History of the Contact Lens

history_contact_lensThe concept of contact lenses can be traced as far back to the 1500s but with every century we have seen progressive advances to reach what we have today. The past quarter of a century has seen the most innovation in the contact lens design. The contact lens as we know it today was first developed in the 1070s.

EARLY HISTORY

Surprisingly, it was Leonardo da Vinci who first sketched and described several forms of contact lenses as early as 1508 through his art form. The idea of a contact lens for the cornea in 1632 was developed first in 1632 by Rene Descartes which got a further developmental impetus in 1801 when Thomas Young filled a quarter-inch long tube with water, placing a microscopic lens in the outer end and corrected his own vision.

THE 1800s

The innovation was given a further boost in the 1800s with English astronomer, Sir John Herschel who suggested that the lens be ground so that it would conform exactly to the eye’s surface. In 1887, F.E. Muller of Germany, produced the first eye covering that was designed to be seen through and tolerated by the eye. And in the following year, two researchers – A. Eugen Fick, a Swiss physician and Edouard Kalt, a Paris optician, independently reported using contact lenses to correct optical defects.

THE EARLY 1900s

In 1920, Joseph Dallos, a Hungarian physician perfected methods of taking moulds from living eyes so that lenses could be made to conform more closely to individual sclera. Thereafter, the first American-made contact lens with New York optometrist, William Feinbloom, introduced the use of plastic for lenses in 1936. By 1945, the American Optometric Association had recognized the growing importance of the contact lens field, and that was that was the time when contact lens fitting as an integral part of the practice of optometry.

THE 1950s AND 1960s

In 1950, Dr. George Butterfield, an optometrist from Oregon, USA created a smaller rigid contact lens made of PMMA plastic that could be worn all day, a huge improvement from the past models.  A soft, water absorbing plastic was later developed in 1960 by Otto Whehterle and Drahoslav Lim, and was eventually used for contact lenses.

MODERN CONTACT LENS HISTORY

The 1960s saw a huge progress in the contact lens field with the first lenses becoming available to the consumer. Since this time, rapid advances in contact lens technology have occurred on a regular basis with new lenses being introduced to the consumer market almost every year.

Read more on Uses of Contact Lenses

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