How long have pinhole glasses been around?
Pinholes are not new. It is believed that they were first conceived by a scientist named Scheiner in 1573. More recently, the U.S. Patent Office awarded Patent No 1959915 for ‘lensless spectacles’ to a Mr Charles Guthie of Pittsburgh on May 22nd 1934. They were then described as ‘a device for perfecting impaired vision’ by means of ‘an opaque disc having the entire surface provided with a series of circular holes’. Smooth lens pinhole glasses were developed in 1999.
