Free writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Free writing - Essay Example Confusing the issue regarding the origin of the eyeglass, though, are reports in China of similar inventions coming to them earlier than the Italian invention. Spectacles may have introduced into China as early as the twelfth century, coming in from Malacca â€Å"in the Western Regions.† This date was derived by comparing the original documents and reviewing the probable date regarding when they were written given what is known about the life of the author. This also places spectacles in China at least a century earlier than had been determined based on readings of the Western texts, especially the texts coming out of Italy. (Chiu, 1936) As complex as the discussion regarding the invention of the eyeglass, certain developments in its evolution have been almost as hotly debated. Acknowledging that a large portion of the credit for this invention has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin, two other men probably played a large role in the creation and development of this specializ ed vision aid, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Benjamin West. Tracing through these letters, the author indicates that Franklin’s recipient had already been familiar with the idea prior to Franklin’s letter, further indicating an earlier invention. Other materials have also surfaced revolving around Benjamin West that indicated he, as well as several painters and other artists, were accustomed to wearing divided glasses for many years prior to the man’s death in 1820. However, it is unknown whether these ‘many years’ predated or postdated Franklin’s use of bifocals. However, the man that created West’s bifocals knew of other artists, particularly Sir Joshua Reynolds, who also used bifocals who would have needed them prior to Franklin’s invention of them in 1784. In addition, it would have been unlikely that Reynolds would have been able to adopt the invention from Franklin as Franklin had been in France at the time and finally, it is be lieved West got his idea for bifocals from Reynolds rather than Franklin. What is known is that all three men knew each other and all three men wore bifocals. (Levene, 1972) What is not know is whom exactly invented eyeglasses we are familiar with now or when. Eyeglasses, or spectacles, in the earliest forms of what might be familiar today, had its beginnings in the thirteenth century. Salvino degli Armati is widely credited as being the inventor of the familiar two-lens apparatus that rests on the bridge of the nose although English Franciscan and intellectual Roger Bacon (1220 -1292), designed a similar version a couple of decades earlier. The discovery that curved glass improved vision led to other innovations such as the telescope and microscope which led to the rise of modern science, greatly advancing the breadth of knowledge and well-being of the human race. Reading glasses themselves represent one of the most significant inventions of human kind as they were developed by a c ollaboration of several talented craftsmen including glassmakers, jewelers and clockmakers along with â€Å"philosophers, monks, mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, and chemists who all played vital roles in developing this instrument† (Rosenthal, 1994, p. 489). The Greeks, Egyptians, Romans and Chinese are all recorded to have experimented with varying types of ocular manipulations using glass. A prominent astronomer and mathematician