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Over the past eight centuries there have been numerous
statements recorded in history that are relevant to the topic of vision aids.
From all of the reading that has gone into building this website, the following
each stand out and are therefore presented for your enjoyment. After reading
these you might agree that many examples are interesting and have much
significance. Especially place yourself back in time and try to live the actual
moment in history which is described.
| Date |
Person |
Background History |
Where |
Image |
The Statement |
| July 1804 |
The Alexander
Hamilton and Aaron Burr Duel |
In 1800 Burr
became engaged in a bitter political struggle with Thomas Jefferson and
ended up becoming the Vice President. This led to a vicious hostility
between Burr and Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury. That
culminated in the fatal duel.
A rocky ledge
about twenty feet above the Hudson River in Weehawken was a commonly used
dueling ground. Dueling was illegal in New Jersey, as it was in New York,
but in this secluded spot duelists were unlikely to be seen. Alexander
Hamilton and Aaron Burr were rowed across the Hudson in separate boats, with
their seconds, and met at 7am on July 11, 1804. Hamilton's bullet went over
Burr's head (probably on purpose), but Burr's struck Hamilton in the side.
Hamilton was rowed back to New York, where he died at the Greenwich Village
home of his friend William Bayard on July 12, 1804, surrounded by family and
friends. |
From the book
Aaron Burr by Minnigerade and Wendell, New York,
Putman, 1925 |
 |
“When the parties had taken their places, having their pistols in their
hands, cocked…’Stop’, said General Hamilton,’in certain states of the
light one requires glasses’. He then leveled his pistol in different
directions to try the light. After this, he put on spectacles and repeated
the experiment several times; he kept on his spectacles and said he was
ready. When the word ‘Present’ was given, he took aim at his adversary
and fired very promptly. The other fired two or three seconds after him and
the General instantly fell exclaiming,’ I am a dead man!’” |
| Nov. 1806 |
President
Thomas Jefferson |
Thomas
Jefferson (1743-1826), third president of the United States (1801-1809) and
author of the Declaration of Independence. was one of the most brilliant
individuals in history. His interests were boundless, and his
accomplishments were great and varied. He was a philosopher, educator,
naturalist, politician, scientist, architect, inventor, pioneer in
scientific farming, musician, and writer, and he was the foremost spokesman
for democracy of his day. He ordered reading glasses from John McAllister
and even sent him the specifications. |
In a
letter to McAllister |
 |
“You have heretofore furnished me with spectacles, so reduced
in size as to give facility to the looking over their top without moving
them. This has been a great convenience;” |
| 1825 |
Sir George
Biddell Airy |
Sir George
Biddell Airy (1801-1892) was a British scientist and seventh Astronomer
Royal (1835-1881) at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. He was also Professor
of Mathematics and Astronomy at Cambridge University. He reorganized the
observatory, installing new apparatus and rescuing thousands of observations
from oblivion, but his hesitation in acting on the calculations of English
astronomer John C. Adams in 1845 somewhat delayed the discovery of Neptune.
He was the first to attempt to correct astigmatism in the human eye (his
own) by use of a cylindrical eyeglass lens. He contributed also, in optics,
to the study of interference fringes and to the mathematical theory of
rainbows. The Airy disk, the central spot of light in the diffraction
pattern of a point light source, is named for him. |
In the first
description of astigmatism correction, “On a peculiar Defect in the Eye,
and a mode of correcting it”.
