Spectacles

The history and social, cultural and technical factors of its invention

th
Depiction of the so called “Netherlandish spectacles” from the mid 15 century by Herlin

Name: Chris Jager

Student number: 20761990
University of California at Berkeley (UCB)
Introduction

Spectacles, so entrenched in our lives that we rarely take the time to think about it. Where would we be

without them? As our population keeps getting older and older, the relevance of spectacles increases.

As people age, we all end up being farsighted. It’s a fact of life. A process that already starts at the age

20 and is completed at around 45 to 50 (2). Think about it, what did those people do at the age of 45,

before they invented spectacles? Had they become a burden to society? How where these people

looked upon back in the day? And when and why were glasses invented? More specifically what were

the technological, cultural and social preconditions that influenced its development? These questions

we will try to answer in this essay.

First of all an overview of the history and development of spectacles is given. This shows how this

technological innovation has been shaped through the centuries. It is the background that sets

environment for the remainder of the essay. Secondly we will look at life in the early dark ages, and

what life was like for farsighted, shortsighted and “normal” people. Thirdly we discuss the

consequences, intended and unintended, that the invention of spectacles had. Finally a short paragraph

with reflection and general discussion regarding spectacles is given.

Historical overview

The first mention of spectacles is by a man from ancient Rome by the name of Seneca. Seneca lived from

4 BC till 65 AD and is said to have read "all the books in Rome" by peering through a glass globe of water

(3). Taking a leap in time, it was the monks in the middle ages who developed the “reading stone”. This

was a segment of a polished sphere of rock crystal that was laid on top of the parchment to enlarge the

print. In 1267 a man by the name of Roger Bacon even sent one of these reading stones to the Pope

himself to aid him in reading (1). In 1280 for the first time, the concept of combining two lenses was
executed. With this setup, you had a lens for each eye. These lenses where connected with a nail or rivet,

hence the name “riveted spectacles” (1). In 1300 the next innovation in spectacles was introduced. Glass

from the Venice glass industry replaced the rock crystal lenses. It has to be noted that all these previous

accounts of spectacles concern convex lenses. But around 1450, concave lenses where finally developed.

This enabled nearsighted people to see clearly at a distance. Around 1720 the side arms were

introduced (1). This prevented the spectacle from falling of ones nose. And in 1775 multifocal lenses

where developed by Benjamin Franklin (1). Later he said the following: “I therefore had formerly two

pairs of spectacles, which I shifted occasionally, as in traveling I sometimes read, and often wanted to

regard the prospects. Finding this change troublesome, and not always sufficiently ready, I had the

glasses cut and a half of each kind associated in the same circle. By this means, as I wear my own

spectacles constantly, I have only to move my eyes up or down, as I want to see distinctly far or near,

the proper glasses being always ready” (4). Finally in 1887 the next incremental step in spectacle

development was made. Adolf E. Fick, Eugene Kalt and August Muller invented contact lenses. And all

developed them completely separately from each other. This is actually not as unusual as it sounds. For

instance in the development of the television this also occurred. It is the response to a social demand

that needs to be filled. More recently there have also been techniques developed of replacing the actual

lenses of the human eye. For instance for people with cataract disease this is a solution (5). This shows

that spectacle development is still an ongoing process. The two figures below show how glasses looked

like around the year 1400.

Farsightedness, nearsightedness and “normal” people

In order to understand why spectacles where invented, it is critical to know what life was like in the

early middle ages, before the invention of spectacles. In the case you were farsighted you didn’t really

have a problem, nobody read books anyway. You where either a hunter, farmer, sailor or soldier for

instance (2). By the time you were 45, it didn’t matter you became farsighted; it was not a problem for

performing your task. On the other hand, if you were nearsighted and of low stature you where seen as

an outcast. If you were from a higher social class, you still had problems because the cultural belief was

that people who were nearsighted were indifferent, gloomy, cold and disoriented because they couldn’t

comply to the code of etiquette because of their disability (2). If you were nearsighted it was already

clear that you would not be able to become a hunter, farmer, sailor or soldier. They went into

professions that required good close-proximity vision. You can think of the profession of an engraver,

bookkeeper, goldsmith and tailor (2). These happened to be the jobs in which you could acquire

(political) power. But now comes the trick; Young “normal” people had a choice what to become; either

an outdoor person or a closed spaces person. The problem was that if they chose a profession in the

nearsighted category, they could not perform their job anymore after the age of 45 and they needed a

career change (2). This is believed to be the main cause why there was a larger social demand for

convex lenses, instead of concave ones (2). These people who had spent all their life being a goldsmith

couldn’t possibly become a hunter out of thin air. It didn’t make sense. Inspired by this gap between

what was experienced and what was desired within medieval society, lead to the invention of spectacles

around the year 1300 as was shown in the last paragraph. This would imply that the social forces pushed

the technology, being in line with the stream of “social construction of technology” as apposed to the

technological determinism stream of thinkers. Then, more than 150 years later, convex lenses where
invented, again supporting the view of social forces being the main drivers for the technological

innovation.

Consequences of spectacles to medieval life

One of the consequences of the invention of spectacles was that people had a choice what category of

profession they would choose. Also, after the invention of the printing press around the 15th and a half

century (7), meant that the development of spectacles entered a slipstream. A lot more people started

reading and general educational levels were raised. Also people didn’t need to perform a career change

anymore at 45.

In the middle ages the percentage of nearsighted people was smaller than the percentage of farsighted

ones. Because of changes in society it became clear that this distinction in professions was not going to

suffice (2). There were several reasons for the fact that there was more demand for people in the

“closed-spaces sector”. This was for instance because of the widespread literacy, the growth of

international trade and the spread of universities (2). Spectacles made sure all these obstacles could be

overcome and so the technology supported the changes that were becoming apparent in the society.

Discussion

Overlooking the technology of spectacles, it seems that its entire existence is because of the social

forces within society. But that seems quite limited. Because once spectacles became a widely available,

it in turn changed society. It eradicated the social gap between “normals” and nearsighted people. They

could participate in etiquette just like the normal people now. Some sources even claim that people

with spectacles actually had better sight than the normal people without spectacles (4, 6). Also the poor

would now no longer have to be labeled as outcasts. As they could now also live within the city walls

and in this way increase their standard of living.

References

(1) The spectacle story, website:

http://www.eyeandear.org.au/library/museum/spectacles.htm#Spectacles_&_Art

(2) Taking Eyeglasses Seriously, Tomas Maldonado, The MIT Press, Design Issues, Vol. 17, No. 4, (Autumn,

2001), pp. 32-43, 1999

(3) History of Eyeglasses, website: http://www.teagleoptometry.com/history.htm

(4) Short history of spectacles, website: http://courses.science.fau.edu/~rjordan/rev_notes/spec.07.htm

(5) Cataract Disease, website: http://www.medindia.net/articles/cataract.asp

(6) The development of spectacles in London from the end of the 17th century, T. H. Court and M. coon

Rohr, Transactions of the optical society, vol. xxx. 1928-29 No. I., 1928

(7) The history of visual communication, website:

http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/press.html