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The
oldest known lens was found in the ruins of ancient
Nineveh and was made of polished rock crystal, an
inch and one-half in diameter. Aristophanes in "The
Clouds" refers to a glass for burning holes in
parchment and also mentions the use of burning
glasses for erasing writing from wax tablets.
According to Pliny, physicians used them for
cauterizing wounds.
Around1000 A. D. the reading stone, what we know as
a magnifying glass, was developed. It was a segment
of a glass sphere that could be laid against reading
material to magnify the letters. It enabled
presbyopic monks to read and was probably the first
reading aid. The Venetians learned how to produce
glass for reading stones, and later they constructed
lenses that could be held in a frame in front of the
eyes instead of directly on the reading material.
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Medieval Reading Stone |
Tommaso di Modena Painting, 14th C. |
Eyeglasses, circa 18th centuy |
The Chinese are sometimes given credit for
developing spectacles about 2000 years ago--but
apparently they only used them to protect their eyes
from an evil force . In the year 1268, Roger Bacon,
the English philosopher, wrote in his Opus Majus:
"If anyone examine letters or other minute objects
through the medium of crystal or glass or other
transparent substance, if it be shaped like the
lesser segment of a sphere, with the convex side
toward the eye, he will see the letters far better
and they will seem larger to him. For this reason
such an instrument is useful to all persons and to
those with weak eyes for they can see any letter,
however small, if magnifier enough". In 1289 in a
manuscript entitled Traite de con uite de la famille,
di Popozo wrote: "I am so debilita-ted-by age that
without the glasses known as spectacles, I would no
longer be able to read or write. These have recently
been invented for the benefit of poor old people
whose sight has become weak". Thus it appears that
the first spectacles were made between 1268 and
1289. In 1306 a monk of Pisa delivered a sermon in
which he stated: "It is not yet twenty years since
the art of making spectacles, one of the most useful
arts on earth, was discovered. 1, myself, have seen
and conversed with the man who made them first". The
name of the true inventor of eyeglasses remains lost
in obscurity.
The first known
artistic representation of eyeglasses was painted by
Tommaso da Modena in 1352. He did a series of
frescoes of brothers busily reading or copying
manuscripts. one holds a magnifying glass but
another has glasses perched on his nose. Once
Tommaso had established the precedent, other
painters placed spectacles on the noses of all sorts
of subjects, probably as a symbol of wisdom and
respect. (See Crivelli's painting of St. Peter) From
the 14th century, painters also presented portraits
of St. Lucy, often carrying her own eyes--they even
appeared as lorgnette-like glasses on a stem.
One of the most significant developments in
spectacle making in the 16th century was the
introduction of concave lenses for the nearsighted.
Pope Leo X, who was very shortsighted, wore concave
spectacles when hunting and claimed they enabled him
to see better than his companions.
The first spectacles had quartz lenses because
optical glass had not been developed. The lenses
were set into bone, metal or even leather mountings,
often shaped like two small magnifying glasses with
handles riveted together typically in an inverted V
shape that could be balanced on the bridge of the
nose. The use of spectacles spread from Italy to the
Low Countries, Germany, Spain, and France. In
England a Spectacle Makers Company was formed in
1629; its coat of arms showed three pairs of
spectacles and a motto: "A blessing to the aged".
From the moment they were invented, glasses posed a
problem that wasn't solved for almost 350 years: how
to keep them on! For all its developmental changes
over the years, the spectacle frame is one of
technology's best examples of poor engineering
design. It virtually teems with defects. The center
of gravity and center of rotation are too far
forward to keep the lenses in optimal position.
Frames depend far too much upon noses, which vary in
size, shape and firmness, and upon ears, which vary
in symmetry, in contour of cartilagenous support,
and in the amount of hair interposed between frame
and ear. They require that the lens plane be
perpendicular to the visual axis, yet this is
geometrically possible for only one direction of
gaze--all other directions will induce changes in
spherical and cylindrical power.
They require that the optical center of each lens be
supported directly in front of the center of each
pupil, but this is manifestly impossible since the
eyes are constantly moving, altering in version and
vergence.
Spanish spectacle makers of the 17th century
experimented with ribbons of silk that could be
attached to the frames and then looped over the
ears. Spanish and Italian missionaries carried the
new models to spectacle wearers in China. The
Chinese attached little ceramic or metal weights to
the strings instead of making loops. In 1730 a
London optician named Edward Scarlett perfected the
use of rigid sidepieces that rested atop the ears.
This perfection rapidly spread to the continent.
