The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-04
ORIGIN OF sPECTACLEs
Mentioned In 1890 By Chinese, But
Obtained From Traders

From Chambers Journal.
Spectacles do not seem to have been
known until about the year 1900, though,
of course, men even in Roman times had
discovered the use of convex and con-
single lenses of some sort were rounded
support of the hand
The Chinese, who are usually supposed
to have invented almost everything first
certainly derived their knowledge Of
spectacles from Europe most probably
from the Jews settled at K'ai-feng-Fu.
The first certain mention of spectacles
occurs in work published about A. d.
400. called Local Miscellanes." The
passage runs as follows:
When | was at the metropolis-that is,
Pekin-staying at the house of a certain
military friend. l noticed that his father
was in possession of an object presented
to him by the late Emperor I'd. 1926. hav-
ing the appearance of two disks of moth
er-of-pearl, but vefy slender in bulk, with
rims of gold amplifed into sort of ham
Ole.
"Old men, whose eyes are too dim to
make out small writings, place this object
Yin front of the two eyes. on which the
size is magnified double or more
Moreover, | have recently met with
one at the house of one of the assistant
secretaries of state, and l tested it with
Identical results. He said he had OBJ
tanned 1T in exchange for a good horse
from a western region trading HUI Mwan-
la, and he understood its name to be al
tai."
1t must be explained, with reference TO
the term Hu, that it had been for many
| centuries applied unfortunately to Syr.
ians, Persians Hindus and Tartars, the
words western region. however, ex-
| clude Tartars and usually Hindus.
The only known use of the sound
Mwan-la is in reference to the Jewish
| molahs (mostly PersianD who in the year
| 1921 received some favors and presents at
the Emperor's hands
The learned Shanghai priest, FIR. Pierre
Hoang, native Chinese, thinks that the
syllables ai-tai may represent the Portu-
guese lunetea. but, besides being rather
far-fetched, this derivation does not take
into consideration that the Portuguese
had not yet for a century begun their
trading career
Besides, the first spectacles were made
In Italy, and 1t is not impossible that
Marco Polo had introduced them into
China, or. more probably. one of the
Italian archbishops of Pekin.
A later work, called Rare Objects Ex-'
Pia-sned, says that the ai-taf are as big
as money disks, of transparent SUBJ
stance. and almost colorless; they are
used as eye mirrors. and derive their
name from the Idea (ai-tai means this)
of light clouds shrouding the sun and,
MOON THE Chinese still call spectacles
EYE mirrors."D
A still later work. of a century and a
half ago, called the collection of Omis-
sions," says that "eye mirrors were con-
sidered extremely valuable objects dur.
ing vhe preceding dynasty Q3ss-l64s) and
We're either given as presents from the
palace or were purchased from HUI trad
ers, only the wealthy possessing means
to procure them.
Now, however, they are cheap all over
China, having originally come from
abroad and all being made of glass. The
Cantonese artisans, initiating their shape
now manufacture a much superior article
out of crystal"
l have often seen the Cantonese spec
tacle makers saving Jumps of crystal
with the aid of water and emery at their
shop doors. The crystal thus sawed has
the color of sea water.