Eyeglasses Origin

Salvino D’Armate an Italian likely invented wearable eyeglasses towards the end of the 13th century. The earliest differed from modern eyeglasses, because they did not have the arms hooking behind the ears, and the lenses were only for hyperopia (farsightedness). Lenses for myopia (nearsightedness) were invented during the 15th century. Of course people did not know how silly they looked, because mirrors were not invented until 1835 by German chemist Justus von Liebig.


Incidentally, Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals, not glasses as many wrongly believe. Also, Leonardo da Vinci during 1508 produced the first known sketches that suggested the optics of the human eye could be altered by placing the cornea directly in contact with water as with contact lenses.