The development of eye glasses down through the centuries offers us a glimpse into the world of a vision assistance device that we have always assumed to be far more modern than it actually is. Like many other inventions which were assumed to be younger than they are, glasses have actually existed in at least a tenuous way since the Egyptian civilization help power.
As a matter of technical definition, spectacles or glasses are lenses held within frames that can be worn on the head and which are placed in front of the eyes to aid in vision correction. They also are used to protect the eyes from possible damage or injury from ultraviolet radiation. Considering that fashion today is so important, some glasses are worn strictly for decorative purposes.
There have been a number of versions of spectacles down through the centuries, also. This includes the monocle (which is a single eyeglass lens), the pince-nez (worn on the bridge of the nose and held there by a pair of pads on either side of the nose) and other types, including highly stylized scissors-glasses, which sat on a Y-shaped frame and were used to correct distance-vision issues.
The earliest historical reference to eye vision and the need to improve it are found in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs from over 2800 years ago. In writings from the 1st century CE, a tutor of the Emperor Nero made mention of how vision could be improved by peering through a glass of water. Nero used a gemstone (emerald) to improve his vision by gazing through it at times.
The Arab scholar and inventor Abbas Ibn Firnas, who lived in the 9th century, is credited with producing what are thought to be the first corrective lenses. He'd worked to develop extremely clear glass and put these glass stones to work in viewing objects and writings. An actual shaped convex lens was discussed in a book on optics dating from the year 1021.
The 13th century seems to have been a time of much work and experimentation on spectacles and glasses. Scholarly works from 1235 made mention of how certain kinds of class could be used to greatly improve reading vision, for one. The Chinese of the 12th century are credited with actually producing the first pair of fashion sunglasses, which were used to help reduce glare, by the way.
As far as when real eyeglasses came into being, some scholars maintain that the actual year was 1284. At any rate, just about every scholar agrees that they made their appearance in the late 13th century at some period between 1280 and 1300. All also agree that they appeared in Italy. Benjamin Franklin invented the first pair of bifocals. Also, corrective lenses appeared in 1825.
Since then, eye glasses have been a part of our lives in ways both big and small. People of all ages where them nowadays almost without a second thought and, in many instances, life would not be bearable without them, especially when considering the vision problems that many people are either born with or develop. They have had a long life with us, as a matter of fact.
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