The first optical tools, specifically lenses, were created by ancient Egyptians thousands of years before the Chinese invented gunpowder. That’s how essential optics are to humans.
Surprisingly, the first-generation Heilongjiang hand cannon wasn’t drilled and tapped for an optic. Today most guns are. That’s how essential optics are to shooters.
The ballistics of the Heilongjiang hand cannon wasn’t good enough to cause its shooters to squint, moreover need magnification. No, for optics to find their place atop firearms, firearms range needed to evolve beyond the limits of a shooter’s eyesight. That happened around the same time settlers in America figured out living under British rule sucked.
Indeed, a lot of good ideas came about in 1776. One underreported one was the clever marriage of an optic and a firearm by Charles Willson Peale. According to several historical references, he was the first person to put a telescopic device—in this case, an actual telescope—on a rifle. Fittingly, his second invention was eye relief for riflescopes. About 60 years later, the first purpose-produced telescopic sight for firearms belonged to John Chapman and Morgan James, who marketed the Chapman-James scope around 1840.
Fast-forward 182 years, and not only have we figured out eye relief, but we now have firearms optics systems that enhance the light we see and intensify the available light we don’t. We can see a target’s heat energy through optical translations, project illumination onto targets and some of the most technically advanced firearm sights calculate target firing solutions with us or for us. They even communicate with
