1  The History of Contact Lenses*

JACQUELINE LAMB and TIM BOWDEN†

CHAPTER CONTENTS Introduction, 2 Rigid Gas-Permeable Materials,  9

Early Theorists,  2 Soft Lenses,  11
Scleral Lenses,  3 Other Lenses,  14
Impression Materials,  6 Corneal Topography and
Contact Lens Materials,  6 Orthokeratology, 15
Corneal Lenses,  9 Summary, 15

1685: Philippe de la Hire (Paris, France), a mathemati-

Introduction cian, presented his dissertations on the neutralisation of the
cornea in 1685 and 1694 and speculated that myopia was
The development of contact lenses is long and complex, axial or refractive. Sadly, his theories about accommodation
starting mainly in Germany and then moving across Europe and entoptic phenomenon were considered so controversial
to the USA before going international. The authors have that his views on optics were largely ignored (Duke-Elder
tried to keep things chronological; however, these develop- 1970).
ments do not fall into a nice convenient timeline. As you 1801: Thomas Young (Somerset, England) studied medi-
read the chapter, remember that the original ‘contact lens cine in London and Edinburgh and physics at Gottingen. He
pioneers’ had limited equipment and materials available. conducted research into the eye, identifying the cause of
They were truly working in the dark, and advancements astigmatism, and published a three-colour theory of percep-
happened only as new materials and new technologies became tion. As a fellow at Cambridge University, he carried out his
available. There were no antibiotics, so contact lenses were classic experiment on accommodation using a water-filled
fitted by ophthalmologists only when clinically necessary, lens which he placed on the eye to neutralise the refractive
for conical cornea (keratoconus), symblepharon and other effect of the cornea (Young 1801).
corneal diseases. Due to the working relationships between 1827: George Biddell Airy (England), inspired by Thomas
ophthalmologists and other eye care professionals, fitting Young and cooperating with John Herschel at Cambridge
soon devolved to dispensing opticians (around 1912) and University, experimented with his own astigmatism. He
later extended to optometrists (around 1935). As knowledge described not only the optical theory of astigmatism but also
of the physiology of the cornea developed and materials and its correction with a theoretical back surface toric lens (Airy
designs improved, so too did their success – not always as 1827, Herschel 1845).
straightforward as it might appear, as some developments 1845: Sir John F. W. Herschel (Slough, England) was
have solved one problem simply to replace it with another! the son of Sir William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus. In his
At the time of writing, end-of-day comfort is still an issue, dissertation Light, he described the optical correction of mal-
with some practitioners limiting wearing time to little more formed and distorted corneas using convex lenses applied
than it used to be in the 1930s. to the eye. He suggested correcting ‘very bad cases of irregular
cornea’ by using ‘some transparent animal jelly contained
in a spherical capsule of glass’ and then went on to suggest
Early Theorists whether ‘an actual mould of the cornea might be taken and
impressed on some transparent medium’ (Herschel 1845).
1508: Leonardo da Vinci (Italy) It had previously been 1846: Carl Zeiss (Jena, Germany), a mechanic who was
assumed that, in his Codex D, folio 3, famously illustrating 30 years of age at the time, opened a small workshop and
a man with his head lowered into a large bowl of water, da store in Jena’s Neugasse No. 7 to make scientific tools and
Vinci showed the invention of a contact lens (Ferrero 1952, instruments, telescopes and microscopes. This was the foun-
Hofstetter & Graham 1953, Gasson 1976). However, in the dation of the company Zeiss (www.zeiss.com).
retranslation by Robert Heitz, it is clear that this was not a 1851: Johann Nepomuk Czermak (Prague, Austro-
prototype contact lens but the beginning of understanding German) developed a water-filled goggle strapped to the front
corneal neutralisation (Heitz 2003). of the eye to correct keratoconus, a device which he called
1637: René Descartes (France, Holland, Sweden)
described in his seventh Discourse of La Dioptrique a fluid-filled *Updated for the 6th edition by TIMOTHY J BOWDEN and JACQUELINE
tube used to enlarge the size of the retinal image (Enoch LAMB from previous work by ANTHONY SABELL
1956). †
Sadly during the writing of this book, Tim Bowden passed away

2
 1  •  The History of Contact Lenses 3

Fig. 1.1  Glass mask from Grey and Halford. (Reproduced from Contact
Lenses: the Story, T Bowden.)

