Fun History Facts About Glasses
From the earliest days in Alexandria (circa 300 BC) when Euclid described the laws of reflection in Optica, the science of optics has fascinated and challenged society's most brilliant minds. The earliest pioneers in optics reached for the stars with difficulty as they developed crude lenses and mirrors for their telescopes while other investigators focused on the hidden microscopic world through aberration-plagued compound optical systems that hampered early microscopes.
Today, millions of the optically-challenged need be thankful to these pioneers for the eyeglasses, contact lenses, and other advances that have evolved from innovations dating back as early as 1303 when Bernard of Gordon, a French physician, wrote about the use of spectacles as a way of correcting long-sightedness (hypermetropia). From the earliest compound microscopes, enabling anatomists to describe the properties of blood cells, to the modern electron and scanning laser confocal microscopes and NASA's Hubble space telescope, the science of optics has helped us understand the world around us, our bodies, and the diseases we face in our daily lives.
Whether it is Polaroid instant photos, sunglasses, disposable contact lenses, the ubiquitous television, videos, or the more recent compact discs, fiber optics communications, and digital cameras, we all reap the harvest of seeds planted by pioneers in the optical sciences. Tribute is paid to these heroes through brief biographies that acknowledge their tremendous accomplishments and how they have affected our civilization.
Ernst Abbe (1840-1905)
- Ernst Abbe was a brilliant German mathematician and physicist who made several of the most important contributions to the design of lenses for optical microscopy. Abbe studied physics and mathematics as an undergraduate at the University of Jena and went to graduate school at the University of Göttingen, where he received a doctorate in thermodynamics. In 1863 Abbe joined the faculty at the University of Jena where he taught physics. He met Carl Zeiss in 1866 and became very interested in the optical problems surrounding mid-nineteenth century microscopy. Together with Zeiss, Abbe formed a partnership and he was made the research director of Zeiss Optical Works late in 1866, and assumed control of the company when Zeiss died in 1888.
Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892)
- Sir George Airy was a distinguished nineteenth century English Astronomer Royal who carried out optical research and first drew attention to the visual defect of astigmatism. Airy manufactured the first correcting eyeglasses (1825) using a cylindrical lens design that is still in use. The diffraction disks that bear his name (Airy Disks) were discovered in the spherical center of a wavefront traveling through a circular aperture. These diffraction patterns form the smallest unit that comprises an image, thus determining the limits of optical resolution.
Alhazen (965-1040)
- Born in Iraq as Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham, the great Arab physicist is more often known by the Latinized version of his first name, Alhazen. The efforts of Alhazen resulted in over one hundred works, the most famous of which was Kitab-al-Manadhirn, rendered into Latin in the Middle Ages. The translation of the book on optics exerted a great influence upon the science of the western world, most notably on the work of Roger Bacon and Johannes Kepler. A significant observation in the work contradicted the beliefs of many great scientists, such as Ptolemy and Euclid. Alhazen correctly proposed that the eyes passively receive light reflected from objects, rather than emanating light rays themselves.
Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (1904-1990)
- In 1958, Pavel Cherenkov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery and characterization of the Cherenkov effect, an optical phenomena that occurs when charged particles move at speeds greater than the speed of light. Today, the Cherenkov effect is considered invaluable to the field of spectroscopy, as well as to the study of cosmic rays and other high-speed particles. Cherenkov counters, which are specialized instruments that can measure particle velocity by using the light emitted by Cherenkov radiation, have garnered widespread use by experimental scientists studying particle and nuclear physics.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
- Perhaps realizing what the consequences might be for openly opposing long-held beliefs and standard Church doctrine, Nicolaus Copernicus postponed the publication of his complete body of work supporting the heliocentric theory for more than thirty years. A young scholar Georg Joachim Rheticus, who lived with Copernicus for a period between 1539 and 1542, was integral in moving the project forward. It was under his name that a brief account of Copernicus's heliocentric theory known as the Narratio Prima was published in 1540.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
- Thomas Edison was an American inventor who achieved his greatest successes in his Menlo Park laboratory and was called the "Wizard of Menlo Park." This research and development laboratory was the first of its kind anywhere; it became a model for later, modern research and development facilities such as Bell Laboratories. It was during this period of his life that Edison and his staff were responsible for many inventions and innovations. More patents were issued to Edison than have been issued to any other single person in United States history, a total of 1,093. Edison is perhaps best known for his invention of the incandescent light bulb.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
- Albert Einstein was one of the greatest and most famous scientific minds of the 20th century. The eminent physicist is best remembered for his theories of relativity, as well as his revolutionary notion concerning the nature of light. However, his innovative ideas were often misunderstood and he was frequently ridiculed for his vocal involvement in politics and social issues. The birth of the Manhattan Project yielded an inexorable connection between Einstein's name and the atomic age. However, Einstein did not take part in any of the atomic research, instead preferring to concentrate on ways that the use of bombs might be avoided in the future, such as the formation of a world government.
Euclid (325-265 BC)
- Though often overshadowed by his mathematical reputation, Euclid is a central figure in the history of optics. He wrote an in-depth study of the phenomenon of visible light in Optica, the earliest surviving treatise concerning optics and light in the western world. Within the work, Euclid maintains the Platonic tradition that vision is caused by rays that emanate from the eye, but also offers an analysis of the eye's perception of distant objects and defines the laws of reflection of light from smooth surfaces. Optica was considered to be of particular importance to astronomy and was often included as part of a compendium of early Greek works in the field. Translated into Latin by a number of writers during the medieval period, the work gained renewed relevance in the fifteenth century when it underpinned the principles of linear perspective.
