I hope after you read and consider the better habits described in this article, you will enjoy some dry eye relief and reduce your daily eye strain.

If you’re anything like most of the modern world, you spend a ton of time in front of a computer. And if you spend a ton of time in front of the computer, you’re probably squinting more than you realize. The problem with squinting is that it often leads to less blinking and thus less moisture for your eyes.

Why You Must Reduce Eye Strain

A recent study indicated that narrowing your eyes just slightly reduced eye blinks per minute by 50 percent. More pronounced squinting reduced eye blinks to just four per minute! With so little blinking, your eyes inevitably become red, itchy and irritated.

Reduce Eye Strain

Squinting also strains the muscles around and behind your eyes, putting them through more aging strain than necessary.

The difficulty is that we evolved to keep our eyes on the distant horizon with only temporary periods where we focused on objects up close. To reduce the wear and strain you put on your eyes from staring at walls and computer monitors, you need to make a deliberate effort to balance your vision in your daily tasks.

So let me take you through your day and offer habits that can give you dry eye relief and offer less eye strain.

Dry Eye Relief Through Improve Habits

Whether you bike, walk, ride or drive your way to work, take the opportunity to use some nice bifocal sunglasses (or just plain shades if you don’t need any kind of corrective lens). Reducing the brightness and glare reduces your strain and in addition the glasses help reduce the drying of air exposure, thus preserving your natural eye-moistening tears.

Dry Eye Relief

When you’re working, regardless of whether you’re at the computer most of the time or not, try to balance short viewing distances with long viewing distances. Ideally, stare out the window every 15 minutes or so for at least 30 seconds. If you don’t have a window nearby, find something else to stare at for 30 seconds that is at least 20 yards (or 60 feed) away from you. Mix in a few long distance scans as well — don’t just fixate your eyes on one single spot.

While you’re at the computer, set the screen to be slightly below your straight ahead view and adjust lighting around you to decrease glare as much as possible. Adjust the contrast and brightness of your monitor to increase clarity and ease eye strain. If available, wear a pair of computer glasses.

When you snack or eat, try to include omega-3 fatty acids and fats (try walnuts, avocados, omega-3 eggs and DHA supplements) as well as quercetin (apples, oranges, onions) and Vitamin A (carrots). Some will find being smart about nutrition difficult because they don’t perceive the benefits immediately, but stick to it regularly and you will be thankful months and years down the line.

I hope this helps you better support those precious peepers. Of course, if you’re reading my site you should probably understand that a quality pair of bifocal reading glasses are a must for minimizing eye strain in your daily life.

Too many people have a stereotype about bifocal eyeglasses; they envision thick-lensed, oversized caricatures of reading glasses and rarely imagine sleek, stylish rimless bifocals. Surprisingly, you can actually find a wide variety of stylish bifocal glasses these days. Among them are the rimless eyeglasses.

Which to Choose: Semi-Rimless or Three-Piece Rimless Bifocals

There are several types of rimless eyeglasses from which to choose. This variety manifests itself both in style and in function. Semi-rimless (half-rimless) and three-piece rimless eyeglasses have become more commonplace. They distinguish themselves from normal reading glasses by frames which do not entirely encircle the lenses. In fact, the three-piece rimless eyeglass features no frame about the lens at all, with the temples and bridge anchored right on the lens.

Glasses with a semi-rimless design will feature a frame which only encircles a portion of the frame (usually the top). The semi-rimless eyeglass was introduced back in the 1930s. At that time frame builders screwed the lens directly to the frame front. Today most semi-rimless eyeglasses have the lenses secured within the frame with strong nylon wire.

Many people like semi-rimless designs because they provide the stronger support of glasses with frames but they don’t have the annoying line intruding on your vision on the lower part of the eyewear.

The Clean Elegance of Rimless Eyeglasses

Rimless eyeglasses provide an aesthetic appeal based on clean simplicity. Many people enjoy their lightweight feel and clean, polished appearance. People who feel a little insecure about bolder frames distracting from their face often opt for rimless eyeglasses. In fact, rimless frames with quality anti-reflective coating and high-refraction lenses will be nearly transparent on your face.

Another potential benefit many people don’t realize is that you’re able to obtain progressive lenses for bifocal reading glasses and mount them on rimless eyeglass frames. Believe it or not, most people won’t even be able to tell you’re wearing progressive bifocals within your rimless frames.

Not only that, but you can actually get rimless progressive lenses for bifocal sunglasses as well. That’s a pretty advanced and fancy set of shades right there. Benjamin Franklin would be proud of his invention’s evolution.