Fig. 1.2  Blown glass Müller lens showing the transparent corneal and
the orthoscope. In 1896 Theodor Lohnstein developed a white scleral portions complete with blood vessels, circa 1900.
similar device, which he called the Hydrodiascope.
1854: Keratoconus. The first adequate description of kera-
toconus was published (John Nottingham, Great Britain). of corneal oedema) was probably due to the characteristic
1859: William White Cooper (London, England) was aspheric shape of their scleral zones, producing loose chan-
Queen Victoria’s oculist. He had glass masks made by artificial- nels for better tear flow and oxygen exchange.
eye makers Gray and Holford of Goswell Road, London, to 1888: Adolf Eugen Fick (Germany) was an ophthalmolo-
protect the eye in cases of symblepharon (Fig. 1.1). These gist who, after returning from South Africa, began work in
were clear glass shells very like scleral lenses but with no the ophthalmic clinic in Zurich under Professor Haab. He was
optic zone over the cornea. interested in keratoconus and experimented with making
1882: Dr Xavier Galezowski (Franco-Polish) suggested corneal moulds and constructing glass shells for rabbits’ eyes.
using a gelatine disc applied to the cornea immediately after He had glass scleral lenses made by Professor Abbe at Carl
cataract extraction. The disc was impregnated with cocaine Zeiss in Jena for human cadaver eyes. The lenses had a back
and sublimate of mercury to provide corneal anaesthesia to optic zone radius of 8 mm, optic zone diameter of 14 mm,
relieve postoperative pain and antiseptic cover to prevent a scleral band width of 3 mm, with a scleral zone radius of
infection (Mann 1938). Here we see not only the first use curvature of 15 mm. Fick described six patients on whom
of a soft and hydrophilic contact appliance but also the fore- he had tried his lenses: One was keratoconic, and the other
runner of the hydrophilic lens as a dispenser of ophthalmic five had varying degrees of corneal opacity. In the kerato-
medication. Local anaesthesia in the form of cocaine drops conic eye, he improved the vision from 2/60 to 6/36, but at
was widely used by 1886. Initially adopted by Karl Koller in the time he published, none of these patients was actually
1884, the anaesthesia’s use in German ophthalmology wearing the lenses for any length of time. He observed that:
became almost universal (www.rsm.ac.uk). ■ the radius of curvature of the cornea was steeper than
that of the globe of the eye
■ the conjunctiva flattened steadily away from the cornea
Scleral Lenses ■ clouding in the epithelial layer (corneal oedema, later called

Fick’s phenomenon or Sattler’s veil) reduced as lens toler-

1887: Friedrich A. Müller and Albert C. Müller (Wies- ance and wearing time increased.
baden, Germany) were from a family of artificial-eye makers; ■ air trapped behind the contact lens on insertion retarded
they made and supplied a protective device for a patient of Dr the onset of corneal clouding
Theodore Saemisch. The patient had surgical damage to the ■ using a boiled solution of 2% grape sugar on insertion
right eyelids leaving the cornea exposed, whilst sight in his gave 8–10 hours wear by his rabbits before corneal cloud-
left eye was impaired due to myopia and cataract. By making ing developed
a glass shell, which encased but did not touch the cornea, ■ cosmetic (prosthetic) contact shells could be used when
the Müllers maintained fluid around the cornea, prevent- corneal scarring precluded good vision
ing its further desiccation. The protective shell looked like ■ an iridectomy to produce an artificial pupil followed by a
an artificial eye, although the cornea was left clear (Nissel contact lens upon which an opaque iris and a black pupil
1965). The patient wrote a letter in 1908 (now lost) reporting was painted with a clear aperture positioned adjacent to
that since 1887 he had worn the lens continuously, day and the iridectomy could be used for conical cornea as an
night, for 18 months to 2 years at a time (Müller & Müller alternative to corneal tattooing, which often resulted in
1910, Müller 1920, Mann 1973). In reality the lens needed severe infection
to be replaced every 18 months to 2 years due to corrosion ■ contact lenses could be used in aphakia where ‘the high
of the glass surface by the tears (Bowden 2009). The Müller degree of hypermetropia could be diminished by the
brothers continued to produce thin, lightweight blown glass increased curvature of the glass cornea’ thus increasing
lenses with clear corneal regions and white scleral portions the power of the liquid lens.
(Fig. 1.2), which were well tolerated. The optic portions were
variable, and years later it was proposed that the excellent Professor Ernst Karl Abbe (Jena, Germany) had joined
toleration of these glass lenses (and apparent avoidance Carl Zeiss’ optical works in 1866 as a research director. He
4 SECTION 1  •  Contact Lens History and Material Development

