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The Eyes Have It!: A History of Corrective Eyewear · Living Loud and Proud: Disability Conversations

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Welcome to the Living Loud and Proud podcast,
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brought to you by Disability Pride Pennsylvania.
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If you need a link to the transcript for this
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episode, please visit our accessible website
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at www .disabilitypridepa .org slash podcast.
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And now, here is your host. Hey folks! Welcome
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to the Living Loud and Proud podcast brought
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to you by Disability Pride Pennsylvania. I'm
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your host, Phil Rosen, and I'm here with my co
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-host, Ray Decahorton. How's it going, Ray? All
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right, folks. How are you doing? I'm coming to
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you all from the crazy, noisy home office that
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sounds like it's inside of a factory. But you
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know what? Enough about that. Let me tell you
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guys something. We've been doing a lot of research,
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come across a lot of documents looking for ideas
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for podcasts, you know, and the funny thing that
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we came across was this outline that Phil had
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actually nicknamed the eyes habit, a history
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of corrective eyewear. Now, his humorous title
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to this here mysterious outline. should give
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you an idea. We were like, wait a minute. Has
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anybody really thought about, you know, something
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that we take for granted? Eyewear, you know,
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something used by people considered part of the
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disabled community, as well as not part of any
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community, you know, utilize all day long, even
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without any kind of vision impairment. So I think
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Phil, Do you want to go ahead and discuss this
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outline that we found, which is basically a history
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of corrective eyewear? Yeah, yeah. So it starts
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with the development of lenses and just even
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the creation of the field of optics. Okay. But
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let's talk about where the word optics comes
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from. Okay, that's what I was going to say. Okay.
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So, yeah, where does the word optics come from?
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What is the origin of it? So it's from the ancient
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Greek word optike. Hopefully all the ancient
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Greek speakers out there, you know. What does
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optike mean? Like nose? It means appearance or
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look. Okay. Oh, really? So, yeah, it's used to
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describe, you know, the act of looking as well
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as all the other aspects of what optics is. Like
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bouncing off objects, all that kind of stuff.
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Well, what we know now, at least. At the time,
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there were two different schools of thought.
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And the earliest known lenses actually were created
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about 2 ,000 years ago on the island of Creep.
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Wait, 2 ,000 years ago? Yeah. Hmm. Crazy. Oh,
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excuse me. I'm sorry. Not 2 ,000 years ago. 2
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,000 BCE. 4 ,000 years ago. Double that. Okay.
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All right. Okay. Even more. Wow. All right. Yeah.
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And the ancient Egyptians at Rhodes had hieroglyphs
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that depicted using rudimentary lenses for magnification
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around the year 700 BCE. And at the same time,
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in Mesopotamia, the Nimrod lens was created.
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It's from Assyria. About 700 years ago. Yeah,
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700 BCE. Okay, Nimrod. Yeah. President of Nimrod.
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Maybe. And then later on in the 80s, if you wore
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glasses and were a bully or something like that,
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or just a pain in the ass, you were called a
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Nimrod. Okay, enough of that pop culture moment.
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Anyway, you're Nimrod wearing a Nimrod lens.
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Yeah. If we jump ahead about 800 years or so,
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we get to like the ancient Romans and Greeks
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using water -filled glass globes, basically,
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or glass lenses to magnify. This is still in
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the BC era. Actually, first century CE. So it's
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just after the turn of the century. Seneca the
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Younger, who was the tutor of Nero, by the way.
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Emperor Nero? Emperor Nero, yeah. The one who
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danced while Rome was burning. Got it. Yeah.
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Anyways, he wrote letters, however small and
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indistinct, are seen enlarged and more clearly
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through a globe or glass filled with water. And
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there's also reports showing that Nero watch
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gladiatorial games using an emerald as a corrective
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lens as well water filled emerald so the forefather
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of the opera glass oh for sure for sure okay
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cool cool cool cool all right and and okay so
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um what's next like what what what was the next
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significant like uh era in the evolution of eyeglasses
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and eyewear so between the 11th and 13th century
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ce oh wow big skip the reading stones were invented
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yeah you know there were a lot of like you know
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different like bits of glass filled with water
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for a long time but Reading stones. Yeah, okay,
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so reading stones coming around, what time was
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this? 11th to 13th centuries was a significant
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advancement. Significant, yeah. They were these
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primitive plano -convex lenses, and what that
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really means is just one side was flat, and the
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other side was a rounded dome, basically. It
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was like a dome that you would... Like the way
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wide -angle lenses are. Exactly, exactly. They
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were at first made by cutting a glass sphere
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in half, and later experiments found that shallow
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-rope lenses magnified more effectively. They
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were generally used by monks to illuminate manuscripts.