|
 |
“I discovered
that in reading I did not usually employ my left eye,...it was totally
useless,…I observed that the image formed by a bright point in my left eye,
was not circular,…but elliptical, the major axis making an angle of about 35
degrees with the vertical….I found also that if I drew upon paper two
black lines crossing each other at right angles,…one line was seen perfectly
distinct, while the other was barely visible….These appearances indicated
that the refraction of the eye was greater in the plane nearly vertical,
than in that at right angles to it, and that consequently it would not be
possible to see distinctly by the assistance of lenses with spherical
surfaces. I found, indeed, that by turning a concave lens obliquely, or
by looking directly through a part near the edge, I could see objects
without confusion….My object now was to form a lens which could refract more
powerfully the rays in one certain plane, than those in the plane at right
angles to it…I at last procured a lens to these dimensions,…it satisfies my
wishes in every respect….I believe it has generally been found, that where
the direction of the axis of the eye is distorted, the sight of the eye is
defective, but not lost: and the distortion is by many ascribed to the
disuse of the eye, which is occasioned by this defect. If it should be found
that the defect is at all similar to that which I have described, it can be
perfectly corrected.” |
| 1830 |
Johann
Wolfgang Goethe |
Goethe (1749–1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and
philosopher. As a writer, he was one of the paramount figures of German
literature and European culture during and around the 18th and 19th
century. |
In conversation with Eckermann
|
 |
“It is well known that Goethe was not a friend of spectacles. It
may be one of my peculiarities – he told me repeatedly – but I cannot
overcome this aversion. As soon as a stranger enters my room with
spectacles on his nose, I experience an ill feeling which I cannot
master….The glasses give the impression of a discourteous person to me:
as if a stranger on his first encounter would attempt to say something
unpleasant to me…If a stranger comes with spectacles, I think right away
that he has not read my newest poems.” |
| 1840 |
Mary Pease |
In 1831
William Miller, visionary and self-appointed prophet, had predicted that the
world would end on April 3, 1843. Over the next decade he gained thousands
of followers who believed him, some who even sold all their property and put
their affairs in order. When it didn’t end, he revised the date, then he
revised the date again and some still believed him and fell into a state of
uncontrollable hysteria. When it still did not end, finally the Millerites
becan to doubt him and so they split from him and founded the Adventist
Church in Lancaster, Me. |
In a
written letter |
 |
“I
have not purchased any spectacles at present for there is
rumor that the world is coming to an end in 1843 and I did not think it was
worth a while to spend my money useless” |
| 1855 |
|
Regarding Fashion
and Dress at the time |
A quote from Etiquette for
Gentlemen or Short Rules and Reflections for Conduct in Society By a
Gentleman, Lindsay And Blakiston; Philadelphia |
 |
"If you have bad,
squinting eyes, which have lost their lashes and are bordered with red, you
should wear spectacles. If the defect be great, your glasses should be
coloured. In such cases emulate the sky rather than the sea: green
spectacles are an abomination, fitted only for students in divinity, -- blue
ones are respectable and even distingue." |
| 1884 |
Mark
Twain |
Samuel
Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), was an American writer and humorist whose
best work is characterized by broad, often irreverent humor or biting social
satire. Twain's writing is also known for realism of place and language,
memorable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy and oppression. |
At age 49 -in
Mark Twain’s Speeches |
 |
“It was on the 10th day of May 1884--that I confessed to age by mounting
spectacles for the first time, and in the same hour I renewed my youth, to
outward appearance, by mounting a bicycle for the first time. The spectacles
stayed on.” |
| Circa 1900 |
George
Washington Wells |
George Wells
(1846 – 1912) was one of the founders of the American Optical Co., in
Southbridge, Mass. His words were spoken with conviction and then became
reality through the examples he set in leadership, diligence, and
dedication. |
At a meeting
of the American Optical Company, as stated in Vision Aids in History
by Eric Muth.
|
 |
“We will
spare no pains until every person who needs them shall have glasses of true
scientific merit.”
|
| 1915 |
Dr. Edward C.
Bull |
|
In
the American Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology |
 |
"Glasses relieved eyestrain incident to the modern conditions of
life…..these veritable boons to mankind have relieved suffering, prolonged
years of usefulness, forestalled disaster to the entire organism as well as the ocular
apparatus, and added to the sum total of human happiness to a degree which
it taxes the imagination to conceive.” |
| 1923 |
Professor
Moritz von Rohr |
Professor Von Rohr (1868-1940) was a German optical historian who
wrote over 500 articles, essays, and reviews on all aspects of optics,
including many on the history of spectacles. In 1804 the English physician
Wollaston discovered that visual acuity decreases when a spectacle wearer
looks through the periphery of the biconvex lenses used at that time, and
that meniscus-shaped lenses provided a sharper image. After this discovery,
repeated attempts were made to improve the imaging properties of lenses.
Finally in 1908 the company Carl Zeiss entrusted von Rohr, a prominent
member of its scientific staff with the exact computation of spectacle
lenses. He succeeded in designing a point focal lens in which peripheral
blurring was minimized. These computations laid the foundations for today's
Punktal lenses from Carl Zeiss. |
At the end of
his famous Thomas Young Oration |
 |
“I shall
close with the hope that this lecture will help in stimulating historical
spectacles studies and throwing thereby on different shadowy periods the
light of historical discoveries.
