Who are the Inventors of Contact Lenses

Many people think that contact lens is a relatively new invention invented in this century thanks to advanced technology and innovation. The truth is that people tried to develop contact lens many centuries ago, today’s contacts are mature ones based on the inspiration years ago.

The idea of contact lenses can date back to Leonardo Da Vinci. In the 16th century, Leonardo Da Vinci described the way of submerging the eye in a bowl of water, but he did not suggest his idea be used for correcting vision. Over 100 years later, Rene Descartes developed the idea of a glass tube filled with liquid that would correct visual problems, but it was impractical. Thomas Young developed Descartes’ idea 170 years later and produced what has been considered the predecessor to the contact lens. However, it would be in 1887 that a German glassblower developed a real sense of contact lens that could be seen through and tolerated. In 1888, the German physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick made glass contact lens and could be worn for a few hours at a time. After this, people realized the value of contact lenses, and the whole world requested for improved designs.

In the 1900s an American optometrist introduced the plastic “corneal” contact lens and produced a more practical contact lens. This meant a great step in the advancement of contact lens. People did not suffer pains from glass contacts from then on. The contact industry and technology became more and more mature. By the 1960s Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim created a soft contact lens of a water absorbing plastic. These lenses were soon used more often than rigid lenses, mainly due to the immediate comfort of soft lenses. This development is a principal breakthrough and inspires the majority of soft contacts today. In the 1970s this lens was available to patients in the United States and contact lenses provided to patients with astigmatism were also available.

The 1980s is an important landmark to the improvements of contact lenses. New options are more and more. The general public is able to wear soft colored contacts as well as extended wear lenses. Also, RGP lenses were invented; bifocal lenses could be found onto the market. And fortunately enough, for all lens wearers, the demand of multipurpose lens care solution was satisfied. The technology of contact lenses became mature gradually and in the 1990s there were more innovations and lens wearers could choose the one that suits him best from various options.

In short, there is not only one inventor of the contact lens, but rather cooperation among many people over many centuries. After centuries of experiment by those inventors, today’s contact lenses are pretty good in terms of technology and quality.

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