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I mean, in the movies and cartoons, the monks
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and the ancient spell librarians. OK. Yeah. Well,
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think about it. You guys would know this very
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well. Right. Right. Well, think about it. You're
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a monk in the 11th century and you have a candle
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or an oil lamp and it's the middle of the night.
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You need help reading stuff because you've been
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doing that for the last. you know, 13 hours.
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Right. And most of those manuscripts at that
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time were, uh, handwritten anyway. So you really
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need to have some pretty good vision and visually
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going on really good light, really good visual
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perception. All right. Yeah. And the light was
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not the best at the time, you know, electricity
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wasn't for another couple thousand years or a
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thousand years. But anyways, uh, Then we jumped
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to 1286 in Pisa, Italy. And that's like when
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the next big real advancement is. And you know
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what that is, Ray? Okay. What is it? It's the
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first pair of eyeglasses. Okay. The inventor
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was unclear, but there are some historical texts
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where people are like, oh yeah, I know who created
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them, but they don't actually name who it was.
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Right. You know, creating this mystique, I guess.
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Yeah, no, I get it. It is kind of vague during
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that time that I do know about. I mean, even
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though you had to ask me the question, I do know
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for a fact it's kind of vague. I mean, well,
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for starters, a lot of things weren't able to
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be recorded accurately or known or thought about.
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But this was around 1286. And OK, what were these
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eyeglasses like? So these were the first example
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of what we would consider to be maybe a bit of
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a prescription eyeglass. You know, these are
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lenses that were put into a wooden frame and
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they were used to help with presbyopia. OK, now
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these frames, were they just frames like what
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we have today with the arms going around the
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ears or they were just the handheld kind of like
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what we see in a lot of like old paintings and
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read about in books? So they were handheld. There
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wasn't like a ton of thought into the actual
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design of how they were going to work. But it
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was the Bradfield designer frames though, right?
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I mean, I guess. Technically, you got to go along
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with that. Exactly. Well, almost. For those who
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don't know, presbyopia is like what people get
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readers for now at the drugstore. It's like when
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you have trouble focusing on near objects, basically.
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And of course, Pisa is not that far from Venice.
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And Venice became a center for manufacture very
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quickly because of the quality of glass that
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was made of Murano, which to anyone who knows
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anything about Venetian glassware, that should
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not come as any surprise. Right, right. They
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were, yeah. I mean that. They're legendary. It's
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Venice glass, stained glass, all that stuff.
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The glasses and all kinds of wares and art that
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was made from glass. Right. Venice. Yeah. And
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in 1301, guild regulations governed the sale
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of eyeglasses. So less than 20 years, like almost
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exactly 15, actually, there were already regulations
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about how to sell eyeglasses in. Medieval Venice.
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Venice second. Okay. You said guild regulations?
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Yes. Was this an eyeglass guild or a glassblowers
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guild? Glassblowers and artists guild? I believe
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it was the glassblowers. I think it was the glassblowers.
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Glassblowers. Glassblowers guild. They would
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automatically have under their jurisdiction eyewear,
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I would assume. Yeah, well, for about 20 years.
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And then there was a separate guild of spectacle
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makers created in 1320. So less than 40 years
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from the first pair of eyeglasses being created,
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we started having an actual guild of spectacles,
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essentially. Oh, my God. They're like the Templar
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and the Masons. Yeah. Nobody's ever thought about
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that. Oh, my God. Maybe they're the true Illuminati.
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I mean, maybe. In modern time, that is. Because
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we never hear nobody talk about that. Okay. All
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right. And so that was all in the early 1300s.
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Now, what else happened during that time in the
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14th century? So later on in the 14th century,
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the pince -nez glasses emerged. Now, what that...
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Means, essentially. That comes straight from
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French. It's basically pincher and nose put together.
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Pinch. Pinchers. So this allowed for the hands
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-free wearing of glasses. But it did come at
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the cost of comfort because it was a spring -loaded
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frame that pinched down. It's like a clothespin
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on the bridge of your nose. We've seen those
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in movies also. Period pieces. So this is the
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first really big advancement in not having to
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actually hold them up to your face actively.
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Got it. And then a little bit later, we find
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rivet spectacles being created. These were early
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frames, more developed frames, I should say,
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than the Pince -Nez, right? These were two magnifying
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glasses riveted together by the handles, so they
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gripped to the nose. And some of the earliest
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surviving examples were found under the floorboards
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at Kloster Wienhausen. Now, Kloster Wienhausen
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is a convent near Cella in Germany, dated to
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around 1400. Right. So, you know, this is a big,
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massive development, making... eyewear way more
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comfortable than it had been previously right
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and later on to be adopted by the hardcore steampunk
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guys oh yeah for sure for sure got it got it
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and now we're going to take a little bit of a
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left turn here a little bit away from eyewear
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but we're going to actually talk about something
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that's adjacent the printing press now why is
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the printing press important here ray well because
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My assumption is printing, reading, like what
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you were talking about with the monks and the
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librarians earlier. So I'm assuming that the
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printing press's invention, or who knows, maybe
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you're getting ready to tell me that it caused
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the printing press's invention. But we'll go
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along with maybe a little bit of both. Printing
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press is guaranteed that more people were going
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to need to be able to read this here. Smaller,
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finer, more legitimate looking print better.
