The history of glasses

The first reading instrument: brille

1240

An arab, Ibn al-Heitam, was the first one to suggest the use of polished lenses for the ones with difficulty reading. And he also wrote a book that only in 1240 was translated into latin and his idea put into practice by the Italian monks. It was called brille in german, which means beryl, the first rock used in the lenses.

The cristalleri: pair of "glasses with rivet"

1299

A litlle island in Venice was considered a large glass manufacturing center and at the end of 13th century the cristalleri (how they were called) made a revolution: they produced two convex lenses, placed them in a wooden ring and rivet. The one who was going to use it just needed to hold the glass pairs to fix the vision.

Ear glasses

1710

At the beggining of the 18th century emerged the glasses how we know today with fitting/supporting on the nose and ear.

Franklin lenses

1784

Benjamin Franklin was the one who created the bifocal lenses that are predecessors of the current varifocal lenses.

ZEISS

1908

The Zeiss company founded in 1846 by Carl Zeiss was seeking the comfort of its users, so it made a lot of improvements focusing on lenses.

Punktal

1912

Punktal was the first lens for glasses with focal point formation, criated by Allvar Gullstrand. This discovery allowed the user to have clear vision when looking at peripheral points

Perivist

1935

Perivist was the world's first frame adjusted to accommodate the user who didn't slip by the face. So, the ZEISS produced the modern glasses that we have today.