Eye glasses as we see them today are not the same type of glasses that they were in early history. In fact, the ability to use an object to aid in vision was discovered long before glasses were invented. One of the first times that it is noted in history that someone used an object to assist them in seeing was by a Roman named Seneca who died in the year 65 AD. He is said to have used a glass container with water in it to magnify the words in books. This was pretty advanced for the time, since no one had ever heard of improving vision at this time.
The next significant appearance of an object being used to help with vision was in Italy around the year 1000 AD. Italian glass workers began making objects out of glass called reading stones. These stones were used kind of like a magnifying glass would be used today. Two hundred and eighty four years later, an inventor named Salvino D’Armate created the first reading glasses that were able to be worn on the face. This amazing invention was also created in Italy. These eye glasses were nothing like the ones we have today, but were still extremely advanced for the time period.
Over the next few centuries, eye glasses are discussed and spoken about in a variety of texts and notations by a number of people. They seem to have increased in popularity because of the wonderful way they were able to practically restore vision to those whose vision was failing.
Of course, those people would be even more amazed if they could see the advanced glasses that people use today. The glasses used for those few centuries were not as easy to keep on your face as the glasses used today. They were often simply used with only the user’s sense of balance to keep them in place.
Eye glasses in the 21st century are much more advanced and much easier to use than ever before. They allow users to simply place them on their face and never think about them again. This is an amazing thing once you know the history behind them and how they started out. It would be very unusual and very inconvenient to attempt to balance two connected lenses on your face while you are driving down the road at 70 miles per hour.