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Show SPECTACLES MODERN INVENTION ftaftrtnes of Fllny to Ntre Oaslng Through Stone Explained. Did Nero wear spectacles? Pliny relates that the Emperor Nero used a precious stone through which he gazed on the gladiatorial combats. Dr. Magnus, Mag-nus, the latest "authority to examine the passage critically, holds that this means that the emperor was In tho habit of gaslng upon an emerald which he used to carry with him for the purpose pur-pose of resting his eyes when they became be-came tired of .looking at the shows. This vlow la corroborated by the belief be-lief of antiquity that green baa a restful rest-ful effect upon the eyes. Contrivances for bringing the rays of. the sun to a focus in order' to produce combustion have been employed almost from time immemorial. Burning glasses were used to kindle fires and these must have been of considerable size even in a country like Greece,' where the sun shines hot most of the year. Moreover, More-over, we are told they were kept In chemists' shops for tho ..purpose Though the art of making glass of certain kinds is old, spectacles had to watt the discovery or Invention ot some method that would produco'lt perfectly transparent, says the Chicago Chi-cago Tribune. Specimens ot glass have been found In the Egyptian tombs more than 4,000 years old, and glass bottles are represented on tombs at least 1,500 years earlier. In Mesopotamia Meso-potamia the art of making glad's has been traced for at least 2,000 years B. C. But all of the glass ot antiquity was ot Inferior quality and was almost useless for purposes where the rays of light were to be transmitted unbroken and with undiminished energy. Mirrors Mir-rors also were made in Egypt thousands thou-sands of years before the Christian jra. |