Rimless Eyeglass Lens and Frame Options

Once you decide to proceed with buying rimless eyeglasses, you’ll have to make some choices about the specific rimless frames and lenses to go with them. You can select from either grooved rimless or drilled rimless glasses frames. Both options look great with prescriptions that are a little lower. I don’t, however, suggest people with high prescriptions go with these rimless designs.

You can also go with either plastic or polycarbonate rimless lenses. I urge you to go with polycarbonate lenses. Because rimless lenses don’t have the robust anchoring of a full frame, they’re a little more vulnerable to cracking and chipping. Polycarbonate lenses are much stronger and much more resistant to impact damage.

Also, if you’re a little klutzy or you tend to fall asleep with your rimless bifocals on, I suggest you steer away from 100 percent drilled rimless glasses. They’re a little more delicate and their all-too-common loose mountings will lead to the entire frame becoming loose. These are fine for people who know they’ll be careful with them, but just humbly consider your own habits when making these rimless eyeglasses your selection.

And while it may cost more, I do suggest you almost always go for a titanium frame. They have the nice complimenting features of being both durable and unusually light weight — important attributes for frames which are based on minimalism and yet are a little more susceptible to damage.

As you can see, sleek and attractive rimless eyeglasses or rimless bifocals can still be an excellent option, even for those who require bifocal lenses.

Why bifocal sunglasses? If you’re anything like me, you love the outdoors but you grow more and more weary with swapping your glasses between outdoor activities, whether lounging by the pool with your favorite novel or tossing a Frisbee with a buddy. Squinting in the bright sun is never fun, but it becomes even more difficult when you have different prescriptions for different distances. That’s where bifocal sunglasses come in handy.

I encourage you to seize the squinting while playing in the surf and begin savoring your favorite books while relaxing on the towel reading with a nice pair of Bifocal Sunglasses.

You’ll find quite a few models of bifocals in the form of sunglasses, but please be certain that if you require a prescription, you obtain your sun glass lenses from a professional source.

No Need to Compromise Style, Even With Bifocal Prescription Sunglasses

Yet even if you must wear bifocal prescription sunglasses, it doesn’t mean you can’t wear stylish and attractive shades. With just a little research, you’ll learn you can quite simply take prescription bifocal reading lenses and add them to any quality brand of sunglasses. So you can enjoy your bifocal prescription with UV protection, 100 percent polarization and even the generous lifetime warranties offered by many designer brands.

Bifocal Sunglasses

Bifocal sunglasses, put simply, are just prescription glasses for those of us who require vision correction while enjoying the sun. Of course, they do differ from regular sunglasses in that they feature the distinct dual corrective lenses of the bifocal reading glasses. Bifocal sunglasses also go a step further in that both the shading and the prescription are tailored to improve your vision in all outdoor activities — not only reading. For example, you’ll enjoy improved clarity while viewing both your newspaper and watching the lifeguard’s posted schedule and warnings.

As bifocal sunglasses do require the line delineating the two lenses, you’ll need to work closely with your optician to help you define the optimum shape of the near focal segment to match your lifestyle. In most cases, either a circular or half-moon style will be implemented.

Tips to Buy Bifocal Sunglasses

If you’re on your way to select your frames and glasses, I suggest keeping these basic tips handy:

• Be sure to consider the fit of the nose. Remember that with bifocal sunglasses, you’ll likely wear them in public quite a bit more than you wore your bifocal reading glasses. And some people may be more active and thus need a more snug fit than they’d use for standard bifocals.
• Of course, you’ll want to consider the weight. Remember that the weight will make a bigger difference the longer you wear them.
• And last but not least (well maybe least if you really don’t care about appearance), you have brand and style. Paying for a brand name will cost you more. But you might want to investigate brand reliability and service as well. For something like prescription bifocal sunglasses, you really shouldn’t go without a good warranty, and brand names often offer the best warranties.

So remember that just because you must wear bifocal sunglasses doesn’t mean you need to wear clunky, silly looking frames. There are plenty of options out there for you, whether you go for classy with Ray-Ban or cool with Oakley. You can even find John Lennon sunglasses with bifocals set into them. A man or woman with multifocals doesn’t have to be kept from a cool pair of shades. Bifocal sunglasses are a very welcome development in the history of bifocal reading glasses.

