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Atlantis Vision Center Research Paper

Decent Essays

July is Sunglass Awareness Month at Atlantis Vision Center. Seems like a great time to explore the history of the accessory that’s fashionable, functional, and fun to wear.

Did you know people have been using eyewear to block out the sun for about two-thousand years? The first people to use sun-blocking eyewear were the people of the Thule culture, who were ancestors of the modern Inuit. They wore snow goggles, made of bone, leather, and wood. They cut small slits which only let through a small sliver of light, effectively shielding the eyes from the bright glare of sunlight that reflected off the snow.

In the 12th century, Chinese judges would wear sunglasses to hide their expression as they questioned witnesses. These spectacles were made of …show more content…

They didn’t protect from the sun’s rays, but the idea of altering the vision through colored lenses makes these items a predecessor of modern day sunglasses.

For centuries, glasses were held in place by either metal that pinched the nose or loops of ribbon that wrapped around the ears. People who wore these glasses surely grew tired of pushing them back into place, so English optician Edward Scarlett invented temple-gripping sidepieces around 1730.

The first glasses with UVA lenses were made in 18th century Venice. Because they were used by noblemen to shield their eyes from the sun’s reflection on the lagoon, these shades were known as “gondola glasses”

James Ayscough was the first to start experimenting with tinted lenses in the 18th century. These weren’t sunglasses, however. The blue- or green-tinted glass was believed to correct for specific vision impairments. And yellow- and brown-tinted glasses were used by victims of syphilis in the 19th century because one of the symptoms of syphilis is sensitivity to

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