双筒望远镜 90 年的历史，用于眺望风景

If you’ve ever stood on an observation platform at Niagara Falls, at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, chances are pretty good you’ve seen a Tower Optical binocular viewer , and maybe even dropped a quarter into one, even if you’ve never heard of the company that made it.这些沉重的镀铬观察器被固定在观景台上，俯瞰美国和加拿大各地。但在这个过程中，观众自己也成为了偶像。而且，该公司历史上首次将其中少量产品出售给私人买家。 Tower Optical began in a Norwalk, Connecticut, machine shop in 1933, and remained in the same family until 2025. Between the 1930s and 1980s, it manufactured roughly 2,000 of the machines, with every component hand-assembled in the company’s factory in Norwalk, where the original machinery from the 1930s and 40s still stands.如今，该公司拥有约 1,800 台机器，分布在北美约 400 个地点。 Tower Optics 双目取景器已部署到北美各个角落的各种环境中。 Tower Optical In many places, these viewers have become part of the landscape as much as a means of viewing it. As someone with an interest in optics, what’s always fascinated me are the conditions these devices endure: freezing winters, blistering summers, rain, snow, ice, sand and every other environmental hazard you can throw at them.然而，十年又一年，内部的 10×42 双筒望远镜仍能提供清晰的图像。 Adam Rice, one of the company’s current owners, says the location and history of every viewer has been meticulously tracked by hand, decade after decade, as they moved around the continent.几十年来，Tower Optical 在其总部使用了一对图钉地图（按地点进行颜色编码）来监控每个观看者的部署位置。塔光学 / Adam Rice