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Around 1286, possibly in Pisa, Italy, the first pair of eyeglasses was made, although it is unclear who the inventor was. [50] The earliest known working telescopes were the refracting telescopes that appeared in the Netherlands in 1608.
Man with glasses. A woman with glasses. Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms, known as temples or temple pieces, that rest over the ears for support.
Around 1000 AD, an important technical breakthrough was made in Northern Europe when soda glass, produced from white pebbles and burnt vegetation was replaced by glass made from a much more readily available material: potash obtained from wood ashes. From this point on, northern glass differed significantly from that made in the Mediterranean ...
La Rochere is the oldest continuously working glass factory in Europe located in the forests of the Lorraine and Franche-Comté regions that provided firewood for furnaces and ferns, the ashes of which made the potash necessary for the glass fusion. [1]
Alumina contents vary, peaking around 3% in glasses from the western Empire, and remaining notably lower in glasses from the Middle East. [4] Flux: This ingredient was used to lower the melting point of the silica to form glass. Analysis of Roman glass has shown that soda (sodium carbonate) was used exclusively in glass production. [10]
Glass was made in the Middle East long before it was made in Europe, though Ancient Roman glass made in Italy, Germany and elsewhere could be extremely sophisticated. [Note 2] Early products included beads, glass for mosaics, jewelry, small mirrors, and window glass. [8] Venetian glassmaking grew in importance to the city's economy.
The first half of the 18th century saw British optician Edward Scarlett perfect temple eyeglasses which would rest on the nose and the ears. The innovations presented by Scarlett would not only spark some to look at aesthetic customization of eyewear for fashion within Europe but also lead Benjamin Franklin to invent bifocals in colonial America. [12]
Salvino D'Armato degli Armati of Florence is sometimes credited with the invention of eyeglasses in the 13th century, however it has been shown that this claim was a hoax, and that there was no member of the Armati family with that name at the time. [1] [2] [3] The earliest mention of Salvino degli Armati as the inventor of eyeglasses occurred ...