Who invented the peephole? What year and why did the door peephole invented

We got used to some things and stopped noticing, for example, the peephole.

Who is the "daddy" of the door peephole

What is it in a few words? This is a hole in the door leaf for tracking the environment outside the house, it allows you to choose who to open the door and who does not. The main role of the peephole is personal safety and protection from criminals.

From childhood, we were all taught to let only acquaintances in, carefully looking through the peephole!

The first mentions of prototypes can be found in gloomy descriptions of prisons dating back centuries.Previously, small holes were made in the cell doors, covered with a metal lid or grate, to monitor the "wards" of the prisoners. So it was possible to safely track the behavior of the prisoners and prevent trouble in time. Based on this fact, I can assume that the peephole was invented either by the head of the prison, or by one of the guards, the name of the inventor has not come down to our times, leaving room for imagination.

Of the more modern prototypes, one can cite as an example a Soviet-era mailbox, which was located on the inside of the front door.The postmen lowered the letters into a narrow slot with a hinged lid, behind which was a box, so that nothing could be seen! But it happened that there was no drawer behind the slot, the correspondence fell right on the floor - and through such an impromptu window you could see who was behind the door. The plug could be pushed away from the outside with a pencil or finger, so intruders could look into the apartment. Unfortunately, history has not preserved the name of the author of such boxes either.

There were a few other interesting inventions: a magnifying glass filled with water, a mirror, a design somewhat reminiscent of binoculars, and other variations. But they all had a significant drawback - a small viewing angle.

American inventor Robert Williams Wood presented to the public a special design of the lens, which we now know as a "fisheye", she allowed to discreetly see the guest beyond the threshold in full growth. The invention was gathering dust on the shelf until the 60s of the XX century, until the manufacturers remembered about it. lenses for cameras, and then door-to-door companies drew attention to it. accessories.

Wood's invention, among other things, gave impetus to the development of the art of photography.

What year and why did the door peephole invented

The modern design has a standard set of parts:

• eyepiece;
• frame;
• lenses;
• lens;
• movable flap.

The number of lenses varies from 2 to 15 pieces, depending on the thickness of the door leaf and the requirements for image quality.

The economical options include plastic lenses, they quickly lose transparency, but they have a good margin of safety in relation to mechanical stress and temperature extremes.

The current version, familiar to us from childhood, received recognition only in the 1960s, although Robert Wood created it back in 1906.

Now the stores offer a wide range of models that differ in shape, size and even a set of functions!Thanks to Wood, one glance is enough for us to determine the identity of the guest standing outside the threshold of our shelter, whereas before, we had to risk our own safety.