was a professor of physics and mathematics at the University 1916: Zeiss produced the first trial set especially for kera-
of Jena and a prolific inventor and writer of scientific papers toconus (Rugg Gunn 1931).
on optics. Abbe developed the first Zeiss contact lenses using 1918: Zeiss made lenses with small lead pellets embed-
glass produced by Otto Schott, the son of a family of glass- ded in them to assist locating ophthalmic foreign bodies in
makers who refined the chemistry of glassmaking. Previously conjunction with x-ray images.
glassmaking was a cottage industry with highly variable 1918: Leonhard Koeppe (Halle, Germany) was an
results from one batch to the next and from one family to ophthalmologist who described a contact lens for special-
another (www.zeiss.com). ist observation of internal features of the eye using a slit-
1888: Manuel Straub (Amsterdam, Holland) introduced lamp biomicroscope. This type of short-use lens was termed
ophthalmological solutions of fluorescein for the investiga- a gonioscope (Koeppe 1918).
tion of corneal lesions. However, their fluorescent properties 1920: Zeiss manufactured a four-lens preformed fitting set
under blue light were not recognised for another 50 years primarily for keratoconus. It was introduced and developed by
(Straub 1888, Obrig 1938a). Professor W. Stock (from Jena University), who was a sufferer
1889: Eugene Kalt (Paris, France), an ophthalmologist, of the condition (Stock, 1920). The first lens had a 12 mm
investigated contact lenses as ‘orthopaedic appliances’ in the back scleral radius, but later a full range from 10.0–14.0 mm
treatment of keratoconus. He noticed that the contact lens in 0.25 mm steps became available (Dallos 1936). In the
changed the shape of the cornea, and thus he laid some of early 20th century, lens choice lay between the blown glass
the groundwork that led to orthokeratology. lenses produced by the firm of Müllers of Wiesbaden and the
1889: August Müller (Kiel, Germany), a final-year medical ground glass contact lenses such as those made by Carl Zeiss
student, presented his thesis Brillengläser und Hornhautlinsen of Jena. The former were inferior in consistency of optical
(Spectacle Lenses and Corneal Lenses) at the University of quality, but superior in comfort and duration of wear. Zeiss
Kiel for his doctorate in medicine. This concerned the cor- lenses could correct reasonable amounts of ametropia, but
rection of his own 14 dioptres of myopia with contact lenses their maximum wearing time was between 30 minutes and
and made the first reference to a ‘corneal lens’. He had three 2 hours.
lenses, measuring 15–16 mm across, made by Otto Himmler, 1922: Zeiss were granted a US and German patent for plastic
a Berlin optician and instrument maker, which still exist in (Cellon or celluloid) contact lenses. Appearance and discolou-
the Germanisch Museum in Munich. Due to his poor sight, ration stopped further development. Zeiss was also granted
Müller did not pursue a career in ophthalmology but went a patent for a lens formed between two lathe-cut moulds.
into orthopaedics. However, he noted: 1927: Adolf Wilhelm Müller-Welt (Stuttgart, Germany),
an artificial-eye maker (Müeller-Welt, 1950), applied for a
■ Adverse signs and symptoms of lens wear caused by ‘a
patent for the first fluidless blown glass lens (granted in 1932).
disturbance of nourishment of corneal tissue’. This was
The lenses, made from glass obtained from Schott of Jena,
validated in the 1950s, when it was demonstrated that
were blown over a series of preformed toric castings, which
the cornea required atmospheric oxygen, dissolved in
formed the scleral portion of the lens. These included areas
tears, to maintain a normal respiratory status (Pearson
of differing curvature to incorporate the insertions of the
1978).
■ Lens discomfort arose from pressure on the conjunctiva
recti muscles (Schiller 1969). The unfinished corneal portion
was later ground and polished to the desired prescription.
from the scleral zone of the lens.
■ To avoid trapping air bubbles, he inserted his lenses under
He understood the stresses produced in the glass during lens
water; however, corneal oedema would develop within manufacture and annealed the glass to improve durability
about 15 minutes due to the pH of water. Due to the dis- (Figs 1.3, 1.4 & 1.5).
comfort, Müller used cocaine eye drops before lens inser- 1929: Professor Leopold Heine (Kiel, Germany), an
tion, but the toxicity of cocaine would have further inhibited ophthalmologist, developed an ‘afocal’ fitting set for Zeiss
his success (Müller 1889). (Heine 1929). This utilised the increasing range of back optic
zone radii to form a liquid lens of various powers underneath
1892: Henri Dor (Lyon, France) an ophthalmologist, the lens to correct ametropia. However, physiological require-
recommended the use of physiological saline solution to ments of the eye were sacrificed for vision.
insert contact lenses. This remained popular until the early 1930s: Josef Dallos (Budapest, Hungary), an ophthal-
1940s (Dor 1892). mologist at the No. 1 Eye Clinic at the Royal Hungarian
1900: Dr Louis de Wecker (France and Germany) used Peter Pazmany University (Fig. 1.6), developed an interest
a contact lens as a splint to retain a corneal graft in position in the use of contact lenses and investigated various impres-
during healing (Mann 1938). sion materials. He tried Negocoll (derived from seaweed and
1911: Allvar Gullstrand (Sweden) invented the slit-lamp, described by Dr Alphons Poller of Zürich) on a cadaver face
facilitating more detailed examination of the cornea. and noted that the corneal surface was reproduced with a
1912: Heinrich Erggelet (Freiburg, Germany) commis- smooth, polished texture. He prepared a positive cast of this
sioned Zeiss to make made ground glass ‘experimental contact impression in the waxlike substance Hominit, and the smooth
lenses’ to induce artificial ametropia to test ‘the optical quality appearance of the visible corneal segment convinced him that
of the corrected curve glasses’ (Obrig & Salvatori 1957a). Negocoll would be a suitable medium for ophthalmic impres-
These were actually corneal lenses but were too heavy to sions (Dallos, J., personal communication to Sabell, 1977).
wear successfully (von Rohr & Stock 1912, Mann 1938). Dallos used Müller contact lenses as impression trays (Sabell
Zeiss produced their first contact lens trial set for use by 1980a) and filled the impression achieved with Hominit,
ophthalmologists. By this time over 2000 contact lenses had making a positive cast. From this he made a negative cast
been made, mainly by Zeiss (Bowden 2009). with plaster of Paris which was then converted into a brass
 1  •  The History of Contact Lenses 5

