The History of Contact Lenses

Leonardo DaVinci and Contact Lenses ...

Ever since 1508, when Leonardo DaVinci described  in his Codex of the eye, Manual D, how to alter vision using water, scientists have been keen to research, develop, and finally improve the contact lens. Even Rene Descartes made his own contribution in 1636 by filling a tube with liquid and placing it on the cornea (it made the eye unable to blink, so was not a viable solution).

Eyecup and Liquid -- Moving Forward

In 1780 Thomas Young filled an eyecup with liquid, the placed a microscope lens on the bottom. This was still not a workable alternative to eyeglasses, and was, like DaVinci’s and Descartes’ mechanisms, simply and experiment to study the eye itself.

Gelatin Filled Glass Capsules

Around 1845 several people came up with ideas of a gelatin-filled glass capsules, and a mold of the cornea which would then be recast with a glass-like transparent substance to fit the eye. The Encyclopedia Metropolitana published both these ideas in footnotes written by John Herschel in 1945.

The Very First Contact Lenses:  1887!

Adolf Eugen Fick finally made the first working contact lens in 1887. His lens covered not only the cornea, but the sclera as well, the white of the eye. The brown glass lenses rested on the sclera, and raised off the cornea-he filled in the empty space between cornea and lens with a solution of grape sugar. Unfortunately, one could only wear his lenses for a short time.

The Scleral Lens

From the 1880s until 1930s, the scleral lens was the only type of contact lens available. In the 19930s, the development of Plexiglas made plastic scleral lenses possible; plastic/glass combination lenses were also developed around this time.

The Corneal Lens

It wasn’t until the 1950s that the smaller corneal lenses were developed, and by the 1960s the polymer lenses achieved wide acclaim thanks to advanced lens manufacturing technology. However, these lenses prevented oxygen from reaching the corneal surface, and made it necessary for scientists to develop soft lenses and rigid gas permeable lenses. It’s important to remember that “hard lens” refers to the original polymer contacts developed prior to the 1970s, and “rigid lens” refers to those hard lenses as well as rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses popular today. The difference is that the RGP lenses allow oxygen to pass through, and the original “hard” lenses do not.

Latest Developments

Since the development of soft and RGP lenses, ocular scientists have developed toric lenses for patients who can’t wear normal lenses due to astigmatism or other vision problems, multifocal lenses for patients who need correction for near and far, and bifocal lenses, as well as a new type of lens that can be implanted in the eye.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_lens

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