Flexible frames for four-eyes
It took a routine exam in an eye doctor's office in tiny Bridgton, Me., this week to direct my attention to the strides made in bendable eyeglass technology.
On display were some perfectly normal-looking frames, but you could twist them at the bridge in any direction and bend the temple pieces like licorice. And they snapped back to their original form in a second.
Aspex Eyewear of Montreal patented the memory metal called Trilaston, which it says is a "copper-based alloy rich in aluminum," and more flexible than nickel-titanium frames.
The company sells its bendable frames through its Easytwist line at opticians. You can check them out there, but buy them for less online.
At Frames Direct, the ET 664 model, for example, sells for $139.98, 30 percent off the retail price listed as $209.97. The same model sells for $129.99 at Best Buy Eyeglasses.
For the record, I haven't purchased a pair, though I've come to appreciate the value of indestructible eyeglasses after a piece of my frames broke off in a technician's hands in a New York City shop. My current pair--which I got at a 50 percent discount after the accident--is hardly flexible, though the temple pieces both have a little springiness, allowing them to move to the sides at a handful of degrees.
