Category talk:Opticians

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Telescope designers are Opticians?

The reference article for this category does not match its content. The article Optician says "An optician is a health care practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses lenses for the correction of a person's vision", not a person "in the field of telescope optics design". I think the telescope designers listed here would be considered optical engineers, not opticians. I plan to start deleting them out (and rewrite the cat def) unless there is something I am missing. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 02:27, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There is both modern and historical ambiguity over the term, for example this book from 1857 calls Fraunhofer an optician. Modern use of the term in health care seems to be ubiquitous, and there is a clear distinction between this profession and other uses. I agree this category needs disambiguation:optical engineers should be separated and perhaps medical opticians as well. Fotaun (talk) 18:35, 21 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Did some cleanup on members of this category, and who is an "Optician" in general. Working from the refs above and what RJHall found[1].

My logical take on this (so it can be checked/commented on):

We need a current encyclopedic description for people pre 20th century who made optical instruments that were not glasses.
They were called "Opticians" but that word does not have that meaning anymore.
They are what we would call Optical engineers but that concept/category did not exist back then.
If there is no reference for the person ever touching eyeglasses I am removing links that describe them as "Optician" except where we need to show/use in a historical context such as "Optician to the Prince of Wales".
Below a 1900 cutoff date (sort of arbitrary cutoff on my part) I have been substituting Optical instrument maker or some variant on Optics or Scientific instruments (i.e What did they really do?).

Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 14:37, 24 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe disambiguate with [Optican (eyeware)] and [Optican (non-eyeware))]. Fotaun (talk) 18:17, 25 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if there is enough unique reference for a separate article since the historical non-eyeware optician is already encyclopedicaly described at Lens (optics), History of optics, etc. Optician itself could be expanded a bit describe the roll beyond eyeglasses with a section "Other types of opticians" and maybe a better "History" section describing the roll. That history section is currently a redundant (and un-referenced) history of eyeglasses. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 02:39, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I meant category disambiguation, although I agree this issue extends into articles. Fotaun (talk) 04:04, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, gotcha. Something like:

Category:Opticians (this category)

Optician is the traditional name for people who work with all types optical devices. They may also be referred to as Optical engineers (see Category:Optical engineers).

For people trained to fill prescriptions for eye correction in the field of medicine see Category:Opticians (eyewear).

Category:Opticians (eyewear)

In the field of Optometry an Optician is a person who is trained to fill prescriptions for eye correction.

For people who work with all types optical devices see Category:Opticians or Category:Optical engineers.

Looks like it would work. Category:Opticians (eyewear) may be a very empty category, are there any notable opticians in the eyewear field? Can you have two categories both pointing to a main article? Both Category:Opticians and Category:Opticians (eyewear) would point that way. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 22:06, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The question may be: How can we avoid a typical reader just thinking "eyeware" when they see the category [Optician], when the intention is really a more generic meaning? Fotaun (talk) 15:20, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]