A short history of contact lenses

Article By: William Hunter OD.
Website: http://www.coloredcontacts.com

The artist Leonardo Da Vinci conceived of the idea of a contact lens in 1508 by illustrating the concept in one of his paintings. This seems to be the first record of putting a device on the eye to improve vision. Later contact lenses were conceptualized by the astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1823.

In 1887 the first contact lens was made by a glass blower who made a glass lens that covered the entire eye. It wasn't until 1939 that they started making hard plastic contact lenses. They could only be tolerated for about 4 hours and then the lenses had to be removed to replace the saline solution used to fill the space between the eye and the lens.

By 1950 they were making lenses which rested right on the cornea and were smaller than the size of the iris. These lenses could be worn all day because a buffer solution was not needed. The first soft lens was developed in 1961 by Otto Wichterle, a Czech chemist. He had developed a soft plastic that could absorb water and was using a children's building set and a phonograph motor to make the lenses. Because they were so inexpensive to make he envisioned they could be worn on a disposable basis. A revolutionary idea at the time.

By the 1980's the lenses were being made thin enough that they received approval to be worn overnight. In the 1990's they came out with tinted lenses that could change eye color as well as improve vision. Today soft contact lenses are used for nearly every vision problem correctable with eyeglasses.

About the Author

William Hunter OD. is an Optometrist and consultant to Colored Contacts LC.
Website: http://www.coloredcontacts.com