The History of Contact Lenses
Would it surprise you to
learn contact lenses were invented about
half a millennium ago by one Leonardo da
Vinci? Yes, the great Renaissance man
himself designed and sketched ideas for
several different kinds of contact lenses
back in 1508. (Alhough he was 56 at the
time, da Vinci himself had excellent vision,
as evidenced by the meticulous accuracy of
his drawings
and paintings.) Unfortunately, the great
Florentian thinker and inventor lacked the
materials necessary to craft a working
model. In 1632, Rene Descartes thought,
therefore he was, the virtual inventor of
the corneal contact lens, but he too failed
to build a working contact lens. It wasn't
until 1801 that Thomas Young was finally
able to build on Descartes's theories of
corrective optics. Young filled a
quarter-inch-long glass tube with water,
then floated a microscope lens in the outer
end. (Incidentally, historians believe the
microscope was probably invented by a Dutch
spectacle maker named Zacharias Janssen
around 1590.) Young's optical tube may not
have been the most convenient implement for
daily use, but he was able to correct his
own blurry vision by using the device.
Herschel's
Idea
A British astronomer by the
name of Sir John Herschel was considered the
leading scientist of his day--by which we
mean the early nineteenth century. Although
he made no widely familiar breakthroughs
(unlike his father, who discovered the
planet Uranus) Herschel did write several
highly regarded papers on mathematics,
astronomy, and the physical sciences. Among
other big ideas, he suggested (in 1827) that
a glasslike material might be ground into a
curved lens that would rest directly on the
eye. Now, a glass contact lens may not sound
like an enjoyable experience, but a German
glass blower named F. E. Muller was actually
able to create such a device in 1887. One
historian describes the glass lens as
"tolerable," a decidedly underwhelming
endorsement. A year later, Swiss and French
physicians reported using contact lenses to
correct impaired vision.
Feinbloom
Begins Crafting Lenses
If glass lenses strike you
as an uncomfortable idea, imagine what it
must have been like to be a test patient in
the lab of Hungarian doctor Joseph Dallos.
In 1929, he invented a method of taking
molds off the eyes of living people. To be
fair, this did result in contact lenses that
more closely followed the curvature of his
patients' individual eyes. In 1936, a
New York optometrist named William Feinbloom
became the first contact lens crafter in
America. He also introduced the use of
plastics in his lenses, thus ending almost
fifty years of blown glass contact lens
technology. (If ever there was a guy who
deserved our thanks, it was the late, great
Dr. Feinbloom.) Within a decade, contact
lenses would become an established part of
American optometry. This led to proper
corneal lenses in 1950.
Breakthrough Lens Material
By 1960, Drahoslav Lim and
Otto Wichterle devised a soft plastic
suitable for flexible contact lenses; these
"soft lenses" hit the American market in
1971. The 1970s also brought us toric
contact lenses to correct astigmatism and
gas permeable polymer lenses. The 1980s saw
the invention of tinted, bifocal, and
extended wear lenses. The 1990s were marked
by a push toward disposable, two-week
lenses, which leads us to the present-day
state of the art. Who can say what the
future will bring?
X-ray lenses, anyone?
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