I doubt many people take any notice of the little numbers above headline in this leader column but they tell many tales.
To the right is the number 6,500. This represents the number of weekly issues Optician has published since its founding in 1891. It’s amazing that a young journalist, Charles Hyatt-Woolf, dreamt up the idea of a weekly magazine for opticians following an enquiry from a reader. On April 2 1891 the magazine appeared for the first time to inform and educate the new breed of opticians popping up around Victorian Britain. Apart from one issue in 1941, during the dark days of World War II, Optician has appeared every week since.
There is too much history to tell here but the nature of Optician has remained true to its founder’s wishes. Hyatt-Woolf applied pressure which led to the creation of the optical bodies but more important he was a pioneer for optical education just as Optician is today.
It’s also interesting to note that the first issue of Optician carried advertising mainly from suppliers in Birmingham, the historic home of optical manufacturing, and not London where the magazine was published.
It’s perhaps fitting then that Optrafair and the Optician Awards honoured the optical profession and industry in the very same city last weekend.