opticians. See ministerial notes from 1948, National Archives file MH136/56

%Z Ministerial notes, March 1948, in National Archives file MH136/56

%Z Minutes from a meeting held on 6 May 1948, National Archives file MH136/56

%Z By 1969 this range was reduced to only twenty NHS frame types.

%Z The children’s frame in a Windsor style was available with a pad bridge or cyl ‘W’ bridge and with either special nickel curl sides for children or half-covered curl sides. Combinations of these components made four frames, each with a similar appearance when worn, the C211, C213, C221 and the C223.

%Z ‘The Ophthalmic Services – The National Health Service Act, 1946. Report on Concluding Stages of negotiations prior to July 5th, 1948’, National Archives MH 136 / 56. ‘…the free range – corresponding to Classes I, II, and III of the O.B.A.C. range with obsolete frames taken out, plus No. 30 from Class IV. The contributory range – the remaining frames in the O.B.A.C. Class IV…’

%Z Regulations 3 of the National Health Service (Supplementary Ophthalmic Services) Regulations, 1948 specified the range of frames, quality and pattern. Regulations covering the use of the certification trademark were made under the Trademarks Act, 1938. See Giles, G H, 1953, The Ophthalmic Services Under The National Health Service Acts 1946–1952 (London: Hammond & Hammond), pp 87–90

%Z This listed approved makers of plastic spectacle frames and initially comprised 252 firms. As time progressed many firms did not produce the full range of styles, choosing only to manufacture the most sought after.

%Z Records of the Standing Ophthalmic Advisory Committee have been located at the National Archives, although specific records of the Advisory Committee on Spectacle Frames have proved to be elusive. It would be of interest to find notes on decisions made on specific cases, although I doubt whether records of this nature existed. The whereabouts of the sealed examples of frames that were submitted to the Ministry is also unknown at this stage. The author would be interested if readers can offer information regarding this.

%Z Letter 94346/1/3 29th November 1950, National Archives MH 136 / 56 – National Health Service Act – Ophthalmic Industry Liaison Committee

%Z Letter 94346/1/3 November 1950, National Archives MH 136 / 56

%Z Letter 94346/1/3 November 1950, National Archives MH 136 / 56

%Z Minutes from a meeting on the 6 May 1948. National Archives file MH136/56

%Z Ministerial notes, 7 May 1948, National Archives file MH136/56

%Z Jeffrey Meikle has argued for plastic as ‘a material of choice for manufacturing’ and as an ‘emblem of modernity’ in America during this period (Meikle, 1995, p 18, p 63). The subsequent popularity of the plastic 524 NHS frame supports claims for the appeal of plastic as a modern material in post-war Britain.

%Z [1] Firms who produced these slight variations in frame style still had to have their designs authorised and conform to NHS criteria. The majority of firms made the popular plastic 514 and 524 patterns, although others such as Hadley Co Limited (identification letters ‘HC’) produced the full range of plastic frames: the 514, 515, 524, the 524HJ, 525, 614, and 615. Optician, 29 December 1950.

%Z Letter, 20 September 1950, from M Wiseman & Co. Ltd. National Archives file MH 136/56

%Z Letter, 20 September 1950, from M Wiseman & Co. Ltd. National Archives file MH 136/56

%Z Letter, 20 September 1950, from M Wiseman & Co. Ltd. National Archives file MH 136/56

%Z Ministerial notes 28 September 1950. National Archives file MH 136/56

%Z The Federation of Manufacturing Opticians advised me that there was no direct influence from the Council of Industrial Design. Discussion with S B Fisher at British Optical Association Museum, 2001. Further archive research in the Design Council archives has failed to provide evidence of connections.

%Z It is not in the scope of this article to discuss the complex professional debates that occurred at this time; except to note that these discussions echo those had by doctors and dentists, and the JCOO memorandum to the Royal Commission on Doctors and Dentists Remuneration, February 1958 draws a direct parallel to the duties of a dentist. National Archives: MH135/393

%Z Amongst these terms was the regulation that advertising, both directly or by implication, was not permitted. The expression ‘advertise’ was defined as: ‘a) the publication of a notice in any newspaper or other printed paper issued periodically for public circulation; b) the issue of circular letters; c) the use of letter headings, bill or account headings and the like; d) the publication of booklets, leaflets and pamphlets; e) canvassing in any form; f) the making of any public announcement by means of wireless, a gramophone record or loudspeaker; g) the display of any poster, a placard, or sign; h) the exhibition of any film, slide or announcement at a theatre, cinema or other place of public entertainment’. National Health Service regulations Part two: Terms Of Service For Ophthalmic Opticians, section 11.3, as described in Giles, G H, 1953, The Ophthalmic Services Under the National Health Service Act 1946–1952.

