The British are addicted to lists. Top ten rock groups of all time. Tallest men in history. Greatest mass murderers. Last man on the Moon. We’re fascinated by them all.
Tapping into this rich part of the national psyche are major publications like the Sunday Times Rich List, the Observer’s list of Top Universities in the World and The Book of Origins. The daddy of all lists is of course The Guinness Book of World Records which has been continuously published since 1955. It claims to be the home of the biggest, smallest, fastest, slowest, oldest, youngest, longest, and shortest of almost everything in human history and the natural world.
Jeremy Clarkson has gone to the other end of the scale and is now making a decent second income by looking at the worst things around. His series of books, beginning with Born to be Riled in 1999 to How Hard Can it Be? in 2010, list cost overruns on road improvements, worst cars on the road (Ford Orion, Vauxhall Vectra and Perodia Kelisa) and other stuff that annoy and frustrate him. Some of his lists are ‘tongue in cheek’, not meant to be taken too seriously, but on one memorable occasion, as he was accepting an honorary degree at Oxford Brookes University, Rebecca Lush, a transport activist, pushed a custard pie into his face. To his credit, Clarkson wiped the mess off his face and said, “Good shot.” It was rumoured that he added under his breath, “for an ugly bitch,” but that was never proved.
Somewhere out there in cyberspace, exists a list of the greatest inventions of all time. The list will include the motor car and the steam locomotive; products that, in their time have helped free up the world and move more people around the globe than any other form of transport. Also on the list will be the computer, the telephone and television. All depend to a greater or lesser degree on harnessing electricity for their operation. And somewhere in the list will be inventions that can’t be traced back to the inventor such as the wheel, fire and shoes.
So how do you rate the value of an invention? Desirability? Convenience? Usefulness? Civilising effect? Greatest benefit for the least cost?
Factor in a cost/benefit analysis, and the stand-out invention of all time must be the lens. This simple piece of shaped glass or plastic, when fitted in a telescope enables men to observe the far reaches of the universe. Fitted into a microscope, the lens shows the tiniest details imaginable. More important than either of these, when fitted into a pair of glasses or spectacles, lenses enable more than sixty percent of the population of the Earth, perhaps as many as five billion people, to see properly. No other man-made product can approach this penetration at such low cost.
The lens works by harnessing the magnification created by having different curves on the opposing surfaces of the material. Bifocal glasses have two different lenses fused into one.
Plastic is now considered best for glasses as even toughened lenses can shatter under impact, such as in a motor accident.
The World Wide Web (another on the list of greatest inventions) is the modern option for buying glasses direct from the factory. The customer places his or her order for glasses online, and enters details of their prescription. Cheap prescription glasses are then assembled locally from the imported lenses and glasses frames and shipped to the customer. Since the 1960s, designer glasses have become an important fashion item. Designer frames add value and appeal to any collection of frames online, and the internet has enabled customers to buy cheap designer spectacles with just a few clicks of a mouse.
The internet is a vast, modern and complex thing, and lenses are such tiny, ancient and simple things. There is beauty in combining these, two of the greatest inventions in history. Nowadays, people can harness the power of one to realise the benefits of the other, prescription glasses at an affordable price.
Author Resource:
Anna Greening writes for Best4glasses an online opticians specialising in the sale and dispensing of bifocal prescription glasses to customers in the UK and throughout the world
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")