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So they would need eye enhanced, eye visual,
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visual enhancement. Yeah. That's exactly on the
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nose. So, yeah, the invention of the printing
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press. Do you know what time it was roughly in
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history? It was around the. 1430s to 1450s. Johannes
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Gutenberg made probably the best printing press
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with the movable type printing press in 1450,
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but there were earlier versions as well. But
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yeah, this increased reading materials demand
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shot up for eyeglasses because people needed
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to be able to read. Right. And publishing empires
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were born. Yeah. Guys who also paid money for
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good pairs of glasses. Got it. So if we jump
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forward about 16 years from 1450, we actually
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start to see the first specialist shop for spectacles
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get opened. Okay. And what's really interesting
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about this is this was opened in Strasbourg in
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1466. Strasbourg, by the way, is in France. I
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know it sounds like it might be German. Yeah.
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And this is the first like place that you would
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consider to be somewhat equivalent to a modern
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day optician. You know, you would go get fitted
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for your glasses. You would, you know, be given
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a prescription and like guided to what maybe
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worked best for you. This was obviously for,
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you know, the landed gentry, gentry, the nobles.
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kings, queens, dukes, knights. So what about
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the marketplace that we always see in all those
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period piece movies and shows? I mean, did they
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have their own version for it? You know, the
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poor folk and the regular folk? Well, for the
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serfs and the peasants, they were street vendors.
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Oh, in the marketplace. Yeah, in the marketplace
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right there. And this started roughly around
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the beginning of the 1500s that street vendors
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started selling glasses that were mass produced,
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cheaply made, low quality. Like the glasses we
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see in downtown areas of the cities, right? Oh
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yeah, yeah, totally. It's just like all those
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people with the knockoff Gucci bags. Yeah, okay.
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And really interesting thing about this, actually,
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is the lenses were recommended almost entirely
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based on the wearer's age. Okay. Medieval peasant
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logic, right? I mean, yeah, but I guess it would
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make sense, though. It is, as you called it,
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peasant logic. But yeah, that would make sense.
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Not to denigrate them. It makes sense, though,
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when you think about it. Older people having
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difficulty seeing things up close. Logically
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kind of follow for a lot of people who might
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not know any better. Oh, young people must all
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be nearsighted then. Why not? Right. So there
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were a lot of these different kinds of conclusions.
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You usually would try on several different pairs
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and find the best fit. Hopefully one that actually
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worked for you to help improve your vision, but
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no guarantees. Right. Got it. Understand that.
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Now, okay, so I'm assuming that we're – wait
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a second. Joking earlier, I am assuming that
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we are about ready to approach an era that I
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am pretty sure they took advantage of. Actually,
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are approaching, if not already in it. The Renaissance
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era. Did eyewear have, you know, I'm just saying.
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I mean, the Renaissance era, designer earrings.
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Right. Well, the Renaissance era started in Southern
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Europe, right? So Italy was one of the earlier
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places for the Renaissance to come to. And guess
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who came up with the first kind of idea of a
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contact lens? Don't tell me the godfather of
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the Renaissance era himself. Well, even though
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basically it was like about the Renaissance era,
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it probably went for like three centuries, but
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Da Vinci. It was Da Vinci. Yes, the man who inspired
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a Ninja Turtle later on. Gotcha. All the other
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artists. Yep. All Italian artists. But he sketched
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designs for contact lenses. Now, these contact
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lenses are a little wacky for like what we would
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consider a contact lens today. They were glass
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bowls filled with water or a water -filled glass
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dome would be placed on the eye to change the
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refractive power of the eye. Kind of the same
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ideas like the reading stones and what they had
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in ancient Rome. Got it. But these are only just
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his sketching and design. I wonder if they're
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any of the ones that we always see with illustrations
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about Leonardo da Vinci. I'm trying to think.
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Have I seen anything that looked like fishbowls
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or anything? Probably have. You know, I actually
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did happen to look it up online. And there are,
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like, images online that you can look up of what
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the drawing is. But, yes, no prototype was built.
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For whatever reason, he did not have the time
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or energy to be able to actually build something
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practicable. Yeah, he was too busy painting other
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things. Right, exactly. Chasing Mona around,
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too, probably. Who knows? Yeah, maybe. Okay.
