A History of Optical Lenses for Eye Glasses

The first recorded use of optical lenses was during the medieval times, and was a glass sphere that was laid on top of objects to view them. This “medieval reading stone” could generate heat from light that was strong enough to burn parchment and melt wax. The first spectacles to be worn on the face were produced around 1284 in Italy. An Italian monk named Giordano da Rivalto gets the credit for tagging the name eyeglasses to this invention. In the 1600s, the Spanish creatively attached ribbons to the eyeglass frame, wrapping them around their ears to hold the eyeglass frame in place. A London optician named Edward Scarlett designed a stiff sidepiece to the eyeglasses that rested on the ears, making the first modern pair of glasses.

In 1752, James Ayscough invented the hinged sidepieces that are on modern glasses, so the eyeglasses could fold for storage when not in use. Ayscough also added color to the lenses, usually pale pastels of green and blue. The added color was to reduce reflection, which Ayscough felt was harmful to the eyes. Using tinted glasses to reduce glare from the sun did not become popular until the 1930s.

Around 1780, Benjamin Franklin invented bifocal eyeglasses. Franklin later wrote that he grew weary of having to change glasses while shifting attention from reading to seeing the person to whom he was talking. Bifocals progressed from two individual pieces of glass lenses to one piece made by fusing the two halves together.