The story of innovation of spectacles has a lot of ambiguity and speculation. The earliest references in history are of Marco Polo who, while touring China in 1270, observed that elderly Chinese people were using spectacles. However, the Chinese state that spectacles were invented by the Arabs during the 11th century.
The spectacles are believed to have been invented between 1268-1289 in the western world. The earliest spectacles were made of convex lenses, which corrected the problem of farsightedness. They were worn mostly by monks and scholars and required the wearers to hold them in front of their eyes or balance them on their nose lest they should fall.
With the invention of printing press in 1452, a variety of books became available. This caused the production of cheap spectacles on a mass scale that began to be sold by peddlers in cities. Spectacles became affordable for middle and lower classes who wore them by mounting in materials, such as light steel, wood, leather and bones. However, the upper classes preferred more genteel, but cumbersome, hand-held glasses that had gold or silver frames.
The 17th century saw a significant development in the field of frame design when lenses were fixed to a solid bridge, rather than being riveted, which set them at one place. These 17th and 18th centuries also saw the popularity of quizzing glasses and small single lenses with attached decorative stems among the affluent classes. The first temple specs were created by a London-based optician between the years 1725 and 1750. In 1784 Benjamin Franklin constructed the first bifocal glasses. He suffered with both far-and short-sightedness and needed to constantly alter between two spectacles to adjust to different activities. With bifocals, he was able to see both nearby and distant objects with a single pair of spectacles.
The 19th century say the invention of scissor glasses (with lenses fixed to gilded and ornamented scissoring stems) and lorgnettes (glasses having an ornamental stem), which were utilized as more of a fashion accessory than to correct the eyesight. In the later part of the 19th century, the Pince-Nez and trifocal varieties of glasses became popular. Moreover, cylindrical-shaped lenses to correct the problem of astigmatism also became available during that period.
The 20th century brought about an astonishing period in the world of eyewear. Along with significant progress in the areas of lens accuracy and shape, spectacles became an accessory that could be worn plain or with corrective strength. Nowadays, people prefer spectacles that improve their personality and lifestyle, and also correct their vision. Today's spectacle wearers have a variety of frame and lens options available to choose.
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