1887 invention of contact lens
Though 1887 is a key year in the invention of the contact lens, its development and history span back hundreds of years, to the time of Leonardo Da Vinci and philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes. Contact lenses were originally viewed as cumbersome, uncomfortable medical devices to be used in severe cases only. In Germany in 1887, a man by the name of F.A. Miller, who specialized in making artificial glass eyes, inadvertently propelling the invention of the contact lens further. He created a transparent lens. Its purpose was not to help anyone see better by curving the refraction of light hitting their eye, but to cover and thus protect a diseased eye.
A few years after 1887, more inventions were necessary for the contact lens to become what it is today. Though scientists in Switzerland, France and Germany continually shaved the glass lenses down thinner and thinner, the material was still too heavy to wear for any extensive length of time. The contact lenses covered the entire white portion of the eye (the sclera) and the glass prevented oxygen from reaching the eye, causing all sorts of extra problems for the wearer. The invention basically halted by the end of the 19th Century and was not vastly improved upon again until 1936.
In the United States at that time, scientists began to experiment with polymer plastics. They realized plastic was much safer for the eyes than glass. However the problem of oxygen not getting through was still an important issue. In the 1960s and 70s, huge advancements in technology provided the contact lenses we know today: large, soft, porous lenses and small, accurate gas permeable lenses. Today we have more choices than ever!
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