History

History

Glasses were invented between 1268 and 1289. People before used reading stones that were placed on the text as magnifying glasses. The Venetians learned to make this out of glass. They then put them into frames that would be held in front of the eye instead of being put on the paper or text. It is not known who invented the eyeglasses but they were first seen in a painting in which there were two brothers reading one with the reading stone and the other with glasses clipped to the nose. In the 18^th century concave lenses were invented for short sighted people. Pope Leo X was short sighted and wore these glasses while hunting. He said that these made him see even better than the other hunters. The first glasses had lenses of quartz, because they could still not make lenses out of glass. The lenses were mounted in bone, metal or leather, mostly like two small magnifying glasses with an upside-down V in between. The glasses were placed on the nose, which of course was a problem because noses all had different shapes and sizes and also you had to balance it on the nose. Solutions to the problem were tried and some failed one way though was to use silk ribbons to be passes around the ears. In china small weights were tied at the end of each piece of silk. In 1730 an optician (Edward Scarlett) for the first time attached stiff side parts which were put on the ears. This spread around quickly and in 1752 James Ayscott made glasses with "hinges on the sides". In the 1780's the bifocal glasses were developed by Benjamin Franklin. He was very tired of having to switch between from glasses to glasses to see at different distances. For that reason he put half of the glass of each in one pair of frames. The problem was the joint though, this was not until the end of the 19^th century when we learned to make bifocal lenses. The client is the one who chooses the strength of the glasses. A lot of people bought glasses to prevent eye problems, not because of poor vision. In the 18^th century the lorgnette was invented. A lorgnette is a pair of glasses with a handle. The lorgnette was often used as a piece of jewelry instead of glasses to help you see. It was also popular among fashionable ladies, who did not want to wear glasses. The monocle was introduced in the 18^th century and became extremely popular in the 19^th century particularly in Germany and Russia. The monocle was first worn by men in higher class. After World War I the monocle’s popularity disappeared very quickly. This was probably because it was associated with the German military.