 The American scientist Benjamin Franklin, who suffered from both myopia and presbyopia, invented bifocals.Historians have from time to time produced evidence to suggest that others may have preceded him in the invention; however, a correspondence between George Whatley and John Fenno, editor of "The Gazette of the United States", suggested that Franklin had indeed invented bifocals, and perhaps 50 years earlier than had been originally thought.The first lenses for correcting astigmatism were designed by the British astronomer George Airy in 1825.