A Panorama of Bifocal Eyeglasses

April 12th, 2010 by Jean Caster Leave a reply »

Among all the great inventions in the history of human being, eyeglasses are included. According to some data, the first modern-alike eyeglasses did not come into being until the 13th century in Italy. Since then, eyeglasses started their course of enhancing vision. However, people gradually found that some eye problems could not be solved by ordinary glasses, for they might have more than one eye diseases simultaneously. But the practicable solution for such problem did not become possible till the emergence of bifocal eyeglasses.

Bifocal eyeglasses, as their names indicate, are eyeglasses that have two focuses. For each lenses, there are two parts, say, the top part and the lower part. The former part is for distance vision and the later one is for nearby vision. Therefore, one can look at the top part if he wants to look afar; and look at the lower part if reads. Generally, the former one is much wider than the later one. This is because much wider vision area is needed when one looks afar. Therefore, there is an invisible vision arch in the lenses. Due to their unique merits, bifocal eyeglasses can effectively solve eye problems like, presbyopia, astigmatism, myopia, etc. that may occur at the same.

However, the invention of bifocal eyeglasses is rather complicated and they do not appear till the late18th century. Here is some information about the history.

In fact, the history of bifocal eyeglasses is a legend. Although who have invented bifocal eyeglasses is still in controversy, most people deem Benjamin Franklin as the only legal inventor. According to bifocal glasses Wiki, Benjamin Franklin had some problems in reading when he was old. However, he was such a creative man that he decided to solve them by making some glasses. One day, he found his problems can be treated by overlapping two lenses, namely, one is for near vision, and another is for far vision. Then, he began to embed the two lenses in one frame. And the ultimate result was-with those newly created glasses he could see clearly of objects afar after reading for sometime. It might be possible that Franklin is not the first inventor of bifocals, but he should be the first to wear them.

The bifocal eyeglasses created by Franklin are not as nice as people can now use. They are roughly made, partly due to then backward technology. However, as some innovations are made in the industry, bifocals are also perfected all the more. Only two century are passed away, bifocals in nowadays are really very practical and nice in solving the aforesaid eye problems. For example, people will seldom complain of their eye problems with personalized bifocal eyeglasses. Or to some extent, those glasses can highlight their personal tastes and elegance.

Professionals in the industry find there are still many things to do with bifocal eyeglasses. In addition to assimilating some fashionable elements in their designs and products, they also spare no efforts in strengthening their functions of vision correction. For example, most of the bifocals are lined glasses, and they have prompted some no-lined bifocals recently. Those newly upgraded lenses have bettered people’s lives greatly.

It is no denying that with the development of technology, more achievements will be scored in bifocals. Here is a promising and bright future.

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