Before forming the company, J.B. Reiner had completed an apprenticeship in 'the art of an optician and scientific instrument maker' in 1891 and had gone on to work for E.B.
Pike, a director of Rayner and their senior optical specialist, had assisted Ridley with several projects, most recently on the development of electronic ophthalmoscopy.
In David Apple's article from the January 1996 issue of Survey of Ophthalmology, Ridley recalls "... After months of secret thought, I called my friend John Pike, the optical scientist at Rayners of London with whom I had recently worked on electronic ophthalmoscopy.
Also observations during the war of eye injuries to RAF personnel had shown that Perspex appeared inert within body tissues.
The required properties of transparency, strength and resistance to heat demanded a high degree of purity and polymerisation.
On 29 November 1949, at St Thomas' Hospital, London, Ridley performed the first IOL operation on the eye of a 45-year-old female patient.
[4] On 2 December 2009 in the House of Commons, during Prime Minister's Questions, the sixtieth anniversary of the IOL was mentioned (and recorded in Hansard):[5] On 1 February 2014 the High Street retail business of Rayner Opticians was bought by Vision Express from JBR1910 Limited.