Keratometer
Queratometría
- Date
- 1851 · confidence high
- Place
- Kaliningrad, Russia
- Credited to
- Hermann von Helmholtz
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An optical instrument for measuring the curvature of the anterior corneal surface from the relationship between object size, reflected image size, and distance, used mainly to assess astigmatism.
An earlier keratometer model was developed in 1796 by Jesse Ramsden and Everard Home; the year 1851 corresponds to Helmholtz's instrument, the better known and more widely used one.
What it led to
- became a standard tool of ophthalmological practice
- laid the groundwork for modern keratometry used in refractive surgery
- enabled quantitative diagnosis of corneal astigmatism