| Phoenicians |
First to discover glass. |
| Assyrians |
First to record details of glass making. |
| Salverino D'armante & Roger Bacon |
Both are credited with the invention of spectacles. |
| Ben Franklin |
Invented bifocals, the optics of which have not been improved upon since. |
| Thomas Young |
In 1801, discovered astigmatism. |
| Wollaston |
In 1804, invented curved lenses called periscopic, which had a base curve of +1.25 D or -1.25 D. |
| Pierre-Luis Guinand |
In 1807, developed high quality glass by using clay rods in the process of glass making. |
| Suscipi |
Around 1840, invented toric lenses. |
| Felix Monoyer |
Coined the term diopter. |
| Nagel |
Devised the diopter standard of measurement. |
| Schott |
Father of modern glass. Started company in 1880. |
| Bausch & Lomb |
Was started in 1915. Produced 65% of the world's glass. |
| Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) |
First to attempt to measure the speed of light, but was unsuccessful. |
| Olaf Roemer |
In 1875, calculated the speed of light by observing the moons of Jupiter. |
| Isaac Newton |
Corpuscular theory of light. |
| Christian Huygens |
Wave theory of light. |
