Resumen de La sorprendente historia de la lente de Layard
The Layard lens, also called Nimrud lens, is a 3000-year-old piece of rock cristal which was discovered in 1849 by Austen Henry Layard at the Assyrian palace of Kalhu (more often called Nimrud), in modern-day Iraq. Since its discovery only four people had had the opportunity to carry out suitable studies on the lens: Sir David Brewster (1853), W. B. Barker (1930), Walter Gasson (1972) and Robert Temple (1998); after the authorization granted by the British Museum to the author of this work, a meticulous photographic study is presented that shows hitherto unpublished data of the lens, exposes its definitive physical characteristics and develops the hypothesis that considers it is a careful hand-made monocle to correct a certain degree of presbyopia/astigmatism of a very special individual, possibly a king. It is, without any doubt, one of the most unique technological artifacts that have survived since antiquity.
