Optician more important and dignified. Far-sighted or aging colonial Americans imported spectacles from Europe. Spectacles were primarily for the affluent and literate colonists, who required a valuable and precious appliance. Benjamin Franklin in the 1780s developed the bifocal. Bifocal lenses advanced little in the first half of the 19th century. The terms bifocal and trifocal were introduced in London by John Isaac Hawkins, whose trifocals were patented in 1827. In 1884 B. M. Hanna was granted patents on two forms of bifocals which become commercially standardized as the "cemented" and "perfection" bifocals. Both had the serious faults of ugly appearance, fragility,
1784 English cricket season would be credited with the catch, not with the wicket. 1784 English cricket season 1784 was the 88th English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played. It was significant for the appearance in important matches of the White Conduit Club, although the surviving references this year are merely around two "great matches" played on White Conduit Fields. Although not directly connected with cricket, it was in 1784 that the India Act was passed, creating a department of the British government to exercise political, military and financial control over the Indian affairs of the East India Company. During