Glasses are lens lenses embedded in the frame, which are worn in front of the eyes to improve eyesight, protect the eyes, or be used for decoration. The mirror can correct a variety of vision problems, including myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, presbyopia or strabismus, and amblyopia.

The formation of the eyewear industry

In the history of China, with the development of individual handicrafts, the use of glasses has evolved from natural crystal to the use of glass. The scope of use of glasses has been promoted and expanded to the private sector, and there have been new developments in production technology.

China's Gusu (Suzhou) is the birthplace of China's glasses. The production of glasses in Suzhou not only has a long history, but also greatly promoted the development of China's eyewear industry. In the early years of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1628 AD), a distinguished technician appeared in the history of Suzhou glasses. His name was Sun Yunqiu, the word Wenyu, and the word Sibin. He was originally from Wujiang. He was diligent and studious when he was young. At that time, he saw that people with poor eyesight were very painful, but "single-shot" mirrors and the like were inconvenient to use. So he elaborately developed a kind of lens that can often be put on glasses. After repeated trial and error, he invented the lens grinding machine, the gyroscopic trolley, using mechanical principles. This type of trajectory, so-called water orange processed by the classical method, uses a pedal to turn, using ore sand, white mud, brick ash, etc. as an abrasive or polishing material to grind the lens into a convex-concave lens to adapt to eye refraction Finally, I finally mastered the grinding disc technology. Lenses are ground with natural crystal stones. At the same time, he also mastered the technology of "optometry" (optometry), developed presbyopia, myopia, hyperopia and other lenses of various luminosity according to human age and different vision, and compiled a set of "eye-to-eye mirror" "'S original optometry method is used to check the visual matching. In this way, you can wear glasses with your eyes, the effect is not bad, and it is more convenient and comfortable to wear on your face to meet the needs of everyone's vision. This is the beginning of China's independent optometry.

Later, Sun Yunqiu invented and developed optical lenses for different purposes, including dozens of mirrors, mandarin mirrors, magnifiers, polygon mirrors, magic mirrors and so on. Since then, Sun Yunqiu's glasses have become famous all over the world. It is a pity that such a talented technical person died of illness at the age of 33, but he left a scientific work called "Mirror History". It plays an inestimable role in promoting the manufacturing technology of later generation glasses.

After Sun Yunqiu came to Qianlong and Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, a talented person named Chu Sanshan came out in Suzhou. He further developed the technology of making glasses, which was quite influential.

Because Suzhou produced Sun Yunqiu and Chu Sanshan, two outstanding technical talents for manufacturing glasses, which promoted the formation and development of the Suzhou optical industry at that time. In 1735, a handicraft workshop dedicated to the production of glasses had appeared in Suzhou.

In the Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty, the production and sales of eyeglasses have been booming in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other places. Glasses have become specialized products.