Glasses – also called eyeglasses (formal), spectacles, or specs (informal) – are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes, normally for vision correction or eye protection.
Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or radiation. Sunglasses allow better vision in bright daylight, and may protect against damage from high levels of ultraviolet light. Other types of glasses may be used for viewing visual information (such as stereoscopy) or simply just for aesthetic or fashion values.
Historical types of glasses include the pince-nez, monocle, lorgnette, and scissor or scissors-glasses.
Roman tragedian Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is said to have read “all the books in Rome” by peering through a glass globe of water. A thousand years later, presbyopic monks used segments of glass spheres that could be laid against reading material to magnify the letters, basically a magnifying glass, called a “reading stone.” They based their invention on the theories of the Arabic mathematician Alhazen (roughly 1000 AD). Yet, Greek philosopher Aristophanes (c. 448 BC-380 BC) knew that glass could be used as a magnifying glass. Nevertheless it was not until roughly 150 AD that Ptolemy discovered the basic rules of light diffraction and wrote extensively on the subject. (The laws of diffraction was formulated much later by Snellius, between 1600 and 1620.)
Venetian glass blowers, who had learned how to produce glass for reading stones, later constructed lenses that could be held in a frame in front of the eye instead of directly on the reading material. It was intended for use by one eye; the idea to frame two ground glasses using wood or horn, making them into a single unit was born in the 13th century.
In 1268 Roger Bacon made the first known scientific commentary on lenses for vision correction. Salvino D’Armate of Pisa and Alessandro Spina of Florence are often credited with the invention of spectacles around 1284 but there is no evidence to conclude this. The first mention of actual glasses is found in a 1289 manuscript when a member of the Popozo family wrote: “I am so debilitated by age that without the glasses known as spectacles, I would no longer be able to read or write.” In 1306, a monk of Pisa mentioned in a sermon: “It is not yet 20 years since the art of making spectacles, one of the most useful arts on earth, was discovered.” But nobody mentioned the inventor.
In the Middle Ages wearing spectacles signified knowledge and learning. Painters of the time often included spectacles when portraying famous persons even when depicting people who lived before the known invention of spectacles. On numerous paintings the religious teacher Sofronius Eusebius Hieronymus (340 – 420 AD) is portrayed with a lion, a skull and a pair of reading glasses. He is the patron saint of spectacle makers.
Eat more carrots
It actually is true that eating carrots can help you see better. Carrots contain Vitamin A, which feeds the chemicals that the eye shafts and cones are made of. The shafts capture black and white vision. The cones capture color images.
The oldest known lens was found in the ruins of ancient Nineveh and was made of polished rock crystal.
In 1718, Edward Scarlett, a London optician, put arms on eyeglasses to hold them on the ears.
About one person in 30 is color blind. More men than women are affected by color blindness.
Healthy eyes are so sensitive to light that a candle burning in the dark can be detected 1,6km (1 mile) away. The human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors. There currently is no machine that can achieve this remarkable feat.
Personal image
Glasses can be a major part of personal image and expression, from Groucho Marx and Buddy Holly to the extravagance of Elton John and Dame Edna Everage.
Eyewear became a fashion accessory in the 1950s. Browline glasses were the standard for men in the 1950s and 1960s.
For some celebrities, glasses form part of their identity. United States Senator Barry Goldwaterhorn-rimmed glasses after being fitted with contact lenses because he was not recognizable without his trademark glasses. British soap star Anne Kirkbride had the same problem: her character on Coronation Street, Deirdre Barlow, became so well-known for her big frames that she was expected to wear them at social gatherings and in international tours, even though Kirkbride has always worn contact lenses. Comedian Drew Carey continued to wear glasses for the same reason after getting corrective laser eye surgery. British comedic actor Eric Sykes, who became profoundly deaf as an adult, wears glasses that contain no lenses; they are actually a bone-conducting hearing aid. Masaharu Morimoto wears glasses to separate his professional persona as a chef from his stage persona as Iron Chef Japanese. John Lennon wore his round-lens 'Windsor' spectacles from some of his time with the Beatles to his murder in 1980. The rock band Weezer is known for some of the members wearing thick-rimmed glasses, as well as actor Jeff Goldblum who is often seen in the Browline glasses style. Singer Anastacia, who dominated the European charts in the early 21st century, is noted for wearing odd coloured glasses. continued to wear lensless.
In popular culture, glasses were all the disguise Superman and Wonder Woman needed to hide in plain view as alter egos Clark Kent and Diana Prince, respectively.
The final Curious © phrase:
“If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time”
(Josh Billings)
