Act-One of the most revolutionary modern-day breakthroughs in vision correction technology was the development of soft contact lenses, but they were a long time in the making.
Leonardo da Vinci is generally credited with having conceived the theory behind what would eventually become a contact lens in the 1500s, but it wasn’t until the 1880s when several inventors fabricated such a lens from glass. Early glass lenses covered the entire cornea and could be worn for only short periods because they were uncomfortable and blocked oxygen from reaching the cornea.
In the 1940s, inventors experimented with plastic materials and were able to produce smaller, thinner lenses that more closely matched the shape of the cornea. Although serviceable, these lenses were not ideal. Then, in the 1950s, Wichterle and Lim began experimenting with methods to produce soft contacts lenses using a soft, water-absorbing plastic called hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA).
As the story goes, working at home while a new institute was being built, Wichterle tinkered with a child’s toy construction set, a hot plate, bicycle parts and a phonograph motor and built a primitive spin casting device.
Far from being a curiosity, the device was the forerunner to modern soft contact lens manufacturing processes and earned Wichterle the title “father of soft contact lenses.” Soft contact lenses became commercially available in 1971, and the industry has never been the same.