Interesting Facts about Eyeglasses

While the origin of eyeglasses is relatively unknown and widely debated, reading glasses first appeared on the scene in Italy around 1260 C.E. They were initially designed to help the elderly in their quest for reading. The reading glasses were insanely popular very quickly but there was one drawback - arms had not been invented for the prescription eyeglasses and the frames kept slipping down the nose! The Spanish tried to remedy this by tying ribbons to the frames and then wrapping them around their ears but the local folks were not so keen on that idea.

Early sunglasses served a special purpose and it wasn’t to block the rays of the sun. Smoke tinting was the first means of darkening eyeglasses, and the technology was developed in China prior to 1430. These darkened lenses were not vision-corrected, nor were they initially intended to reduce solar glare. For centuries, Chinese judges had routinely worn smoke-colored quartz lenses to conceal their eye expressions in court. A judge’s evaluation of evidence as credible or mendacious was to remain secret until a trial’s conclusion.

Sunglasses came on the scene in 1929 when a young innovator, Sam Foster, convinced the Woolworth’s store on the Atlantic City Boardwalk to sell his new brand of sunglasses - Foster Grant. They became an instant sensation in the 1930’s when worn by the era’s most popular movie stars! The American culture has Sam Foster to thank for making something like eye protection from UVA and UVB rays look so cool and hip!

With World War II brewing in 1936, Ray Ban designed anti-glare aviator style sunglasses, using polarized lens technology newly created by Edwin H. Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation.
They also designed a slightly drooping frame perimeter to maximally shield an aviator’s eyes, which repeatedly glanced downward toward a plane’s instrument panel. Fliers were issued the glasses at no charge, and the public in 1937 was able to purchase the model that banned the sun’s rays as Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses.