Bonnie 162 - 164

The lenses in these vintage cat eye glasses are trifocals. This was a novelty in the early 1960's. The lady who gave me the glasses told me that her mother was delighted with them because the trifocals were so much better than her previous bifocal glasses. Trifocals were seen in the streets of my native Amsterdam during the 1960's but not often. They were probably quite expensive. In the late 1960's, the first progressive lenses appeared on the market and within a few years, trifocal glasses had become white ravens. By the way, opticians still have trifocal lenses for clients who prefer them to progressives and quite sporadically one sees them in the streets of Holland. It's quite possible that there are more people wearing trifocals abroad.

Here Bonnie is comparing the merits of the three segments in the Algha glasses. Again, the lenses have no correction for her astigmatism. If my memory serves me correctly, Bonnie said that the intermediate section of the lenses worked best for her when reading in the art book.