Google Doodle honours French ophthalmologist Ferdinand Monoyer’s 181st birthday

New Delhi: Google has showed a doodle to honour the French ophthalmologist Ferdinand Monoyer’s 181st birth anniversary. 

Monoyer, born on May 9, 1836, is best known for introducing the dioptre, a unit of measure of the optical power of a lens or curved mirror  in 1872. Still in use today, it measures the distance you`d have to be from text to see it clearly. He also invented the Monoyer chart, used to test visual acuity.

 

He inserted his name in the chart; reading vertically from bottom to top on each side of the chart, one can read his name.

"Ferdinand Monoyer, born on this date in 1836, rose to prominence as one of France`s most famous ophthalmologists," Google said.

"If you look closely at today`s Doodle, you might be able to spot a tribute to another of Monoyer`s signatures: his name, hidden in the chart," Google added.

Monoyer was of Alsatian heritage by his mother and his father was a French military doctor.

He was an Associate Professor of Medical Physics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Strasbourg in 1871. Later, he was director of the Ophthalmic Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Nancy from 1872 to 1877. He was also Professor of medical physics at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lyon from 1877 to 1909.

Monoyer passed away on July 11, 1912.