The American overachiever solved his vision problem by piecing together two lenses, cut in half, into a single frame. “By this means, as I wear my spectacles constantly, I have only to move my eyes up or down,” he wrote to a friend.

Franklin, who is long credited (although debated) as the inventor of the split-lens spectacles, also sketched his D.I.Y. fix. It can be found in the Library of Congress.

Bifocal contacts came into clinical use in the 1950s, but it was decades before they were widely prescribed. In 1986, bifocal lenses cost upward of $400 — almost $900 in today’s dollars. Now, they can run $50 for a six-week supply.

Other advances to help those with presbyopia, or age-related farsightedness, include the ring-like corneal inlay, which is implanted under the eye’s outer surface.

And the tech-obsessed can look forward to the developing bionic eye.

Danielle Belopotosky contributed reporting.

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