This is the second of a 4 part series on the modern optical marvel, eyeglasses. In the last installment, we learned eye glass lenses are really fabricated from industrial plastics. But since “eyeplastics” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, spectacles are still referred to most commonly as eye glasses or glasses. In this article, the history of glasses will be discussed.

There earliest reference to magnification is found in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in 500 BC The first written record looking through an object as a lens is found in the 1st century AD, written by Seneca the Younger, the tutor of the Roman emperor Nero. Nero himself was said to have looked on gladiator contests using an emerald as a magnification lens. Several written references to using optics and lenses for corrective purposes were dated to the 1200′s. Sunglasses were developed as early as the 1200′s and perhaps earlier Read more »