Invention
The first eyeglasses were made in Northern Italy, most likely in Pisa, by about 1290: In a sermon delivered on 23 February 1306, the Dominican friar Giordano da Pisa (c. 1255–1311) wrote "It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making eyeglasses, which make for good vision... And it is so short a time that this new art, never before extant, was discovered. ... I saw the one who first discovered and practiced it, and I talked to him."[31]
Giordano's colleague Friar Alessandro della Spina of Pisa (d. 1313) was soon making eyeglasses. The Ancient Chronicle of the Dominican Monastery of St. Catherine in Pisa records: "Eyeglasses, having first been made by someone else, who was unwilling to share them, he [Spina] made them and shared them with everyone with a cheerful and willing heart."[32] By 1301, there were guild regulations in Venice governing the sale of eyeglasses.[33] In the fourteenth century they were very common objects: Francesco Petrarca says in one of his letters that, until he was 60, he didn't need glasses,[34] and Franco Sacchetti mentions them often in his Trecentonovelle.
The earliest pictorial evidence for the use of eyeglasses is Tommaso da Modena's 1352 portrait of the cardinal Hugh de Provence reading in a scriptorium. Another early example would be a depiction of eyeglasses found north of the Alps in an altarpiece of the church of Bad Wildungen, Germany, in 1403. These early glasses had convex lenses that could correct both hyperopia (farsightedness), and the presbyopia that commonly develops as a symptom of aging. It was not until 1604 that Johannes Kepler published the first correct explanation as to why convex and concave lenses could correct presbyopia and myopia.[b]
Early frames for glasses consisted of two magnifying glasses riveted together by the handles so that they could grip the nose. These are referred to as "rivet spectacles". The earliest surviving examples were found under the floorboards at Kloster Wienhausen, a convent near Celle in Germany; they have been dated to circa 1400.[37]
The world's first spectacle specialist shop opened in Strasbourg (then Holy Roman Empire, now France) in 1466.[38]
Other claims[edit]
The 17th century claim, by Francesco Redi, that Salvino degli Armati of Florence invented eyeglasses, in the 13th century, has been exposed as erroneous.[39][40]
Marco Polo is sometimes claimed to have encountered eyeglasses during his travels in China in the 13th century. However, no such statement appears in his accounts.[41][42] Indeed, the earliest mentions of eyeglasses in China occur in the 15th century and those Chinese sources state that eyeglasses were imported.[43]
In 1907 Professor Berthold Laufer speculated, in his history of glasses, that for glasses to be mentioned in the literature of China and Europe at approximately the same time it was probably that they were not invented independently, and after ruling out the Turks, proposed India as a location.[44][c] However, Joseph Needham showed that the mention of glasses in the Chinese manuscript Laufer used to justify the prior invention of them in Asia did not exist in older versions of that manuscript, and the reference to them in later versions was added during the Ming dynasty.[45]
In 1971 Rishi Agarwal, in an article in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, states that Vyasatirtha was observed in possession a pair of glasses in the 1520s, he argues that it: "...is, therefore, most likely that the use of lenses reached Europe via the Arabs, as did Hindu mathematics and the ophthalmological works of the ancient Hindu surgeon Sushruta",[46] but all dates are given well after the existence of eyeglasses in Italy was established, and there had been significant shipments of eyeglasses from Italy to the Middle East, with one shipment as large as 24,000 glasses.[47]
Later developments[edit]
The American scientist Benjamin Franklin, who suffered from both myopia and presbyopia, invented bifocals. Historians have from time to time produced evidence to suggest that others may have preceded him in the invention; however, a correspondence between George Whatley and John Fenno, editor of The Gazette of the United States, suggested that Franklin had indeed invented bifocals, and perhaps 50 years earlier than had been originally thought.[48] The first lenses for correcting astigmatism were designed by the British astronomer George Airy in 1825.[49]
Over time, the construction of frames for glasses also evolved. Early eyepieces were designed to be either held in place by hand or by exerting pressure on the nose (pince-nez). Girolamo Savonarola suggested that eyepieces could be held in place by a ribbon passed over the wearer's head, this in turn secured by the weight of a hat. The modern style of glasses, held by temples passing over the ears, was developed sometime before 1727, possibly by the British optician Edward Scarlett. These designs were not immediately successful, however, and various styles with attached handles such as "scissors-glasses" and lorgnettes were also fashionable from the second half of the 18th century and into the early 19th century.
In the early 20th century, Moritz von Rohr and Zeiss (with the assistance of H. Boegehold and A. Sonnefeld[50]) developed the Zeiss Punktal spherical point-focus lenses that dominated the eyeglass lens field for many years. In 2008, Joshua Silver designed eyewear with adjustable corrective glasses. They work by silicone liquid, a syringe, and a pressure mechanism.[51]
Despite the increasing popularity of contact lenses and laser corrective eye surgery, glasses remain very common, as their technology has improved. For instance, it is now possible to purchase frames made of special memory metal alloys that return to their correct shape after being bent. Other frames have spring-loaded hinges. Either of these designs offer dramatically better ability to withstand the stresses of daily wear and the occasional accident. Modern frames are also often made from strong, light-weight materials such as titanium alloys, which were not available in earlier times.
In fashion[edit]
In the 1930s, "spectacles" were described as "medical appliances."[52] Wearing spectacles was sometimes considered socially humiliating. In the 1970s, fashionable glasses started to become available through manufacturers, and governments also recognized the demand for stylized eyewear.[52]
Graham Pullin describes how devices for disability, like glasses, have traditionally been designed to camouflage against the skin and restore ability without being visible.[52] In the past, design for disability has "been less about projecting a positive image as about trying not to project an image at all."[52] Pullin uses the example of spectacles, traditionally categorized as a medical device for "patients", and outlines how they are now described as eyewear: a fashionable accessory.[52] Much like other fashion designs and accessories, eyewear is created by designers, has reputable labels, and comes in collections, by season and designer.[52] It is becoming more common for consumers to purchase eyewear with clear, non-prescription lenses, illustrating that glasses are no longer a social stigma, but a fashionable accessory that "frames your face.
0 Comments