In 1752 James Ayscough advertised his latest
invention--spectacles with double hinged side
pieces. These became extremely popular and appear
more often than any other kind in paintings, prints,
and caricatures of the period. Lenses were made of
tinted glass as well as clear.Ayscough felt that
white glass ligives an offensive glaringlight, very
prejudicial to the eyes, and on that account, green
and blue glasses have been advised...". In Spain in
1763 Pablo Minguet recommended turquoise, green, or
yellow lenses but not amber or red.
European men and women, particularly the French,
were self-conscious about wearing glasses. Parisian
aristocrats used reading aids only in private. The
gentry of England and France used a "perspective
glassig or monocular which could be hidden from view
easily. In Spain, however, spectacles were popular
among all classes because people thought glasses
made them look more important and dignified.
Far-sighted or aging colonial Americans imported
spectacles from Europe. Spectacles were mainly for
the affluent and literate colonists, who required a
valuable and treasured appliance. Glasses cost as
much as $200 in the early 1700's. The Boston Evening
Post of 1756 carried an advertisement: "Just
imported in the Scow Two Brothers, Cpt Marsden, from
London and to be sold by Hannah Breintnall at the
Sign of the Spectacles, in Second-Street near
Black-Horse-Alley". Francis McAllister opened his
store in Philadelphia in 1783 with "a bushel
basketfull" of spectacles, through which presumably
his customers could pick and choose.
Benjamen Franklin in the 1780's developed the
bifocal. Later he wrote, "I therefore had formerly
two pairs of spectacles, which I shifted
occasionally, as in traveling I sometimes read, and
often wanted to regard the prospects. Finding this
change troublesome, and not always suffficiently
ready, I had the glasses cut and a half of each kind
associated in the same circle. By this means, as I
wear my own spectacles constantly, I have only to
move my eyes up or down, as I want to see distinctly
far or near, the proper glasses being always ready."
Evidently the idea of bifocals had already been
experimented with in London as early as 1760
(possibly by Franklin himself, who was there at the
time) though never used extensively.
Bifocals progressed little in the first half of the
19th century. The terms bifocal and trifocal were
introduced in London by John Isaac Hawkins, whose
trifocals were patented in 1827. In 1884 B. M. Hanna
was granted patents on two forms of bifocals which
become commercially standardized as the "cemented"
and "perfection" bifocals. Both had the serious
faults of ugly appearance, fragility, and
dirt-collection at the dividing line. At the end of
the 19th century the two sections of the lens were
fused instead of cemented, an idea originated by de
Wecker in Paris and patented in 1908 by Borsch. At
the turn of the 20th century, there was a
considerable increase in the use of bifocals.
Between 1781 and 1789 silver spectacles with sliding
extension temples were being made in France; a pair
owned by Franklin is dated 1788. But it was not
until the nineteenth century that they gained
widespread popularity. John McAllister of
Philadelphia began manufacturing spectacles with
sliding temples containing looped ends which
afforded much easier manipulation with the
then-popular wigs. The loop supplemented the
inadequacy of stability by affording a means for the
addition of a cord or ribbon which could be tied
behind the head, thus holding the spectacles more
firmly in place.
In 1826, William Beecher came to Southbridge,
Massachusetts from Connecticut to establish a
jewelry-optical manufacturing shop. The first
ophthalmic articles he produced were silver
spectacles which were later followed by blue steel.
In 1869 the American optical Company was
incorporated and absorbed the holding of William
Beecher. In 1849 J. J. Bausch emigrated to the
United States from Germany. He had already served an
apprenticeship as an optician in his native land and
had found work in Berne. His compensation for the
labor on a complete pair of spectacles was equal to
six cents. Mr. Bausch encountered difficult times in
America from 1849 until 1861, at which time war
broke out. When the war prevented importation of
frames, demand for his hard rubber frames zoomed.
Continuous expansion followed and the large Bausch
and Lomb Company was formed.
The monocle, which was first called an "eye ring",
was introduced in England about 1800; although it
had been developed by a German during the 1700's. A
young Austrian named J. F. Voigtlander (same family
as the camera people) studied optics in London and
took the monocle idea home with him. He started
making monocles in Vienna about 1814 and the fashion
spread and took particularly vigorous root in
Germany and in Russia. The first monocle wearers
were men in society's upper classes, which may
account for the aura of arrogance the monocle seemed
to confer on the wearer. After World War I, the
monocle fell into into disrepute, its demise
hastened no doubt, by its association with the
German military.
