I CAN’T SEE!

The other day I was struggling to read the fine print on a label in the grocery store. Don’t even get me started on why the print has to be so small – what are they hiding? I have often said that the most frustrating part of aging has been the steady deterioration of my vision. I had to wear reading glasses beginning at the age of 12 and it’s been a downhill journey ever since. Over the years I’ve made many attempts to improve my vision, including Lasik surgery in 1999. The surgery was a great success, resulting in 20/20 vision for distance but as I aged, I needed reading glasses for anything up close. Fast forward to 2023, when I complained to my ophthalmologist that my distance vision was deteriorating. And as is so often the case these days, he started with the dreaded, “Well, at your age…”. Turns out Lasik doesn’t last forever, and he suggested progressive lenses. My house is now littered with glasses: four sets of progressive, two single vision sets for computer and piano distances, and two sets of progressive sunglasses. And I still have drawers full of “cheaters” that I pull out when one of my prescription glasses are not within arm’s reach. I’m looking into cataract surgery later this year, in yet another attempt to see clearly. I’ve often wondered, as I’m reading that fine print at the grocery store, how did people survive before the invention of glasses. Turns out, hundreds of years ago people were equally frustrated by blurry vision and as is often the case, came up with some rather ingenious inventions.

Somewhere in the vicinity of Pisa, Italy, around 1286, an unknown craftsman fastened two glass lenses to a frame likely made of wood or bone to create the first eyeglasses. Thus, the modern notion of vision aids was invented. But there were incremental improvements for the vision-impaired even before that. Archaeological digs in the eastern Mediterranean area have uncovered the existence of plano-convex lenses (flat on one side and rounded on the other) made of glass and rock crystal that date back to the Bronze Age! While it’s unknown what these lenses were used for, some of them magnify objects between seven and nine times, rendering them useful for work on items in close quarters.  After that there came water stones, mirrors and even emeralds, which didn’t really improve vision but were thought to reduce glare. A major development in the area of visual tools came with the invention of reading stones. The concept of using curved glass to magnify print was discussed at length by an Arab mathematician in 1021. Typically made from quartz, rock crystal, and especially beryl, reading stones were fashioned in a plano-convex shape, with the flat side against the page of a book and the rounded top providing a clear view of the lettering below. Initially used to assist the elderly with faltering vision, the stones became popular among younger readers as well, especially as beryl was said to possess magic and healing powers.

One surviving example of reading stones are the 11th- to 12th-century Visby lenses discovered in Gotland, Sweden, in 1999. Along with providing excellent magnification of tiny text, many of these quartz lenses are mounted in silver, suggesting a decorative purpose as well. It’s unknown if the Visby lenses were the work of a local professional or somehow made their way from Muslim regions where other reading stones first appeared. Regardless, the quality of the images generated by these artifacts, and the craftsmanship that went into their creation, underscores how people were seeking help for their vision woes long before LensCrafters went into business.