Hopefully our website will also encourage further
research. |
| 1937 |
Dr. Leopold
Heine |
German
ophthalmologist and contact lens specialist (1870-1940) commenting on over
1000 cases of contact lens wear he had seen |
|
 |
“Ordinary
spectacles are unbecoming and they spoil the looks of even the most
beautiful women. Care must be taken in fittings so that the contact lens
is not too tight for that makes the eyes burn and weep…..” |
| 1946 |
Professor
Vasco Ronchi |
Professor
Ronchi(1897-1988) is best known for the Ronchi Test, a valuable scientific
contribution where one can determine the type and magnitude of the
aberrations present at the exit pupil of an optical system. It uses a
grating of fine parallel lines to test the deviation of a mirror from its
correct figure.Ronchi was a prolific writer and his career was dedicated to
three main objectives. The first was the dissemination of optical
information in every area of human activity. The second important interest
was the history of optics. His third field of activity was in the
field of physiological and psychological optics; His dominant concern in
later years was philosophical speculation on the basic nature of
optics. |
In
his article published in Rivista oftalmologica |
 |
“Much has been written, from the serious to the humorous, about
the invention of eyeglasses, but when it is all summed up, the fact
remains that this world has found lenses on its nose without knowing
whom to thank.” |
| 1983 |
The Name
of the Rose |
Set in Italy
in the Middle Ages, this is not only a narrative of a murder investigation
in a monastery in 1327, but also a chronicle of the 14th century religious
wars, a history of monastic orders, and a compendium of heretical movements. |
Umberto Eco’s
well-known book. (chapter 7 page 4) |
 |
William
slipped his hands inside his habit, at the point where it billowed over his
chest to make a kind of sack, and drew from it an object I had already seen
in his hands, and on his face, in the course of the journey. It was a forked
pin, so constructed that it could stay on a man’s nose (or at least on his,
so prominent and aquiline) as a rider remains astride his horse or as a bird
clings to its perch. And, one on either side of the fork, before the eyes,
there are two ovals of metal, which held two almonds of glass, thick as
the bottom of a tumbler. William preferred to read with these before his
eyes, and he said they made his vision better than what nature had
endowed him with or than his advanced age, especially as the daylight
failed, would permit. They did not serve him to see from a distance, for
then his eyes were, on the contrary, quite sharp, but to see up close.
With these lenses he could read manuscripts penned in very faint letters,
which even I had some trouble deciphering. He explained to me that, when
a man had passed the middle point of his life, even if his sight had
always been excellent, the eye hardened and the pupil became recalcitrant,
so that many learned men virtually died, as far as reading and writing
were concerned, after their fiftieth summer. A grave misfortune for men
who could have given the best fruits of their intellect for many more years.
So the Lord was to be praised since someone devised and constructed this
instrument. And he told me this in support of the ideas of his Roger Bacon,
who had said that the aim of learning was also to prolong human life.” |
| 2002 |
Glass:
A
World History |
It is a
narrative history of glass from discovery, through antiquity, the
Enlightenment, the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions to the present. It
charts the history of the technology but also the enabling effects of glass
on such aspects of civilization as experimental science, perspective,
astronomy, zoology and all manner of scientific instrumentation - plus the
central role of window-glass technology in making the colder north
habitable. The authors show how the divergence in glass technology between
west and east (China and Japan) explains differential aspects of E/W
development. The last chapter develops the intriguing thesis that glass is
one of the principal factors in the development of western civilization. |
From
this book by Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin |
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“Most of us hardly give glass a thought, but imagine waking in
a world where glass has been stripped away or uninvented. All glass
utensils have vanished, including those now made of similar substances such
a plastics which would not have existed without glass. All objects,
technologies and ideas that owe their existence to glass have gone.
We feel for the alarm clock or watch; no clock or
watch, however, for miniaturized clocks and watches cannot exist without the
protective facing of glass. We grope for the light switch. But there can be
no light switch, for there is no glass for the light bulb. When we draw back
the curtains a blast of air strikes us through glassless windows. If we
suffer from short sight, as we probably do if we are over fifty, we will not
be able to read. There are no contact lenses or spectacles to help us.” |
Famous Statements Home
• Before 1600 •
1601-1800 •
1801 to the present
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