I encourage you to look into bifocal sunglasses as they made a real, tangible improvement to my quality of life. I can now seamlessly go from watching my friends and family frolic about in the sun to indulging myself in my favorite novel. Take the time to pick just the right frames and make sure you get your prescription accurate and correct. While your near vision may not be what it once was, there’s no reason your love of the outdoors should suffer.

So slip on those wayfarers and go back to enjoying the sunny life.

I understand how Bifocal Reading Glasses may not seem like the most appropriate place for an extensive discussion on computer glasses, but since everyone viewing this site must, of course, be viewing it on a computer monitor, I still think it is an important issue.

Many people aren’t familiar with computer vision syndrome and its long-term influence on your eye health. So I hope this is an opportunity for me to provide many of you with an epiphany that leads to greater eye comfort and health through computer reading glasses.

Do You Need Computer Reading Glasses?
What Is Computer Vision Syndrome?
Computer Eye Glass Designs

Do You Need Computer Reading Glasses?

When young individuals wear glasses or contacts, most of them do so because their distance vision requires correction. Some may be prescribed reading glasses for near vision. As we age, more of us require eyeglass prescriptions for near vision or we buy cheap generic reading glasses without prescription.

Most bifocals prescribed for individuals beyond the age of 40 — often prescribed because they’ve developed presbyopia — correct far and near vision. Yet these glasses do not provide an appropriate lens for the distance and eye activity involved in computer work. Some people believe trifocals and progressive lenses — both of which provide a portion of lense for intermediate distance vision — can be utilized for computer work. However, these lenses don’t provide nearly enough surface space to ease and protect eyes for extended periods of computer use.

Many computer users will suffer headaches, eye strain and blurried vision if they do not utilize appropriate computer reading glasses. Such symptoms indicate computer vision syndrome. These problems compound themselves with further issues when computer users without computer glasses attempt to adjust for their strained eyes or blurry vision by tilting their head to view the monitor through the bottom of their glasses or by excessively leaning towards the monitor. Such behavior leads to sore back, shoulders and neck problems.

You really should address your vision care just as you monitor your blood pressure.

It is important to appreciate that this is not just about comfort. Besides increasing the likelihood of developing presbyopia and asthenopia earlier or in more severe forms, inappropriate lenses — or lack of computer glass lenses entirely — can significantly decrease worker productivity and accuracy.

The University of Alabama School of Optometry conducted a study in which they examined a large number of diverse computer users between the ages of 19 and 30. Their vision was carefully measured before, during and after the study.

Subjects were randomly provided either correct computer glasses or a “placebo” in the form of non-corrective glasses. They were then assigned to perform a number of jobs involving a variety of different font sizes on both CRT (the old, large monitors) and LCD (the newer flat, shallow monitors) computer screens.

Subjects were timed and their performance was recorded and measured for accuracy. Individuals with inaccurate or non-corrective lenses which were not designed specifically as computer glasses experienced a 9 percent decrease in productivity and a startling 38 percent decrease in accuracy. Even people who described no discomfort or experienced no problematic symptoms were tested to have significantly lower productivity and accuracy scores.

What Is Computer Vision Syndrome?

Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) represents a category of eye fatigue symptoms. It is a relatively new condition, and unsurprisingly, its increased occurrence parallels the rise of computer usage. The symptoms may vary in different individuals, from many symptoms to very few, with some people experiencing terribly painful symptoms to others who simply develop what they consider minor annoyances. CVS has been known to be diagnosed in both children and adults. Currently it is believed that specially designed computer reading eyeglasses can provide measurable relief from these computer usage symptoms (especially headaches).

Eye strain from computer usage and computer vision syndrome results from human eyes and brains functioning differently when reading letters and numbers on the printed printed page than they do reading letters and numbers on a computer monitor.

Human vision requires much less effort to maintain easy focus on the dark black letters with defined edges of print. However, even newer, higher resolution monitors do not provide the same contrast and definition of the printed page.

Letters on a monitor are formed by pixels (think of pixels as tiny little light bulbs). Dozens to hundreds of pixels are required to render even a single letter or number. The breaking up of characters into these separate pixels creates difficulty for our eyes to maintain consistent focus. Rather, human eyes fade their focus to the Resting Point of Accommodation (RPA). Human eyes involuntarily reduce focus to RPA and then strain to sharpen focus on the monitor.

Whether we realize it or not, this occurs continuously as we work with computer monitors. By constantly flexing the focus muscles of our eyes, we develop fatigue and strain both in our eyes and in the muscles around our eyes. Moreover, this action also greatly decreases our blinking relfex while focusing for long hours of work on computer monitors.

