Contact Lenses

Eyeglasses have been around since 13th century Italy, and the design has not changed much over the years, except for different types of frames, which change with fashion.

During 1887, a German named Adolf Fick decided to do away with frames altogether and simply stick the lens directly on his eye.

The first contact lenses were 21mm (0.8 inches) wide and made from blown glass, with a sugar solution between the lens and the eye to cut down on friction. They were bulky and uncomfortable, but blown glass contacts lasted for 50 years until they were replaced with plastic ones in 1936.

Even though Fick was the first person to make a practical contact lens, he was not the first to try. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have invented a type of contact lens in 1508 made out of a bowl of water. Rene Descartes supposedly built a water-filled tube that was designed to go into the eye, but the idea never took off because it stuck out so far a person could not blink.