%Z A significant method of design historical research considers the mediation of information to the consumer through analysis of adverts as examples of visual culture. The omission of this wealth of research material for the post-war period presents a challenge for research as the material available within professional publications has a different focus and audience.

%Z Article by Frank Piggott in The Manufacturing Optician, March 1951. Piggott remained involved for 25 years, leaving the OIC in August 1976.

%Z Lucie Clayton ran a finishing school for society ladies. Models Learn Spec Beauty (aka Spectacle Fashion), 29 September 1958, canister number CP196, www.BritishPathe.com

%Z Invented by Neville Chappell, an expert in frame fitting and face shape, He was a frequent contributor to the optical press, and in the 1930s was touring the country lecturing about correct procedure for fitting frames. Through his study of the human face he acknowledged that the face was divided into three parts, one-third above the brow and two-thirds below, with the brow line being the most prominent feature of the face. He applied this simple observation about the structure of the face to his ideas for spectacle design. On 4 August 1939 Neville Chappell filed a patent for his design.

%Z A major French company, Societé des Lunetiers, approached Chappell in 1953 wishing to licence the Supra style. This collaboration resulted in the popular Nylor frame. Further development had made this frame more lightweight and a joint patent was filed in 1954 (‘A British Intervention Makes History – the Supra’, Optician, 4 August 1989, p 14). A German company, part of the Carl Zeiss foundation, also became interested, and a licence to manufacture was also agreed (Optician 26 June 1953).

%Z ‘In 1964 the Ministry of Health approved the first 'Regulation 12' frame (the Candida by Birch). The inner rim contour of Regulation 12 frames conformed to the NHS lens shape but the outer rims could be of a much more fashionable shape. Our experience at the museum is that a lot of people claim to remember their NHS glasses when they were not NHS glasses at all, but private Regulation 12 (also called ‘hybrid’) frames, glazed with NHS lenses.’ Handley, N, 2014, ‘NHS Spectacles’, British Optical Association Museum, available at: http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/museyeum/online_exhibitions/spectacles/nhsspecs.cfm (accessed 19 December 2014)

%Z As observed by the interviewer from Focus and reported in Optician, 16 January 1970, p 75–6

%Z The rules and regulations regarding the scheme for supply of NHS frames and lenses were not communicated in any clear explanatory form to patients until 1971.

%Z Letter 15 December 1959. National Archives file MH 135/620 and Parliamentary Questions, House of Commons 14 December 1959. No. 222/1959/60, 223/1959/60, 224/1959/60. National Archives file MH 135/620

%Z Letter from S W New, to the parliamentary secretary for the Ministry of Health, 23 February 1960. National Archives file MH 135/620. Although the source states NHI, it does in fact refer to the NHS.

%Z Frames were kept in display boxes. Information from Frank Norville. Also, ‘I produced the closed display case of NHS frames from its normal position, namely on a shelf beneath the checking table in the front shop’, account by an optician at Hudson Verity, 4 March 1960, National Archives file 135/620.

%Z These posters were issued by the Department of Health and Social Security, and provided information to the public about the welfare benefits available to them and where to go for further advice. These were functional and instructive pieces of visual communication, mainly text-led with a single image for each category of aid. The plastic 524 frame was presented as the symbol for optical care.

%Z ‘1975 cost of spectacle frames again rises, from 82p to £1.08 for the most popular basic spectacle frames’, The Times, 21 November 1975, p 1, cF

%Z When this initial research was undertaken the Ministry of Health/Department of Health and Social Security records for this period remained closed documents. New research will revisit these and examine issues of identity and social stigma attached to NHS frames.

%Z Discussion of the report and its recommendations was detailed in The Times, 24 September 1976, page 2, cF

%Z This leaflet gave outline drawings to illustrate the shapes of NHS frames. There were six adult fronts and three children’s fronts. There were no divisions along gender lines making suggestions for masculine or feminine styles. The only concession to gender was the colour. At this late point into the scheme plastic frames were available in six colours. Patients could choose from: ice blue, crystal, flesh, light brown mottle, dark brown mottle and black.

%Z See Andressen, B, 1998, Brillen – Spectacles – from Utility Article to Cult Object (Stuttgart: Arnodsche); Murray, S and Albrechtsen, N, 2012, Fashion Spectacles and Spectacular Fashion: Eyewear Styles and Shapes from Vintage to 2020 (London: Thames and Hudson)

%Z The author is currently bidding to conduct further research into the memories that people have of wearing these frames, and how it contributed to identity.

%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/rather-unspectacular/
%J Science Museum Group Journal