Our eyes’ normal blink rate is about 15 to 25 blinks a minute. Several studies have indicated that extended computer usage results in a decrease of blink rate to as low as 5 to 7 blinks per minute. In addition to placing a strain on the ciliary muscles of the eye, this causes dry eyes.

After a while, this will induce indications of asthenopia and provide a feeling of weariness excessive to the amount of time spent working. Many individuals describe an inability to focus on near objects for a short while after they stop working on the computer screen. This is most observed in indivduals between the ages of 30 and 40. It represents a decrease in the adjusting focusing mechanisms of an individual’s eyes. Unfortunately, this may also lead to developing presbyopia earlier.

You will experience some form of computer vision syndrome if you consistently spend more than two hours a day using a computer. Early CVS symptoms include the following:

• Focus difficulty
• Weary eyes
• Burning eyes
• Blurry vision
• Doubled vision
• Headaches
• Shoulder & neck discomfort or pain

Computer Glasses Designs

Thankfully, there have been several special purpose lens designs developed specifically as computer reading glasses. But note that these eyeglasses have been developed for computer use and thus are not appropriate for general use or driving.

Simple computer glasses feature a single vision lens with a power prescribed to provide the most appropriate vision for the distance of a user’s computer monitor. This lens design reduces the amount your eye must adjust to keep characters on a computer screen in focus and also provides the largest field of view for moving your sight around the computer workspace. This significantly reduces contorted posture, strain to the eyes and blurred vision. These kinds of lenses are often prescribed effectively for both older and younger users.

Among computer users with presbyopia, the occupational progressive lens has become very popular. This lens is a no-line multifocal lens which corrects near and intermediate vision very well and distance vision in a limited fashion. It is designed with a much larger intermediate zone than usual progressive lenses for more effective accommodation for computer use. Because of the limited distance vision correction, these lenses are not appropriate for distance vision tasks such as driving.

You will also find lined trifocals with a larger intermediate zone than normal trifocals. However, these are decreasing in popularity because of the number of lines on the lens. A common compromise lens is the occupational bifocal. In occupational bifocal reading glasses, the upper lens is for intermediate vision (computer use) and the lower lens is for near vision (reading).

In recent years, computer reading glasses have become available as clip-on attachments for normal reading glasses.

Remember that computer glasses do more than just help your eyes! As part of a proper ergonomic setup, computer glasses can also assist you to resolve computer-related headaches as well as neck, shoulder and back pains resulting from straining your eyes as you work at your computer.

Thank you for visiting Bifocal Reading Glasses and I hope you’ve learned enough about computer glasses to improve your future comfort and health!

Here Bifocal Reading Glasses presents you the History of Bifocals:

Origin of the Eyeglass Lens

The origin of reading bifocals begins with the origin of magnification, which dates all the way back to Egyptian hieroglyphs around 700 BC.

The earliest written record of such magnification appears to be the first century AD when Seneca the Younger, a tutor of Emperor Nero, wrote how small letters could be made more large and clear using a “globe or glass filled with water.” Appropriately, there is written evidence that Emperor Nero’s enjoyment of gladiator games was improved by the use of a vision-correcting lens in the form of an emerald.

Later, many believe corrective lenses of some form were utilized by Abbas Ibn Firnas in the 9th century AD. Abbas Ibn Firnas developed a method to create clear glass. He shaped and polished the glass into rocks of round he called reading stones. The earliest concrete evidence of these sorts of magnifying devices (utilizing a convex lens to magnify an image) seems to be the Book of Optics, published by Alhazen in about 1021.

Translating this vital source of knowledge into Latin during the 12th century led to the earliest eyeglasses as we know them, which were developed around 1284 in Florence, Italy, by the Dominican friar Alessandro della Spina and his associate, physicist Salvino D’Armati.

Salvino D’Armati and the First Eyeglasses

In fact, Salvino D’Armati (also spelled Salvino D’Armate and Salvino D’Armato, which means “son of Armato”, or Salvino degli Armati) alone is most often credited with the invention of the eyeglasses. Leopoldo del Migliore, in his 1684 history of Florence, claimed that a D’Armati memorial at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore featured the following claim: “Here lies Salvino degli Armati, son of Armato of Florence, inventor of the eyeglasses. May God forgive his sins. AD 1317.”

Salvino D'Armati

Some historians are suspicious of his claims as this tomb no longer exists. However, it is compatible with the accepted dates of Savlino D’Armati’s life, who was born in 1258 and died in 1312.

