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,
The Spectacles, Western Australia of The Spectacles is owned by Alcoa and was originally intended for residue disposal. As The Spectacles was not suitable for this purpose and the conservation value of the wetlands was recognised, Alcoa funded extensive rehabilitation and provided parking, picnic areas, walk trails, cycle paths, a board walk and bird hides to enable viewing of a number of species of native birds, including the rufous night heron. The Spectacles actually contains two major wetlands, including the southernmost wetlands within Beeliar Regional Park and is surrounded by banksia woodland. To date $250,000 has been spent on many different walk trails, signage