ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with methods which have been in use for several centuries as applied to the making by hand of a single prism or lens. The manufacture of single optical components, whether prisms, lenses or parallel plates, consists of four main operations, are Sawing the blank from the raw (slab) glass and Rough grinding to size and angle. The other operations are Fine grinding while maintaining angles and Polishing and finishing the part. The glass is first scored by a hard steel roller and placed, with the scored surface uppermost, on the table of the press. The rate of removal of glass by pitch polishers is so slow that much time can be saved by smoothing the surface flat to nearly the same precision as is ultimately required in the polished state. During the fine grinding process, the angles of the prisms are maintained to the required precision.
