History Of Eye Glasses

The Reading Stone Was Invented

Mar 1, 1000

A glass sphere that was laid on top of material to be able to read it better was created around 1000 A.D, yet the inventor is still unknown.

First Wearable Eye Glasses

Mar 1, 1284

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D'Armate, in Italy, created the first pair of wearable eye glasses. He wanted to see if he could invent something that could help people's vision, and he did.

Representation of Eyeglasses

Mar 5, 1352

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Tomasso da Modena showed a representation of eye glasses in his artwork. His paintings showed people wear magnifying glasses on their nose.

The First Eyeglass Frame Temple

Mar 5, 1600

Spanish craftsman invented the first eyeglass frame temple. They put strings or silk through the frame and looped them over their ear's

Concave and Convex Lenses

Mar 5, 1604

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In the 17th Century people started understanding the principle of these lenses due to Johannes Kepler, who published the first correct explanation. Glasses then started to help correct problems with sight distances.

Rigid Temple Eye Glasses

Mar 5, 1727

Optician Edward Scarlett invented the rigid temple eye glasses, which sat upon the user's ears which helped the glasses stay on their face.

Cylindrical Lenses

Mar 5, 1825

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Cylindrical Lenses were invented by Sir George Airy. These lenses were used to correct astigmatism.

Bifocals and Trifocals

Mar 5, 1827

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An optician in London named John Isaac Hawkins invented and patented the terms bifocals and trifocals. But others believe that Benjamin Franklin did invent them. Bifocal helps correct nearsightedness and trifocals help correct near,medium, and distant vision impairments.

Invention of the First Tolerable Contact Lense

Mar 5, 1887

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F. E. Muller of Germany in 1887 created the first tolerable and able to see through contact lense

First Succesfully Fit Contact Lenses

Mar 6, 1888

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Adolf Fick fitted and constructed the first successful contact lens in 1887, using blown glass,a dextrose solution, and afocal scleral contact shells. He published this work in March 1888.

Zeiss Punktal Spherical Point-Focus Lenses

Mar 5, 1900

Moritz von Rohr designed the first aspheric lense for eye glasses (a surface profile that reduced spherical aberration) which later became known as the Zeiss Punktal lense.

The Creation of Plastic Lenses

Mar 6, 1936

In 1936, William Feinbloom produced plastic lenses due to the creation of polymethyl methacrylate.

Soft (Hydrogel) Lenses

Mar 6, 1959

Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim created the first soft lenses which led to hydrogel lenses. After the U.S approval in 1971, they were prescriribed and adapted over the years.