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,
John Willes (1721–1784) John Willes (1721–1784) Sir John Willes ("c." 1721 – 24 November 1784) was an English politician. He was the eldest son of John Willes, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and his wife Margaret Brewster. Edward Willes, judge of the Court of King's Bench, was his younger brother. He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford (1738) and studied law at Lincoln's Inn (1734). He succeeded his father to Astrop Park near Banbury in 1761. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Banbury 1746–1754, and for Aylesbury 1754–1761. He died in 1784. In 1754 he had married Frances, the daughter and