有聲雙語閱讀 | 眼鏡的發(fā)展簡史

came up with 提出，想出

quartz 石英

optician n. 眼鏡商;光學(xué)儀器商;光學(xué)儀器制造者

rigid adj. 嚴(yán)格的;僵硬的，死板的

bifocal n. 雙光眼鏡;雙重焦點(diǎn)透鏡

ingenuity n. 心靈手巧，獨(dú)創(chuàng)性;精巧

When you think about inventions that have radically changed human existence, what comes to mind? Probably the wheel, the printing press, maybe the refrigerator and definitely personal computers. Then there are those more mundane things that we rarely think about, but without which we’d be much worse off. Like eyeglasses, for example. Imagine a world without glasses—many of us would walk around bumping into things and driving our cars up onto the sidewalk. So who invented glasses, and how were they first made?

當(dāng)你想到那些徹底改變?nèi)祟惔嬖诘陌l(fā)明時(shí)，你會(huì)想到什么?可能是輪子，印刷機(jī)，可能是冰箱，當(dāng)然還有個(gè)人電腦。還有一些我們很少去想的不起眼的發(fā)明，但是如果沒有它們，我們的情況會(huì)糟得多，比如眼鏡。想象一個(gè)沒有眼鏡的世界，我們中的許多人走路時(shí)就會(huì)撞到東西，甚至把車開到人行道上都有可能。所以是誰那么厲害發(fā)明了眼鏡這個(gè)東西，它們又是怎么被第一次做出來的?

The truth is that nobody knows who invented eyeglasses. At some point in Italy between 1268 and 1289 someone came up with the idea, but the actual inventor remains anonymous. What we do know is that the earliest lenses were made from quartz and were usually set into bone, metal, or leather. As soon as early opticians figured out how to make glass without bubbles and other obstructions, they started making lenses out of glass.

事實(shí)上，沒有人知道眼鏡是誰發(fā)明的。據(jù)說在1268年到1289年的某個(gè)時(shí)候，意大利有人提出了這個(gè)想法，但真正的發(fā)明者仍不為人所知。我們所知道的是，最早的鏡片是由石英制成的，通常鑲嵌在骨頭、金屬或皮革上。當(dāng)早期的眼鏡商發(fā)現(xiàn)如何制造沒有氣泡和其他障礙物的玻璃時(shí)，他們就開始用玻璃制造鏡片。

Although glasses spread quickly throughout Europe and Asia, there was one major problem: Keeping them on the wearer’s face. Early glasses acted a bit like pinchers, squeezed onto the bridge of the nose. Ouch! It took nearly 400 years before opticians figured out that rigid sidepieces resting on top of the ears might do the trick.

盡管眼鏡在歐洲和亞洲傳播得很快，但有一個(gè)主要問題：如何把眼鏡戴在佩戴者臉上。早期的眼鏡有點(diǎn)像鉗子，擠在鼻梁上。痛哦!大約過了400年，驗(yàn)光師才發(fā)現(xiàn)，把一個(gè)鋼架放在耳朵頂部的可能能起到支撐作用。

No history of spectacles would be complete without some mention of Benjamin Franklin, who invented bifocals in the 1780s. Annoyed at having to constantly switch glasses whenever he wanted to read or take in the sights while traveling, Franklin had his reading glasses cut in half and fused with his distance glasses. Now that’s American ingenuity for you.

如果沒有本杰明·富蘭克林的提及，眼鏡的歷史就不會(huì)完整。本杰明·富蘭克林在1780年發(fā)明了雙光眼鏡。富蘭克林對(duì)每當(dāng)他想讀書或旅行時(shí)必須不停地?fù)Q眼鏡感到惱火，于是他把他的老花鏡切成兩半，與他的遠(yuǎn)視鏡融合在一起。這就是美國人的聰明才智。