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If we jump ahead a little bit to 1604, Johannes
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Kepler comes into the picture. Now, what is he?
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for other than being an astronomer. Well, he
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actually is credited with the first accurate
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explanation of how concave lenses could correct
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myopia compared to the use of convex lenses for
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hypermetropia. So myopia, nearsightedness, hypermetropia,
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farsightedness. And this was a big leap in the
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sense that nobody had thought, oh, if you just
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ground the lenses differently. It might work
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for other issues that people might have with
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vision. Okay, got it. So out of curiosity, you
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said he was an astronomer. So did he get into
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like all this here glass science and lens science
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because of telescopes and stuff like that? Yeah,
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well, he actually created a better magnifying
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telescope than, I believe it was Huygens who
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created the first magnifying telescope. If you
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didn't realize it, yeah, eyewear and also the
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whole spyglass telescope, you know, technology
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and evolution do go hand in hand. Yeah. Well,
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and, and, you know, for people who are into,
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you know, cameras and lighting, Fresnel lenses
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as well. Right. Yeah. That's way later and not
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really relevant to the full discussion we're
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doing here today. Right. No, no. And then if
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we jump forward to 1636, Rene Descartes comes
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into play. He built on da Vinci's concept. So
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how did he build on it? The fishbowl contact
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lenses. Yeah. So what he decided was maybe we
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could put a liquid -filled glass tube directly
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onto the cornea to correct vision. Okay. And
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this is significant, you know, mostly because
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this is where the origin of the term contact
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lenses came from was Rene Descartes. Okay. Thank
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God. Because I always wonder how the hell they
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come up with that name. Now I know. Okay. Psych.
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I didn't really, but I got it now. Yeah. Well,
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I mean, he thought and. There he was. When does
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my man Ben Frank come into play? I mean, come
23:10
on, man. I mean, modern society and pop culture
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has been all about bending Frank in the glasses,
23:17
especially since National Treasure. I'm all appreciative
23:22
of the Renaissance era, but I mean, what next?
23:29
Was there anything else? Yeah, well, Ben Franklin,
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as you just mentioned, he's credited with inventing
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bifocals in 1784. And what is the bifocal lens?
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Well, it's a lens that's got a corrective part
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to it. And then you cut out a portion of it and
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put a different type of corrective lens inside
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the other corrective lens. Right. He had both
23:56
myopia and presbyopia. This allowed for him to
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not have to switch his glasses out to read things.
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And he could still wear his glasses out normally.
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And there is some debate as to whether he invented
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it in 1784 or if it was, you know, 50 years earlier,
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he may have done it a lot earlier. There's also
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some debate as to whether he actually created
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them, but he's the one who is widely credited
24:24
and known for it. And certainly here in Philly.
24:28
We're going to take credit for everything that
24:30
we can with this man. Yes, exactly. Right along
24:34
with the cheese and the, well, yeah. Okay. And
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also in the 1700s, actually a little bit earlier
24:46
than Ben Franklin, the modern style of glasses
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that, you know, you have the temples going over
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the ears or the arms. Those were developed sometime
24:57
around 1727, possibly by British optician Edward
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Scarlet. Sounds like a spy name. Oh, totally.
25:06
I mean, he was an optician, so maybe he was into
25:12
spyware, too. All right. Edward Scarlet. I like
25:17
it. I like it. I'm going to go see my optician
25:21
and pass this message on to him. All right, got
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it. So now the modern style of glasses did take
25:29
a while to catch on. They were initially very
25:31
heavy and not very comfortable, not easy to fit
25:36
to people's faces. So there were two other sometimes
25:41
equally successful glasses designs at the time.
25:45
First, you had the scissors glasses. Which were
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lenses mounted on scissoring stems. So, you know,
25:52
they would go right over the bridge of your nose.
