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Dr Andrew Fink MD for
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Eye Clinic,
Medical Centre
88 Ahuza St
Ra'anana, Israel
Who Invented Glasses?
Nobody really knows who invented glasses. Whilst there is mention of myopia (nearsightedness- that is poor vision for far, better vision for near) in writings dating from Roman times, it is only to mention that myopic slaves had a lower market value. Roman aristocrats who had difficulty reading in middle age merely employed a slave to read for them.
The first known pair of spectacles seen in a painting was in one by di Modena in 1352. They consisted of two lenses in rims, joined centrally. Amazingly it took another 400 years until a Londoner called Edward Scarlett solved the problem of how to stop them falling off. He invented rigid side pieces which clung to the ears. Both the Spaniards and Chinese had previously tried a technique of tying spectacles to their hats or with ribbons to their ears.
Whilst today used interchangeably the term glasses originally referred to eyewear without side arms and spectacles with side arms.
Benjamin Franklin is credited with inventing bifocals in the 1780’s as he became tired of taking his glasses on and off every time he changed from reading to distance viewing and back. His optician merely cut his lenses in half so that he only needed to look up or down to switch focusing distance.
The stigma against wearing glasses particularly amongst women continued well in to the 20th century in England and France. The monocle and lorgnette (a style held up to the eyes with a long handle which was widely used by elegant women) were very popular in these countries for over a hundred years simply because they could be pulled out and put away quickly such was the stigma of admitting a vision problem.
That glasses later became a fashion item is thanks mainly to the Spanish who felt that glasses made them look important and in whose paintings glasses are seen from the Middle Ages. There is still a tremendous resistance to woman wearing glasses amongst Israel’s minorities, especially in the Bedouin community, making many such women functionally blind.
Contact lenses were one of the many inventions described by Leonardo da Vinci in his sketches back in 1508. The first lenses were actually produced by a German glassblower, made of glass in 1887 and covered the whole eye. The technology of the materials gradually improved over the next decades. 1936 saw the first plastic lens. In 1945 the American Optometric Society formally recognized the field of contact lenses, and in 1987, exactly one hundred years after the first glass lens was worn, disposable lenses, came on to the market.
Today’s technology including laser vision correction surgery is replacing the need for glasses and contact lenses. The laser beam actually alters the curvature and in effect moulds a new lens out of the cornea, and as a result the imperfect focusing of the eye is corrected. The technology began its career being used to etch silicone computer chips. Knowledge gained from the USA “Star Wars” defence project and NASA space research has been adopted by laser manufacturers to make laser vision correction the success that it is today.
Antique Glasses,made in London,1831
