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Past Around 1,000 years ago, few people were able to read or write. Most of these people were monks. As they grew older, reading and writing became very difficult becuase there was very few light. So this is when the monks began to make "Reading Stones". "Reading Stones" were a section of a spherical clear and plolished natural Glass, usually quartz. Through many times of trying, the monks realized something about the "Reading Stones". Larger stones would give less maginification than smallers stones and the flat part of the stone did not have to be the middle of the sphere. Eyeglasses for reading have a special function. They can move to the focal point from the behind the retina onto the retina itself. There glasses were only for correcting close distance vision. Master-Glassmakers in Venice began making spectacles around the end of the 13th century. The spectacles were really just two magnifying lenses connected by a hinge. The introduction of the concave lenses in eyeglasses, in the 15th and 16th centuries, solved the problem of nearsightedness .These lenses move the focal point from the front of the retina onto the retina itself. In the 17th century, one of the major problems for the eyeglasses was how to keep them on. One solution was to have some string or ribbons attached to the lenses and the loop them over the ears. The side temples were invented in the 18th century and have stuck with us for centuries. Later in the 18th century, temples with sliding extension were introduced in Europe. Also in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin develops eyeglasses for distance and close vision. This was when he invented the bifocal eyeglasses. He was getting tired of switching out glasses for distance and close vision. In the 19th century, cylindrical lenses to correct Astigmatism were introduced and the monocle (one lens) became very popular, mostly in Germany. At the end of the 19th century, pinch-nose eyeglasses worked very well because of its convenience. Early in the 20th century, the frames of an eyeglass began to be designed with fashion in mind.