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Did you think that sunglasses were always used to protect our eyes from the sun? Well if you did, you are most certainly mistaken. The first reason why they darkened glasses was because of smoke tinting, which was held in China before 1430. It was so far back in time, that of coarse their glasses were not of any prescription, and they were not used to protect your eyes from the sun. The Chinese judges had often worn sunglasses with quartz to hide the expression in their eyes while during a court case. It was only until the actual year of 1430 that prescription sunglasses came about in China from the fair country of Italy. The sunglasses from Italy were also obviously darkened, but they were darkened for court cases as well. The experimentation of tinting lenses came from a man named James Ayscough in the 18th Century. He as well, did not seek sunglasses as protecting your eyes from the rays of the sun, but for the correction of vision impairments. When the 20th Century hit is when we start to see the wide range of the sunglasses popularity. This was the time period where they started to realize that sunglasses would be a great help to protect your eyes from the sun. They were first sold in the Atlantic City, New Jersey. When the year of 1930 struck was when everyone had to own a pair. In 1960 sunglasses started to develop their actual style for fashion. There you have some new knowledge of sunglasses! What would we do without them? SUNGLASSES IN ART Tommaso da Modena is attributed to painting the first subject wearing eyeglasses with his series of frescoes depicting brothers busily reading or copying manuscripts in 1352. Tommaso's frescoes quickly set a precedent within the art world and works by other painters soon followed with spectacles appearing on the noses of all sorts of subjects, most likely as a symbol of respect and wisdom. THE CONCAVE LENS In the 16th century a significant development took place, the concave lens arrived. Pope Leo X who was attributed with short-sightedness claimed concave lenses helped his vision whilst hunting. Early spectacles used Quartz lenses as optical lenses had yet to be developed. Lenses were set in to a variety of mountings including bone, metal and leather whilst the two lenses often featured two handles riveted together in an inverted V shape which could be balanced on the bridge of the nose. Starting in Italy, spectacles quickly spread to the Low Countries, Germany, Spain and France. In 1629 the 'Spectacle Makers Company' was formed in England; the coat of arms featured three pairs of spectacles with the motto 'A blessing to the aged'. A SIMPLE PROBLEM Since the conception of the spectacle one problem remained unsolved for nearly 350 years, how to stop them from falling off! Despite all of the strides in spectacle development the eyeglass was still flawed in one major way: every face is different. Frames depended greatly on the nose, their shape, size, firmness whilst the ears vary in symmetry. As a result 17th Century spectacle makers experimented with ribbons of silk which were attached to the frames then looped over the ears! The Chinese took this concept a step further by attaching small ceramic or metal weights to the strings instead of making loops. Finally in 1730 an English optician named Edward Scarlett perfected the rigid sidepieces that rested atop of the ears. Word quickly spread and the modification soon spread across the continent.
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