Young ben franklin pictures bifocals

In a letter dated May 23, 1785, Benjamin Franklin reveals his design for what would later be called bifocal glasses.

The Pennsylvania inventor, printer, author, diplomat and American Founding Father had grown tired of alternating between two different pairs of glasses to help his near or far vision. So he came up with an idea to, quite literally, split the difference.

Franklin is widely credited as the inventor of bifocals.

In the letter to his friend George Whatley, a London merchant and pamphleteer, Franklin includes a sketch of his new invention, saying that he found the bifocals particularly useful while dining in France.

With them, he wrote, he could see both the food he was eating and the facial expressions of people seated across the table, which helped him better interpret their words—crucial for a diplomat navigating a foreign country.

“I therefore had formerly two pair o