Armati had injured his own eyes while conducting light refraction examinations. Through these experiments he learned how to increase the appearance of subjects by viewing them through two pieces of convex glass. Armati’s glasses was prescribed for far-sightedness (hyperopia) and wore them himself following his injury.

Later during the early 14th century, concave lenses were discovered to improve near-sightedness (myopia). One of the earliest depictions of such lenses was featured in a 1517 painting by Raphael. In it, Pope Leo X wore glasses with concave lenses. By this time, eyeglasses had evolved from polished quartz to specially shaped and polished glass. This glass making technique encouraged greater production and more widespread use.

Benjamin Franklin Bifocals

Bifocals — lenses featuring both concave and convex lenses for correcting both types of vision problems — are believed to have been developed around 1760 by Benjamin Franklin (though some place the exact year to be 1874). These original bifocal reading glasses used a top lens for distant viewing and a lower lens for reading. In this era, they were referred to as bi focal reading glasses or bi-focal reading glasses.

Benjamin Franklin's Bifocals

Benjamin Franklin, born on January 17, 1706, was a great American inventor and intellectual credited with many influential and groundbreaking discoveries and inventions.

Legend has it Ben Franklin bifocals came to be as a result of his growing tired of having to alternate between two different sets of eyeglasses. So he grafted two different prescriptions (two different lenses) into a single frame. This empowered him to see both far and near distances by simply looking down through the one lens or up through the other. This is why these glasses will be forever referred to as Benjamin Franklin bifocals or Benjamin Franklin glasses.

The discrepancy between claimed dates of invention (1760 and 1784) seems to simply be when he worked it out in a rough manner for himself and then when he refined the process and went public with it. To further confuse matters, the bifocal reading glasses as invented by Benjamin Franklin were only formally announced on May 23rd, 1785.

John Isaac Hawkins — who invented the trifocals — provided the actual title of “bifocals” in 1824 and credited Dr. Benjamin Franklin for their invention.

Ben Franklin’s bifocals featured convex lenses for close vision in the bottom half and concave lenses for far vision in the upper half. Bifocals were similarly constructed until the early 20th century.

Contemporary Bifocal Reading Glasses

Towards the end of 19th century Louis de Wecker devised a method to fuse the lenses together. This method was later patented by Dr. John L. Borsch, Jr. in 1908. Just a couple years later, the first single piece bifocal lens appeared. Bifocal lenses evolved rapidly throughout the 20th century. In the 1980s the first bifocal contact lenses appeared.

I hope you enjoyed this history of glasses and that you now better understand the rich bifocals history behind each pair of Bifocal Reading Glasses.

While sussing out the content for my new site dedicated to a common contraption I find beloved — bifocal reading glasses — I’ve come to appreciate and enjoy their history more than I thought I would.

From Salvino D’Armate’s clever invention back in the 13th century to Benjamin Franklin’s clever refinement in the first decade of the United States’ existence, their evolution is more peppered with the ebb and flow of technology and fashion than I’d imagined.

So while I originally intended this site to be mostly a consumer-driven site, I’ve decided to make it a bit more of a hobby site as well. I’ll still do my best to help you find the right glasses for you at the right price, but I’ll also invest some space on this blog to just celebrating the cozy history of these clever little eyeglasses. I’ve put part of my history of glasses on the front page, but I probably will extract and expand this in the future.

Thanks for visiting Bifocal Reading Glasses and I hope you return again soon!

Welcome to Bifocal Reading Glasses!

Yes, this site will be all about a specific breed of spectacles those of us in our wiser years enjoy balancing on the end of our nose while we enjoy our literature.

Today you can enjoy some cool developments, such as bifocal reading glasses without that distracting line in your view:

Yes, my site’s new and not terribly substantial just yet, but hopefully you’ll return soon as I build out information on this oddly romantic and still functional topic.

And I do hope I’ll empower you to be more informed when you make your next purchase.

Thanks and please return to Bifocal Reading Glasses soon!

With this Bifocal Reading Glasses site I’ll provide you with history and background information on bifocal reading glasses as well some specific information to consider before you buy yourself the perfect set of bifocals. This site will be half a hobby site about this curious, cozy invention from Benjamin Franklin and half a practical consumer site for helping people make smart decisions when shopping for bifocal reading glasses.

I will address a range of styles and purposes, but I will largely focus on traditional bifocal glasses for reading. I still find this classic device a utility of great function, comfort and I even find it a cozy tradition. I enjoy glancing from my wife to my reading without adjusting my spectacles and I am very relieved to not have to poke lenses on to my damp, delicate eyes. In other words, I’m not terribly fond of contact lenses. You may also see bifocals referred to as Executive Bifocals or Franklin Glasses.