The lorgnette, two lenses in a frame the user held
with a lateral handle, was another 18th century
development (by Englishman George Adams). The
lorgnette probably developed from the
scissors-glass, which was a double eyeglass on a
handle.Since the two branches of the handle came
together under the nose and looked as if they were
about to cut it off, they were known as
binocles-ciseaux or scissors glasses. The English
changed the size and form of the scissors-glasses
and produced the lorgnette. The frame and handle
were frequently artistically embellished, since they
were used mostly by women and more often as a piece
of jewelry than as a visual aid. The lorgnette
maintained its popularity with ladies of fashion,
who would not wear spectacles. The lorgnette was
still popular at the end of the 19th century.
Pince-nez are believed to have appeared in the
1840's, but in the latter part of the century there
was a great upsurge in the popularity of the
pince-nez for both men and women.There was an
enormous variety of styles available. Gentlemenwore
any style which suited them--heavy or delicate,round,
or oval, straight, or drooping--usually on a
ribbon,cord, or chain about the neck or attached to
the lapel.Ladies more often than not wore the oval
rimless style on a fine gold chain which could be
reeled automatically into a button-size eyeglass
holder pinned to the dress. Whatever the
disadvantages of the pince-nez, it was convenient.
In the 19th century the responsibility of choosing
the correct lens lay, as it always had, with the
customer. Even when the optician was asked to
choose, it was often on a rather casual basis.
Spectacles were still available from travelling
salesmen. J. C. Bloom, writing in 1940, described
the method of fitting glasses in the Western part of
the United States in 1889, when he first went into
practice: "When a person came in to get a pair of
glasses, you would look him over, ask his age, and
then reach into one of the boxes that had the
mounted goods and you would-reach from box to box
until the patient said he could see. He would ask
what the price was, and it was anywhere from $150 to
$5." A short paragraph in the "Optical Journal" of
1901 warned that itinerant peddlers were as
troublesome as ever: "If you value your eyesight,
you will place no confidence in the statements of
tramps who go from house to house selling
spectacles. They will tell you your eyes are
diseased and nothing but their electric or
magnetised glasseswill save you from blindness. Such
talk is an insultto your intelligence." Insulting or
not the peddlers evidently succeeded in selling
their wares, as they had for centuries.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. Norburne
Jenkins wrote in the "Optical Journal": "Wearing
spectacles or eyeglasses out of doors in always a
necessity .... Glasses are very disfiguring to women
and girls. Most tolerate them because they are told
that wearing them all the time is the only way to
keep from having serious eye trouble. If glasses are
all right, they will seldom or never have to be worn
in public". Despite this statement, a variety of
glasses and optical aids were available and were
worn in public. Spectacles with large round lenses
and tortoise shell frames became the fashion around
1914. The time had now come when "the average human
disfigurement, often an injury, seldom a person,
instead of being ashamed that his eyes are on the
blink, actually seems to be proud of it". The
enormous round spectacles and the pince-nez
continued to be worn in the twenties. In the
thirties there was increased emphasis on style in
glasses with a variety of spectacles available. Meta
Rosenthal wrote in 1938 that the pince-nez was still
being worn by dowagers, headwaiters, old men, and a
few others. The monocle was worn by only a minority
in the United States. Sunglasses, however, became
very popular in the late 30's.
Contact Lenses
As early as 1845 Sir John Herschel suggested the
idea of contact lenses, though he evidently did
nothing about it. The practical application of a
lens to the eyeball did not occur until late in the
century, when F. E. Muller, a German maker of glass
eyes, blew a protective lens to place over the
eyeball of a man whose lid had been destroyed by
cancer. The patient wore the lens until his death,
twenty years later, without losing his vision. The
term contact lens originated with Dr. A. Eugen Fick,
a Swiss physician, who in 1887 published the results
of independent experiments with contact lenses. In
1889 August Muller, a German medical student,
described his own experimentation with contact
lenses. Although his attempts to use ground lenses
were not successful, he did help lay the groundwork
for further experimentation. In 1892 other doctors
and optical firms in Europe cooperated in developing
practical contact lenses; before long several firms
began specializing in manufacturing them. By the
early 40's a variety of contact lenses was
available: blown glass, ground glass, molded glass,
plastic and glass, and all plastic. All were still
comparatively large and could not normally be
tolerated for long periods of time. Improvements in
manufacturing, material, and fitting of contact
lenses lead to increased numbers of Americans
wearing them. By 1964 over 6 million people in the
United States were wearing contact lenses, 65% of
them female.
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