Andy reported that the microscope was developed bit by bit, through many years. A few readers challenged this and quoted a book which gives the credit to von Leeuwenhoek. Books are written by people and people, like pixies, can make errors. But if you check our favorite encyclopedia and other reliable references, you will find that Andy was correct.

Eyeglasses are lenses and therefore related to telescopes and microscopes. Lumps of glass play tricks with light, but it took centuries to learn how lenses can be used to make objects look nearer or farther away, larger or smaller. Post of the people who added scraps of knowledge and know how are unknown to us. We think we know who first used a pair of lenses to make eyeglasses   but we are not absolutely certain.

This man suggested that people use spectacles for reading. He never claimed that he invented them, though they were sold on tho stalls of the busy markets in the 13th century when he lived   and not before. His name was Roger Bacon and when you know a little about him you will agree that he most likely did invent eyeglasses.

Roger Bacon was a Franciscan Friar who ranks with the greatest of history’s great thinkers. In a lonely monastery cell with limited equipment Bacon experimented. He tested what men knew or thought they knew of science and kept an open mind until he proved each item true or false. He trusted the human mind and used his brilliant imagination to dream of the future.

Bacon was one of the few men of his day who believed that the world is round.

He saw new possibilities in the magnet and outlined a plan for a telescope.

He said that someday ships would be powered without oars and weary muscles and people would drive fast, horseless carriages. Someday, he said, man will learn to take to the air in flying machines.

This great man envisioned the Ago of Science which we inherited 700 years later. But though his mind was full of visions, he was also a very practical man. He suggested spectacles to magnify small objects and assist the vision of the human eye. Bifocal eyeglasses for adjusting vision to both close and distant objects were invented much later by our own Benjamin Franklin,

Curiosity and the courage to follow through an idea were out of style in the Middle Ages. Bacon knew both fame and disgrace, but he went on working and writing. He never lost his faith in man’s ability to solve nature's mysteries and put the laws of science to work   and he was rewarded with a glimpse of our world and the wonders we tend to take for granted.