25:54
Okay. And then stuff we've seen in period pieces
25:59
on TV or movies. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And
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then also lornets. Now, lornets, you know, what's
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that? Well, who knows? But what it is, is like
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in those period pieces. It's those glasses that
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are on the handle. Right. Okay. So you can appear
26:21
extra snobbish. Exactly. Exactly. Those were
26:26
very popular all the way through Victorian. That's
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what they're called. Oh, what are you talking
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about? There's still people that use those if
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they want to make sure that they really, really,
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really, really want to be hoity hoity. Well,
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yes, and there are a lot of opera classes. So
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that's what those are called, lornets. Lornets,
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yeah. Spell that out for the people. It's got
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a silent G, so it's L -O -R -G -N -E -T -T -E
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-S. Okay. Lornets. Or are they lornays? I mean,
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it may be lornays. All right. You know, I'm not
27:02
exactly a great French speaker, so... Yeah, well,
27:07
every time we think something should be pronounced
27:08
like that, lornaise, turn around, find out, oh,
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no, it's pronounced lornettes. Yeah. Well, and
27:15
of course, you know, British people in Victorian
27:17
England, I'm sure, would not want to be associated
27:20
with the French very much. Okay. But anyways,
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the next kind of big development in... eyewear
27:31
was in 1801. And Thomas Young was the first person
27:36
to spot the uneven curvature of a cornea known
27:40
as astigmatism. Okay. So 1801, 1801. And this,
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this creates like sort of blurry vision at all
27:51
visual depths because either your lens or the
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cornea itself is a little bit. egg -shaped rather
27:59
than spherical. Okay. And that's what is called
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astigmatism. Mm -hmm. Astigmatism. Yeah. All
28:09
right. Okay. Got it. And then, 26 years later,
28:16
Sawyer George Bidaree invented lenses for correcting
28:22
astigmatism. Now, these were lenses that were
28:26
a little bit kind of donut -shaped. in a way.
28:31
And they're called toric lenses. They refract
28:34
light in multiple rotational angles because of
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what the condition causes in the eye. Got it.
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And then we jump ahead 10 years and the next
28:47
big development in eyewear is steel wire started
28:52
to be used to create a thinner metal frame. Okay.
28:57
So that's when it started. Okay. This is when,
29:01
you know, the more modern day style of glasses
29:05
became more popular because they were a lot lighter.
29:09
Majority of eyeglass wearers, they were wearing,
29:13
you know, the little small school boy shaped
29:17
wire metal frames all the time. Okay. So that
29:22
started in. What was that? 1837. Yeah. Okay.
29:30
Yeah. It just made the over the year temples
29:33
much easier to wear. So because there was just
29:37
lighter, you could more easily conform it to
29:40
your face, you know, say they got damaged. You
29:44
could bend it back into shape. Right. Okay. And
29:49
then immediately following that. I'm assuming
29:52
that's when they started having thinner glass.
29:56
Thinner glass was being developed all throughout
29:58
this period. They got more and more precise.
30:01
Okay. Partially because of Johannes Kepler. And
30:07
also the fact that everybody was wanting to have
30:09
those thinner metal frames. Oh, yeah, for sure.
30:13
Coke bottles still persisted until the 80s or
30:18
90s. I remember seeing a few people my age. Yeah.
30:21
I mean, yeah, the frame is nowhere near as thick
30:25
as the glass that it's holding. Yeah. But it
30:30
became much, much less common, at least in my
30:34
lifetime, for that to be a thing. But anyways,
30:37
back to the timeline. If we jump ahead about
30:42
50 years, the first wearable glass contact lens
30:46
was created. Huh. Yeah. Friedrich Adolf Mueller
30:51
was a glassblower, and he actually created prosthetic
30:57
eyes, like glass eyes. So he created these glass
31:03
contact lenses that covered the entire eye, and
31:06
it wasn't a corrective lens at all. It protected
31:09
the eye, though. So it was like for people who
31:11
maybe had some kind of an eye injury, you know,
31:15
to try and... save the eye no matter what where
31:19
they required extra got it protective lens exactly
31:25
um they weren't very comfortable as you might
31:30
imagine they were heavy uh cold all that stuff
31:35
but well the next year 1800s after all right
31:41
but the very next year the first corrective glass
31:45
contact lens was created by Adolph Eugene Fink.
31:49
It was similar to Mueller's design, you know,
31:53
covering the entire eye. And Mr. Fick also later
32:00
developed corneal contacts. So contacts that
32:03
go directly onto the eye. Okay. All right. Wow.
32:10
So the concept, actually being practiced actually
32:18
occurred in the late, very late 1800s, but 1800s
32:24
nevertheless, huh? Yeah. Yeah. I never imagined
32:28
or knew that, but okay. And if we jump ahead
32:33
to the 20th century, there's a lot of developments
32:37
in eyewear. Right. The frames and whatnot. So
32:42
eyewear, had already been starting to shift from
32:46
a medical device to a fashion statement prior
32:49
to this point. But the 20th century with all
32:53
the different materials that were available just
32:56
caused this to like change so rapidly. Okay.
33:02
So people started wearing glasses, not just for
33:05
the corrective aspect, but also for the fashionable,
33:08
the fashion statement or whatnot. Got it. Some
33:12
examples of developments include tortoiseshell
33:16
frames of the 1920s, the cat eyes of the 1940s.
33:20
Got it. Plastic frames increased in popularity
33:23
in the 70s and 80s, partially because it just
33:26
became way cheaper and easier to mass produce
33:30
frames in plastic. Got it. And the glass guild
33:34
realized they had a new revenue. Exactly, exactly.
