Putting the Progress in Progressive
03-2009
By Andrew Karp, Group Editor, Lenses & Technology
 Like many of you, I’m a progressive lens wearer. I like my progressives a lot and wouldn’t trade them for any other lens.
What I like best about them, other than the fact that I can see clearly at all distances, is that they are perfectly named. To me, progressive lenses mean more than just multifocals without segment lines. Progressive lenses have always signified progress.
In the 20 years I’ve been writing about lenses, there’s been tremendous progress made in progressives. In the late 1980s, eyeglass wearers could choose from only a couple dozen progressive lenses. Most were “hard” designs that were difficult to adapt to.
Continual improvements in progressive designs and vastly expanded lens material options have allowed millions more people to enjoy wearing them. Nearly every optical store or eyecare practice in the developed world sells progressives and there are hundreds of lenses to choose from at a variety of price points. Because they combine advanced technology with fashion, they have become the de facto symbol of Baby Boomers everywhere. And because people are willing to pay a premium for them, they are among the most profitable products in the dispensary. Now that’s what I call progress!
 Of course, Bernard Maitenaz could not have predicted any of this when he invented Varilux I, the first successful progressive lens, in 1959. He knew there had to be something better than bifocals and trifocals, and he was determined to overcome the technical hurdles to make his idea a reality. In the age before computers, he worked out his optical calculations with a pencil and paper. After much trial and error, he came up with a series of spherical surfaces—and later, aspheric surfaces for both distance and near—that would provide a substitute for lost acccomodation. It was a true optical breakthrough, as radical an idea as the original bifocal was when it was invented by Benjamin Franklin.
Although Maitenaz is the technological heir to Franklin, the two men are united by more than just optics. History buffs will recall that Franklin was, among his many accomplishments, the first U.S. ambassador to France. Apparently, he was a big hit in Paris, charming the members of the French royal court with his intellect and wit. He was the first American many of them had met and he helped open the door for future Franco-American relations.
Two hundred years later, Maitenaz, a Frenchman, reversed the situation. Although it took many years, his invention eventually won over American eyeglass wearers and made Essilor the leading progressive lens maker in the U.S. and internationally. Maitenaz, who rose to become chairman of Essilor, has been honored worldwide for his contributions to optics.
The true value of Maitenaz’s invention is that it continues to be reinvented. The latest progressives, featuring free-form designs and made with digital surfacing technology, surpass everything that came before. Progress continues to be made in progressives and tomorrow’s progressives promise to be even better than today’s.
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