10 Eyeglasses facts: How modern eyeglasses evolved?

10 Eyeglasses facts: 

As any other story in the history of mankind is intriguing, the story of eyeglasses is one among them. How such a simple accessory evolve from being mere essential to style staple? Let’s learn a bit more about with this list of intriguing eyeglasses facts :

1.       The earliest eyeglasses lenses has been dated as early as 700 BC. They were made from polished crystal or quartz. These lenses were known as Assyrian lenses. Many civilizations such as the ancient Egypt, Greece and Babylon used similar kinds of lenses.

2.     The technology of magnification started around 1000 AD. The earliest known magnifying devices were used for magnifying images. 

3.     Abbas IbnFirnas, was known to be the first man to use corrective glasses. It was around 9th century AD. He developed a technique to produce very clear glasses. It could also help in shaping and polishing the stone into round shapes.

4.      Reading stones were first used as a visual aid device. The Venetian monks were the first to use them to read text. They read through the script by placing the stone directly over them and move them along as they read. Thus was later replaced by glass lenses.

5. The first spectacles were thought to be made in Italy around the year 1286 AD. Around 1275 AD, Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler mentioned about glasses being used in China. This glasses were hold by a frame. A handle was attached to it so that while seeing an object it can be hold up.

6.       By 1301, the production of eyeglasses started in large scale. A guild was already regulating the entire production and sale of eyeglasses by then, in Venice.

7.       Artistic depictions of eyeglasses were first made in a painting. It was painted by an artist named Tomasso Da Modena in the year 1352.

8.     By 1700s, eyeglasses were made by hand. The Germans, played a very important role in the history of eyeglasses, they started producing fine frames while the Italians continued to produce the finest lenses.

9.      The modern day eyeglasses were developed in the year 1730. An optician name Edward Scarlett from London fused the glass lenses with rigid sides allowing the glass to hold firm and rest on the ears easily.

10.      In the year 1784, Benjamin Franklin invented Bifocals. He used two sets of eyeglasses for myopia and presbyopia. So he used to switch them over and over again. This annoyed him and thus one day he cut the lenses into halves and fused them into one. This is how the Bifocal eyeglasses that we know today came into existence.

Benjamin-Franklin Bifocals

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