33:39
The birth of actual designer frame wear. I mean,
33:44
eyewear. Designer frame eyewear. The glass skill.
33:48
Both the eye and the glass. Okay, yeah. Anyway.
33:53
So, I kind of want to talk a little bit about
33:56
the lenses and the properties of them up until
33:59
this point. So, the lenses in the middle of them
34:02
were very crisp and sharp images. What do you
34:07
think happened as your eye kind of moved towards
34:09
the edge of the lens? Right. It would be distorted.
34:14
It was a little distorted, blurry. Well, in 1912,
34:18
the Zeiss Puncto lens was created by Moritz von
34:22
Rohr and Alvar Gustrand. So this was the first
34:27
lens to provide clear point focal vision across
34:32
the entire lens. And made life way better for
34:38
everyone who wore glasses. I mean, you didn't
34:40
have to move your head as much to be able to
34:42
see things out in the distance, for instance.
34:48
Okay. And then we jump ahead to 1936, same year
34:58
that the Olympics happened in Berlin. William
35:05
Feinblum created the first full eye contact lenses
35:09
with a plastic skirt around a glass lens covering
35:13
the cornea. Right. And you know what's something
35:16
that I had totally forgot about? In the film
35:22
and theater industry, they were using these type
35:26
of contacts, most notably people like Lon Chaney
35:30
Sr. You know, during that time. Phantom of the
35:34
Opera and other horror movie icons that he created.
35:38
And I can't believe I never stopped to think
35:41
about that. You know, hey, these, I mean, not
35:44
just film, but also the regular stage. They were
35:47
using these glass, you know, contacts in their
35:52
eyes. And I'm like, wow, contact lenses have
35:55
been around for a long time. Yeah, they really
35:57
have. This was a lot more comfortable and easier
36:00
to fit than all the glass versions up to this
36:03
point. right um and you know honestly it just
36:08
allowed for people to wear them longer and and
36:10
more comfortably okay so that was the big huge
36:14
development up until that point and then two
36:16
years later comfortable for that period of time
36:20
hey listen all i'm saying is if you have a big
36:24
glass piece right over your eyes and it's like
36:27
rigid Yeah, better than that. Anyways, two years
36:35
later, Oberg and Mullen developed the first all
36:38
plastic full eye contacts. So these were made
36:42
out of polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA. And this
36:47
just allowed for, you know, more comfortable
36:51
design, much lighter because it's not made out
36:54
of glass. It's just plastic. Right. And so on
36:58
and so forth. And if we jump 10 years to 1948,
37:03
Kevin Tuohy created the corneal plastic lens
37:09
made out of PMMA as well. Okay. And then Otto
37:16
Victor Lee developed the first soft contact lens
37:20
made of hydrogel in the 1950s. Now, why is this
37:25
significant? Well, it's because they were flexible
37:30
and water absorbent. So they were better for
37:33
dry eyes and eye fatigue, making contacts more
37:36
wearable for longer and easier for the individual
37:40
wearing them to tolerate. And you know what is
37:46
funny? Because as this development is going on,
37:50
this is the same kind of like prosthetic effects
37:54
that we need to be fake or. fake mentioned or
37:59
actually in use during movies you know adventure
38:03
spy movies from those eras leading up to the
38:07
uh well from the late 50s on ahead up to like
38:10
the 60s and 70s yeah you know looking back you
38:14
know with my little cinephile mind i'm like ah
38:19
well go on keep talking because i i'm gonna notice
38:24
the tie -ins yeah so In 1959, we start to see
38:29
the first progressive lenses. Now, those of you
38:33
who don't really know what a progressive lens
38:34
is, it eliminated the visible lines on multifocal
38:38
lenses, essentially. So they were bifocals, essentially,
38:42
that didn't have a visible delineation between
38:46
the two parts of the lens. Making it easier for
38:50
people to wear them and kind of go incognito,
38:55
if you will. Yeah, got it. Then Bosch and Lohm
39:00
in 1971 manufactured the first commercial soft
39:02
contacts in the U .S. And this was a huge development
39:07
allowing for more people to adopt them as like
39:10
an everyday use. Yeah, but it was still more
39:13
or less on a prosumer level. Yeah. Yeah, that's
39:17
true. Yeah. And then if we jump ahead seven years,
39:21
the first contacts to correct for astigmatism
39:25
were created. in 1978 for the consumer market
39:31
so this is a big deal this means that you can
39:37
start to have corrective lenses not just for
39:39
the the two hypermetropia and myopia but all
39:43
the other different things start being created
39:45
uh the bifocal also when it was definitely you
39:50
know 1978 Where it became more common for people
39:54
to go to the eye doctor and get contact lenses
39:57
instead of glasses. Right. Well, yeah, people
40:01
were getting a little bit more wealthy at this
40:03
time in America, right? And I'm assuming that
40:06
they were getting more affordable also. That
40:09
as well. Yeah. And then one year later, in 1979,
40:15
Cooper Vision introduced the first extended wear
40:17
contact lens. And that was... Bigger news than
40:21
the actual, you know, the actual common man being
40:25
able to have contact lenses when extended eyewear.
