oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
The Forefinger and Thumb Miracle...... Vision for Partial Blindness!
If all the World already knows about this......... then please forgive me!
Measles in infancy distorted vision in my left eye, and damaged my right eye beyond full lens rectification. When I was young I would listen to my Dad's tales about the Retreat out of Burma during WWII. The survivors all had cravings, such as cool clean water, and for the rest of his life my Dad loved fruit that spurted juice when bitten, and boiled eggs. !
He told me about his first boiled egg after the retreat, and how he had seen a wrinkled and ancient man sitting in the road with a basket of eggs for sale. Every time he sold an egg this old man would hold it up to the light and by peering at it through the forefinger and thum of his other hand he would decide if it was any good or not. Some he discarded, and some he sold. My Dad would laugh at this memory, because sometime after that purchase he saw this same old man shuffling along and feeling his way with a stick...... clearly this man could not see, and so he thought that the forefinger-thumb display was obviously BS!
But it wasn't......... it was true, and for most of my life I have benefitted from what that ancient man knew and did! I first discovered this truth as a junior at school, making a pinhole in a card so that I could safely watch a partial solar eclipse. After making my pinhole in class I had held it up to my eye and looked through, and to my amazement I could see without my glasses. The teacher told me off and explained that once we went outside that nobody was allowed to look through their pinholes, but only to direct light through them onto papers. But I had already seen what pinholes can do, and It was only one step further to hold up my forefinger and thumb and experiment until one day I discovered the forefinger-thumb 'miracle'.
Even today I use this technique for reading very small print, so fine that I can't read it even with my glasses on, or seeing the time on our bedside clock in the middle of the night without specs. Back in the 90's after a very violent arrest incident my glasses were smashed to pieces (stop chuckling, @Revoltingest ! ) and I had to read my Statement (written for me by a Constable) before signing it. The Constable was quite amazed when I borrowed a receptionist's badge and used the pin to make a hole, through which I could read the entire Statement without trouble.
I hope I can upload all the pictures...... maybe there's a limit, in which case I will use the next post to completre all. I think they can explain themselves. Obviously I have had to replicate the conditions of poor sight by using photo-editing, but I think yiou can see how it all works. The picture of the pins is to show that a thick pin is required for such a hole, whereas the needle hole (shown beside it) dioes not let enough light through.
I hope that this has been interesting, and if you have very poor sight, then by experimenting with pinholes and your fingers you may well find a small miracle of your own, for use during the rest of your lives.
All the best.
Old-B
If all the World already knows about this......... then please forgive me!
Measles in infancy distorted vision in my left eye, and damaged my right eye beyond full lens rectification. When I was young I would listen to my Dad's tales about the Retreat out of Burma during WWII. The survivors all had cravings, such as cool clean water, and for the rest of his life my Dad loved fruit that spurted juice when bitten, and boiled eggs. !
He told me about his first boiled egg after the retreat, and how he had seen a wrinkled and ancient man sitting in the road with a basket of eggs for sale. Every time he sold an egg this old man would hold it up to the light and by peering at it through the forefinger and thum of his other hand he would decide if it was any good or not. Some he discarded, and some he sold. My Dad would laugh at this memory, because sometime after that purchase he saw this same old man shuffling along and feeling his way with a stick...... clearly this man could not see, and so he thought that the forefinger-thumb display was obviously BS!
But it wasn't......... it was true, and for most of my life I have benefitted from what that ancient man knew and did! I first discovered this truth as a junior at school, making a pinhole in a card so that I could safely watch a partial solar eclipse. After making my pinhole in class I had held it up to my eye and looked through, and to my amazement I could see without my glasses. The teacher told me off and explained that once we went outside that nobody was allowed to look through their pinholes, but only to direct light through them onto papers. But I had already seen what pinholes can do, and It was only one step further to hold up my forefinger and thumb and experiment until one day I discovered the forefinger-thumb 'miracle'.
Even today I use this technique for reading very small print, so fine that I can't read it even with my glasses on, or seeing the time on our bedside clock in the middle of the night without specs. Back in the 90's after a very violent arrest incident my glasses were smashed to pieces (stop chuckling, @Revoltingest ! ) and I had to read my Statement (written for me by a Constable) before signing it. The Constable was quite amazed when I borrowed a receptionist's badge and used the pin to make a hole, through which I could read the entire Statement without trouble.
I hope I can upload all the pictures...... maybe there's a limit, in which case I will use the next post to completre all. I think they can explain themselves. Obviously I have had to replicate the conditions of poor sight by using photo-editing, but I think yiou can see how it all works. The picture of the pins is to show that a thick pin is required for such a hole, whereas the needle hole (shown beside it) dioes not let enough light through.
I hope that this has been interesting, and if you have very poor sight, then by experimenting with pinholes and your fingers you may well find a small miracle of your own, for use during the rest of your lives.
All the best.
Old-B