So did it literally sort of go from a monocle or a magnifying glass to read manuscripts that doubled to fit onto our face above the bridge of our nose? Or what did they look like, these first spectacles?

So the first vision aids were literally just desk magnifiers, as we would understand them.

They were called reading stones.

and they may have been around since before the first millennium.

They may even have been around in the ancient world, but we're not sure.

What we do know is that by approximately the 1270s, 1280s, someone had not only put two of these together, but had shifted the position of use.

So instead of being held close to the object being viewed, such as a document laid out on the table, the position of use switched towards the eye itself.

What's your take on all of that, having the actual glass itself connected to record and those sorts of things, this next step in eyewear?

breath away.

It's about examining the eye in two ways.

It's a performance test.

We call that the sight test.

How well can you see? But it's also a health examination because the eye is an organ of the human body which is prone to disease.

So many members of the public, when they're thinking, should I go to the optician, they're forgetting about that second aspect, the important health reasons to have your eye examined.

And this room is all about that.

way.