40:30
Oh, trust me, I remember the advertisements for
40:33
that all throughout the commercials on the major
40:36
networks and the magazines with their ads and
40:41
the billboards. Oh, man. Yeah, that's when you
40:46
would have thought that it actually was really
40:48
invented. But yeah. And then two years later,
40:54
Bosch and Lohm with Wesley Jensen introduced
40:59
the first bifocal contact lens. Yeah, but they
41:02
went crazy with that also. Yeah, of course. Now,
41:07
Ray, do you remember daily disposable contacts
41:10
being introduced to the market? Oh, yeah. And
41:15
they went crazy about that, too. Now, it was,
41:19
yeah, yeah. I mean, a lot of people were like,
41:22
what sense does that make? Then there were others
41:24
that were like, it was 50 -50. Either you loved
41:28
it or you hated the idea of it. Yeah. Well, I'm
41:33
sure a lot of germophobes loved it, right? Yeah,
41:36
yeah, yeah. Reducing the occurrence of eye infections.
41:39
I mean, come on. Well, also, you got to remember,
41:41
this was the era also for the keeping up with
41:44
the Joneses. So some of those people, you know,
41:48
wanted to be able to say, yes, I have disposable
41:51
contact lenses. Yeah. Well, I can throw them
41:56
away and put in a new fresh pair. It really was
42:00
winding up to being like that also for some individuals.
42:05
Then there were some that would, you know, try
42:07
and fake it. You know, by saying, well, it's
42:09
actually cheaper and I don't need to be wearing
42:12
them this long. No, it's not. Well, anyways,
42:19
they were introduced in 1994, which is, you know,
42:23
kind of interesting that it took that long for
42:27
them to develop these daily disposables. At least
42:32
I think. You think the 1980s, all these different
42:36
products were being developed at the time very
42:39
quickly. It's just like when the French realized
42:40
that they could get Americans to buy a bottle
42:42
of water all the time and wind up becoming the
42:44
multi -billion dollar industry. Right. That's
42:46
all of us. So the next big development was contact
42:54
lenses being made out of silicone hydrogel. This
42:57
was 2001. That was approved for sale to U .S.
43:01
consumers. Right. Now, what do these contact
43:05
lenses do? Well, they make it way more comfortable
43:09
to wear for longer because more oxygen reaches
43:12
the eye through the contact lens. And most soft
43:19
contacts today are actually made with silicone
43:21
and hydrogel. So if you wear contact lenses nowadays,
43:24
this is probably what you're putting in your
43:25
eyes. Yeah. And it's so crazy because like that
43:30
is big news. That really is big news. But by
43:34
this time, we started having all kinds of like
43:37
technological advances, you know, in, you know,
43:41
textile and hardware and, you know, not just
43:44
the whole computer age and information age. No,
43:47
we had quite a few, you know, with material stuff,
43:51
like I said, textile and everything. So a lot
43:53
of people didn't realize how big of a deal this
43:56
was. These lenses being made out of what they're
44:01
being made out of. Some did and some appreciated
44:04
it. Those who were aware. But yeah. And we get
44:11
to 2008. Joshua Silver designed some eyewear
44:15
with an adjustable corrective lens. Now, how
44:19
does this work? Well, there's a built -in syringe
44:22
that pumps a silicone solution. into a flexible
44:26
lens. And the silicone solution basically acts
44:30
just like the reading stones way back when in
44:33
ancient Rome. Gotcha. Changes the refractive
44:38
correction. So, and I think we have, you know,
44:44
we're just on the verge of way more stuff happening
44:46
along these lines. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there
44:49
will be right now. Everybody's just taking a
44:52
break, you know, from, I mean, being inquisitive
44:58
about, you know, further advancements in it.
45:01
Because right now, you know, we're just seeing
45:03
what kind of enhancements we can get from AI.
45:06
But, yeah, we're about due for some more major
45:10
optic, you know, what's the word I'm looking
45:15
for? Advancements. You know, who knows? You think
45:20
we're going to have AI -powered lenses? One day.
45:25
I don't know. Ask the Department of Defense.
