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,
Dollond & Aitchison to King George III and the Duke of York and Albany. In 1781, Peter Dollond made bifocal spectacles. At The Great Exhibition 1851 in London, the Dollonds were awarded a medal for the excellence of their optical instruments. In 1889, James Aitchison established his first business in Fleet Street. In 1927 "Dollond & Co" merged with "Aitchison & Co", to form "Dollond & Aitchison" (abbreviated "D&A"). In 1969, the company moved to its Aston, Birmingham. During the 1960s, Dollond & Aitchison was a subsidiary of the former British television company Television Wales and West. From 1970 until 1982, D&A were