Invention of Glasses

The Middle Ages period initiated the scientific breakthrough in Europe, when achievements in various fields of knowledge ensured certain progress; although, everyday life of people was pretty separated from science. No one can deny that it was a time, when every novelty gained more appreciation than nowadays, when every technology offered is forgotten in a couple of years and is not as surprising as it could be. One of the innovations of that epoch, which appears to be a wide-spread item today, is glasses, which emerged within development of optic science.

One of the prominent figures, which introduced the glasses innovation in the 13th century, was Roger Bacon, who spent a whole fortune to conduct own scientific investigations. In particular, much of his attention was dedicated to optics, which has lead him to understanding of refraction and reflection in mirrors and lenses. According some legend, his life ended on a sour note because of his discovery: Roger Bacon was imprisoned due to the assumption that glasses (as well as camera ottica) were the Devil's creation.



Transferring glasses technology from abstractive science to real practice is a merit of Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century. His very famous work Codex Atlanticus maintains the optical researches within the whole variety of scientific searches he made. Notably, da Vinci formulated and solved the problem of constructing the path of rays in the eye and the issues of accommodation and adaptation of the eye the camera ottica, gave the scientific explanation of the lenses, mirrors and glasses; it also runs questions of aberrations and drawings of caustic surfaces, the results of the first photometric studies, which described technology of lenses and mirrors.


In Europe Italians and Spaniards were the biggest fans of the unusual invention. However, they worn glasses not to improve eyesight, but rather to emphasize own status and society position. So, it was believed that bigger glasses are the evidence of figure's bigger significance in public life. They held these huge lenses on the nose with a rope held by the holes in the sides and tied at the rear.


In the 18th century glasses were supplemented with headbands, and in the next one Benjamin Franklin invented biofocals (lenses helping people to correct their eyesight on different distances). Modern glasses possess different qualities and opportunities. Moreover, they are also supplemented with sun glasses, firstly discovered in the 12th century and invented by people of Northern areas, where snow blindness was huge inconvenience. Visor sun glasses, clip-on sun glasses, therapeutic and work glasses are among the range of related patents, issued in the 21st century. The ideas of Roger Bacon serve as a primary basis for further inventions nowadays.