So onwards we go. Here’s an index of this page’s content. Click on any header to skip down to a topic, then click on your browser’s back button to return to the top here. I hope you find Bifocal Reading Glasses worth your time!

Introduction to Eyeglass Frames and Lenses
Plastic Lenses for Bifocal Reading Glasses
History of Bifocal Reading Glasses
Classic Spectacles Today

Introduction to Eyeglass Frames and Lenses

While I still prefer the traditional term spectacles — or refer to their type with greater specificity (like “bifocals” rather than “glasses”) — many simply refer to the topic at hand as glasses or eyeglasses. These classic spectacles are supported by tiny pads designed to balance on the bridge of your nose while remaining secured by hooking back around your ears. For those of you who enjoy a little history, you might read more about historical models such as the lorgnette, monocle or the pince-nez.

Bifocal Reading Glasses

Today’s frames are normally crafted from plastic or metal. While at one time lenses were all made from glass, today most are made from a variety of plastic and metal, often polycarbonate or CR-39.

This evolution has led to spectacles which weigh significantly less than their glass counterparts and break far less frequently. In some cases, these plastics also provide greater optical properties, such as greater transmission of light while also absorbing more of the damaging ultraviolet light.

Specifically, some of these plastics provide a greater refraction index than glass. This empowers optometrists with greater flexibility to create accurate corrective lenses with thinner, lighter material for the same relative prescription.

The latest plastic lenses — entitled izon, may also be utilized to correct stronger problems on the surface of our eyes. These innovative lenses create more clear and accurate vision while curbing problems such as comet-tails, halos and starbursts and are especially useful in providing for safer night time driving vision.

Additionally you’ll now find high quality computer glasses as well as bifocal sunglasses available in a variety of styles.

Plastic Lenses for Bifocal Reading Glasses

Today the most common lenses are made from a plastic called CR-39. This is due to their great resistance to scratching, their ability to remain clear while also absorbing ultra violet radiation and their very low weight. In environments where there is a greater risk of high impact, Trivex and polycarbonate lenses are most often utilized because they are very light and remarkably shatter resistant. However, these shatter-resistant lenses are not always the best bet for all circumstances because they offer poorer optics with high dispersion and a low Abbe number of 31.

Depending on the order, a number of coatings might be applied to plastic lenses. These coatings include scratch resistance, hydrophobic coatings to ease cleaning, and anti-reflective coatings with several purposes, including reducing glare and improving night vision.

History of Bifocal Reading Glasses

Today most historians credit Italian Salvino D’Armate for inventing the first eyeglasses in about 1284. Almost exactly 500 years later in 1784, Benjamin Franklin developed my beloved bifocal reading glasses.

As the great Ben Franklin aged he began to have difficulty seeing both at a distance and up-close. After he grew weary of swapping two pairs of glasses to address his near and far sight, he developed a technique to incorporate the lenses of both types of glasses into a single frame. The up-close lens was placed at the bottom for reading while the distance lens was placed at the top to allow for quick glances at distance subjects.

From D’Armate’s invention through Franklin’s refinement to today, the design and function of glass frames has greatly evolved. Early eyeglasses required being held in place by hand or a with pressure on the nose (the “pince-nez”). From these inconvenient designs Girolamo Savonarola implemented eyepieces which were held in place by material pulled over the wearer’s head and secured by a hat. Sound awkward? Indeed. Thankfully, British optician Edward Scarlett devised the modern method of temple arms passing over the ears in 1727.

While we all know these as the de facto style of eyeglasses today, in fact it took some time for them to become the standard. Many earlier styles, as well as lorgnettes, maintained popularity through the 18th century and even into the early 19th century. Read more about bifocals history: The History of Bifocal Reading Glasses

Classic Spectacles Today

Even with the increasing popularity and functionality of laser corrective eye surgery and contact lenses, good old fashioned bifocal reading glasses remain common and well-liked by many people. Their technology has improved greatly, from precise corrective lenses to frames made with special memory metal alloys which return to their original shape after being forcibly misshaped. These frames are not only far more durable, but they’re much lighter and easier on your ears and nose than ever before. And we no have no-line bifocal reading glasses and sophisticated progressive lenses with multiple prescription lenses seamlessly blended into a single piece of eye wear.

I hope this helps you better understand why bifocal reading glasses can still work for you and what to look for when you start shopping. Thank you for reading Bifocal Reading Glasses and take care!