Echoes of the Past: A belting job

This week’s Echoes of the Past from Optician focuses on the great strides prescription laboratories were making in the sixties thanks to semi-automated production.

The August 1965 issue of Optician publishes the account of a visit to George Barber of Lenses Ltd on Farringdon Road.

In the month The Beatles attempted to be heard through a chorus of screaming fans at Shea Stadium, some of the all female glazing department at the London lab would no doubt spend some of their hard earned cash buying the Fab Four’s Rubber Soul album later that year.

On the factory floor, new technologies were being implemented at the three-storey facility, with belt conveyors and small lifts reducing the physical nature of the job.