Echoes of the Past: The history of bifocals

Echoes of the Past returns to the 1960s this week, with a look at the August 1965 edition of Optician sister publication, Manufacturing Optician. That month, cigarette advertising became illegal on British television and The Beatles visited Elvis Presley at his home in Bel-Air. It was the only time the band and the singer met, but no photos or recordings were taken.

With the development and refinement of the progressive varifocal lens, traditional segmented bifocals have become a less-common dispense for practices. Even in the 1960s, they had begun to lose favour with patients and dispensing opticians, according to the Editorial Views and Topics of the Month.