The Contacts Lenses in History

TV is not what it used to be. Remember some of the items that were once prominently featured on TV thirty years ago but now no one mentions? For example, they don’t make a big deal out of contact lenses on TV anymore but they used to.


The 1970’s and Lame Clichés about Contacts

When you watch television and look at old TV shows and vintage movies, you would think that the contact lenses did not come into existence until the 1970’s. Anyone who watches a ton on 1970’s sitcoms has probably seen the old, clichéd joke of the person looking for the lost contact lenses and ending up stepping on it. The loud CRACK sound was the joke’s punch line. There is even a dramatic version of it where the bad guy stomps on the lens.

By the time the 1970’s closed out, those goofy contact lenses clichés faded away after significant overuse. But it truly wasn’t until the “me generation” that the contact lenses were truly introduced to the public consciousness.

But contact lenses have been around a lot longer than the 1970’s in fact, a great deal longer. How long? The 1800’s. Yes, the 1800’s! And the concept had been around even earlier than that.



The Early, Early Days

Leonardo Da Vinci’s early work, that suggested submerging a human eye into a bowl of water, was considered the pioneering methodology that laid the foundation for the study of the contact lenses. (I’m confused about how that boneheaded idea could pioneer anything, too)

There would be occasional studies into how the eye works and what methods could correct vision over the next several centuries including mini versions of eye glasses…that is, the early stages of the contact lenses. Rene Descartes and Thomas Young were very influential in this area, but their work never produced any workable contact lenses.


The First Version

In 1887, Adolf Fick discovered the method for inventing the first workable pair of contact lenses. Fick first tried them out on rabbits before trying them on himself and later, to make sure they worked he tested them out on other people. (He should have tried them out on other people immediately after the rabbit. I guess severe cornea damage had not been invented yet so he has an excuse for that Da Vinci level of boneheaded move)

Fick’s workable model was modestly employed by the brave few; and contact lenses saw minor strides over the next several decades until finally hitting it big in the 1970’s.