Glasses

Glasses help me see but they are such a pain. I envy you if you don't wear glasses.

I started wearing glasses in grade school. Oh they picked on you, 4 eyes, google eyes, some of you know what I mean.

"Around 1284 in Italy, Salvino D'Armate is credited with inventing the first wearable eye glasses.[8] The earliest pictorial evidence for the use of eyeglasses, however, is Tomaso da Modena's 1352 portrait of the cardinal Hugh de Provence reading in a scriptorium. Another early example would be a depiction of eyeglasses found north of the Alps in an altarpiece of the church of Bad Wildungen, Germany, in 1403.

Many theories abound for whom should be credited for the invention of traditional eyeglasses. In 1676, Francesco Redi, a professor of medicine at the University of Pisa, wrote that he possessed a 1289 manuscript whose author complains that he would be unable to read or write were it not for the recent invention of glasses. He also produced a record of a sermon given in 1305, in which the speaker, a Dominican monk named Fra Giordano da Rivalto, remarked that glasses had been invented less than twenty years previously, and that he had met the inventor. Based on this evidence, Redi credited another Dominican monk, Fra Alessandro da Spina of Pisa, with the re-invention of glasses after their original inventor kept them a secret, a claim contained in da Spina's obituary record.[9]

Seated apostle holding lenses in position for reading. Detail from Death of the Virgin, by the Master of Heiligenkreuz, ca. 1400-30 (Getty Center).

While the exact date and inventor may be forever disputed, it is almost certain that spectacles were invented between 1280 and 1300 in Italy.

These early spectacles had convex lenses that could correct both hyperopia (farsightedness), and the presbyopia that commonly develops as a symptom of aging. Nicholas of Cusa is believed to have discovered the benefits of concave lens in the treatment of myopia (nearsightedness). However, it was not until 1604 that Johannes Kepler published in his treatise on optics and astronomy, the first correct explanation as to why convex and concave lenses could correct presbyopia and myopia."

Most of Dad's family wore glasses, Grandpa and most of the kids. Dad refused to, just walked around half blind. I really don't know how he got by not running over someone or not getting run over himself.

I remember my admiration of Ben Franklin as a child and those little round glasses.

So many "smart people" wore glasses they have become a fashion statement! Some people wear them who don't even need them!

I broke my frames again Friday and have to wait til this Friday to get them fixed, the one ear piece snapped at the hinge.

I will have to share this with Dr. Keith. He is the best optrician in the land here. I had migraines that put me under. Went to him and my unusual astigmatism had been prescribed just backward all those years. He has also helped many of my friends. Dr. Keith has studied optometry all over the world.

Vision is such a treasure, how do the blind make it?

I know someday they will see.

Ed Winkle