Today, millions of the optically-challenged need be thankful to these pioneers for the eyeglasses, contact lenses, and other advances that have evolved from innovations dating back as early as 1303 when Bernard of Gordon, a French physician, wrote about the use of spectacles as a way of correcting long-sightedness (hypermetropia). From the earliest compound microscopes, enabling anatomists to describe the properties of blood cells, to the modern electron and scanning laser confocal microscopes and NASA's Hubble space telescope, the science of optics has helped us understand the world around us, our bodies, and the diseases we face in our daily lives.
Whether it is Polaroid instant photos, sunglasses, disposable contact lenses, the ubiquitous television, videos, or the more recent compact discs, fiber optics communications, and digital cameras, we all reap the harvest of seeds planted by pioneers in the optical sciences. Tribute is paid to these heroes through brief biographies that acknowledge their tremendous accomplishments and how they have affected our civilization.
Ernst Abbe (1840-1905)
- Ernst Abbe was a brilliant German mathematician and physicist who made several of the most important contributions to the design of lenses for optical microscopy. Abbe studied physics and mathematics as an undergraduate at the University of Jena and went to graduate school at the University of Göttingen, where he received a doctorate in thermodynamics. In 1863 Abbe joined the faculty at the University of Jena where he taught physics. He met Carl Zeiss in 1866 and became very interested in the optical problems surrounding mid-nineteenth century microscopy. Together with Zeiss, Abbe formed a partnership and he was made the research director of Zeiss Optical Works late in 1866, and assumed control of the company when Zeiss died in 1888.
Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892)
- Sir George Airy was a distinguished nineteenth century English Astronomer Royal who carried out optical research and first drew attention to the visual defect of astigmatism. Airy manufactured the first correcting eyeglasses (1825) using a cylindrical lens design that is still in use. The diffraction disks that bear his name (Airy Disks) were discovered in the spherical center of a wavefront traveling through a circular aperture. These diffraction patterns form the smallest unit that comprises an image, thus determining the limits of optical resolution.
Alhazen (965-1040)
- Born in Iraq as Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham, the great Arab physicist is more often known by the Latinized version of his first name, Alhazen. The efforts of Alhazen resulted in over one hundred works, the most famous of which was Kitab-al-Manadhirn, rendered into Latin in the Middle Ages. The translation of the book on optics exerted a great influence upon the science of the western world, most notably on the work of Roger Bacon and Johannes Kepler. A significant observation in the work contradicted the beliefs of many great scientists, such as Ptolemy and Euclid. Alhazen correctly proposed that the eyes passively receive light reflected from objects, rather than emanating light rays themselves.
Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (1904-1990)
- In 1958, Pavel Cherenkov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery and characterization of the Cherenkov effect, an optical phenomena that occurs when charged particles move at speeds greater than the speed of light. Today, the Cherenkov effect is considered invaluable to the field of spectroscopy, as well as to the study of cosmic rays and other high-speed particles. Cherenkov counters, which are specialized instruments that can measure particle velocity by using the light emitted by Cherenkov radiation, have garnered widespread use by experimental scientists studying particle and nuclear physics.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
- Perhaps realizing what the consequences might be for openly opposing long-held beliefs and standard Church doctrine, Nicolaus Copernicus postponed the publication of his complete body of work supporting the heliocentric theory for more than thirty years. A young scholar Georg Joachim Rheticus, who lived with Copernicus for a period between 1539 and 1542, was integral in moving the project forward. It was under his name that a brief account of Copernicus's heliocentric theory known as the Narratio Prima was published in 1540.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
- Thomas Edison was an American inventor who achieved his greatest successes in his Menlo Park laboratory and was called the "Wizard of Menlo Park." This research and development laboratory was the first of its kind anywhere; it became a model for later, modern research and development facilities such as Bell Laboratories. It was during this period of his life that Edison and his staff were responsible for many inventions and innovations. More patents were issued to Edison than have been issued to any other single person in United States history, a total of 1,093. Edison is perhaps best known for his invention of the incandescent light bulb.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
- Albert Einstein was one of the greatest and most famous scientific minds of the 20th century. The eminent physicist is best remembered for his theories of relativity, as well as his revolutionary notion concerning the nature of light. However, his innovative ideas were often misunderstood and he was frequently ridiculed for his vocal involvement in politics and social issues. The birth of the Manhattan Project yielded an inexorable connection between Einstein's name and the atomic age. However, Einstein did not take part in any of the atomic research, instead preferring to concentrate on ways that the use of bombs might be avoided in the future, such as the formation of a world government.
Euclid (325-265 BC)
- Though often overshadowed by his mathematical reputation, Euclid is a central figure in the history of optics. He wrote an in-depth study of the phenomenon of visible light in Optica, the earliest surviving treatise concerning optics and light in the western world. Within the work, Euclid maintains the Platonic tradition that vision is caused by rays that emanate from the eye, but also offers an analysis of the eye's perception of distant objects and defines the laws of reflection of light from smooth surfaces. Optica was considered to be of particular importance to astronomy and was often included as part of a compendium of early Greek works in the field. Translated into Latin by a number of writers during the medieval period, the work gained renewed relevance in the fifteenth century when it underpinned the principles of linear perspective.