45:27
They probably already have them. Anyway. Yeah,
45:32
we just need to get in a signal chat with the
45:34
Defense Department, right? Anyways, let's get
45:39
on to the different conditions that require corrective
45:43
lenses. There's like five that I really kind
45:46
of want to talk about just to say like, hey,
45:49
these are what exist. Basically, this is why
45:53
you would have corrective lenses. And if I remember
45:57
correctly, well, I tell you what. I see it on
46:03
the outline. I'll name the condition and you
46:07
just give a very brief description of the what
46:11
and why. Very brief. Right. We have myopia. Yeah.
46:16
So myopia colloquially nearsightedness. The light
46:20
from distant objects focuses right in front of
46:22
the retina. That's why it's nearsighted. Right.
46:26
And it results in distant objects appearing blurry
46:28
while close objects appear normal. This actually
46:31
is the most common eye refraction problem in
46:36
the world. It's estimated to affect about 1 .5
46:39
billion people worldwide. So, you know, we got
46:43
8 billion people. You know, that's... you know,
46:47
15 % of humanity right there. That's crazy. Yeah,
46:51
no, it makes sense. Like I said, I mean, come
46:53
on. Most common saying, well, you probably don't
46:56
hear it anymore. I remember always, you nearsighted
47:00
bat! Well, you know. I'm like, good Lord, everybody's
47:06
a nearsighted bat! But yeah, okay. And the next
47:13
one is, well, I'm not sure I knew this term,
47:16
but hypermetropia? Yeah, colloquially, that's
47:20
farsightedness. So it's the opposite of myopia.
47:23
And every so often you hear somebody being called
47:26
a farsighted bitch. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And,
47:30
you know, just like with light from distant objects
47:33
being focused in front of the retina for myopia,
47:36
it's the inverse for... So light is focused behind
47:42
the retina. Okay. That's all that's the differences.
47:45
And presbyopia? Yeah, so that's associated with
47:50
aging of the eye. You know, you go into CVS,
47:53
right? You get your readers. Get your readers
47:55
here. Yeah. I'm here for 12. So progressively,
48:02
it's a worsening ability to focus clearly on
48:05
close objects. It's also referred to as age -related
48:08
farsightedness. Although that feels weirdly medical
48:13
to me to call it that. Usually correct it with
48:16
reading glasses or bifocals. Got it. Now, the
48:19
next one is what was mentioned earlier, astigmatism.
48:23
And I actually already described a little bit
48:27
about how the eye is shaped. Right. But it's
48:31
a slightly egg -shaped lens or cornea with higher
48:34
curvature in one direction than the other. So
48:36
this distorts unevenly. Essentially. Got it.
48:41
Okay. And then the last one in the list is anisometropia.
48:47
Yes. So the right pronunciation of it. It sounds
48:51
right to me. I'm no expert. Anisometropia is
49:00
marked by each eye having a significantly different
49:03
refractive power from each other. So maybe both
49:07
your eyes. have myopia in them but like one is
49:10
like you know way way worse than the other like
49:14
one's closer to 2020 the other is like further
49:17
away uh that makes sense yeah um and antimotropia
49:22
actually is a subtype of this and it affects
49:24
a very small population in the world about 0
49:26
.1 percent of the population but basically one
49:31
eye is myopic and the other is hyperopic or hypermetropic
49:34
so One is farsighted, one is nearsighted. Okay.
49:40
Got it. Wow. All right. Well, you know what?
49:44
I'm glad that we actually talked about this outline
49:51
and this history of corrective eyewear. The eyes
49:55
have it. I don't know. I've got no other questions.
50:00
We could call it if you want. yeah yeah i think
50:07
we should so uh thanks everyone for listening
50:09
in we hope you enjoyed this little rundown of
50:13
the history of eyewear something that we all
50:15
really take for granted honestly i mean i have
50:17
my glasses i wear them constantly i don't think
50:21
about them ever yeah i mean look at how many
50:23
people you know eyeglass wearing is their identity
50:27
you know exactly never thought about Well, where
50:30
did this part of your identity? I mean, like,
50:33
it's not just the appearance. I mean, it is part
50:35
of who you are, you know, but you never thought
50:38
about, well, when did it all begin? It began
50:42
with me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. Were you, were
50:47
you putting a lot of emphasis on the first syllable
50:50
of that word for any reason? I. Identity. I.
50:57
Dag nabbit. I wasn't trying to. No pun intended.
51:04
Yeah, right. How about that? Well, folks, thanks
51:08
for, you know, listening in on our little conversation
51:12
and hope you have a good day, good night, good
51:16
weekend, good week, whichever position and time
51:19
that you're at. This is Ray. And I'm Phil. We'll
51:27
see you later. All right. Please visit our accessible
51:32
website at www .disabilitypridepa .org. You can
51:39
find us on social media at Disability Pride PA
51:43
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