Fig. 1.6  Josef Dallos at No. 1 Eye Clinic in Budapest (centre, back row).

Fig. 1.3  Müller-Welt GmbH lenses being fitted to a patient, c. 1950.

(Courtesy of Brigitte Müller-Welt Caffrey, daughter of Adolf Müller-Welt.)

Fig. 1.7  Dallos’s press for making glass lenses.

Fig. 1.4  Lathing and polishing of Müller-Welt GmbH lenses. (Courtesy

of Brigitte Müller-Welt Caffrey.)
die (Sabell 1980c) (Figs 1.7 and 1.8), i.e. a positive which
he then used to thrust through a sheet of heated glass. The
heated brass die was secured in the swinging arm of the
press and pushed into the softened glass plate (initially using
thin glass photographic plates) at a suitable temperature,
as judged by its colour. The heat was then removed, and
the glass solidified immediately. The central zone of these
shells was then optically ground and polished. This method
of manufacturing lenses, with some minor modifications,
was also used for the acrylic materials introduced some 10
years later. Dallos laid down physiological principles for the
fitting of scleral contact lenses. Working on the assumption
that the natural body fluid offers the best chance of success,
he set out to conserve the tear reservoir and to allow for its
interchange by fresh tears. In 1933 Dallos suggested that if
the front optic diameter were restricted to 8 mm (lenticulated),
much higher powers would be achievable, whilst minimising
Fig. 1.5  Glass scleral Müller-Welt lens and case. thickness and weight.
6 SECTION 1  •  Contact Lens History and Material Development

Fig. 1.9  Ophthalmic Zelex (1945+), aluminium tubes for impression

material applied to the eye (Stevens 1936) and gold-plated lid
retractors.

Fig. 1.8  Dallos’s lens-modifying spindles, c. 1945.

Impression Materials
For a more detailed history of impression materials, see Section
8, History available at: https://expertconsult.inkling.com/.
Josef Dallos was the first to successfully take an impression
of a living eye and use this mould to make a cast and from
this make a contact lens. In 1935, Theodore Obrig started
using Negocoll to produce corneal impressions using funnel-
shaped blown glass shells that were 22 mm in diameter and
7 mm deep with a 25 mm-long hollow handle plugged with
cotton wool to retain the Negocoll (Obrig 1938b). Negocoll Fig. 1.10  Orthoprint impression being removed using a blunt squint
was applied hot to the eye, so it was not a very pleasant hook.
experience even with corneal anaesthetics. In 1943 he intro-
duced Ophthalmic Moldite, the first cold alginate impression
material intended specifically for ophthalmic work using
acrylic impression trays with hollow tubular handles and tobacco smoke, this developed into the classic rainbow
perforated bowls (Obrig 1943). rings resembling glaucoma haloes, which was followed
In 1945 ophthalmic Zelex, another cold setting impression by photophobia, blepharospasm and an unpleasant sensa-
material, was developed by Charles Keeler in Windsor, UK tion of heat.
(Figs 1.9 and 1.10). Panasil C was developed by Kettenbach
GmbH in 1987, which was withdrawn in 1993 but reintro-
duced in 1995 by Panasil light body. Contact Lens Materials
1930+: Theodore Obrig (New York, USA), an optical
technician working for Gall and Lembke, initiated the full The development of plastics brought a great change to the
clearance method of fitting scleral lenses by using a large development of contact lenses. Various materials were tried,
optic zone, improving comfort by reducing corneal pressure. including cellulose nitrate (celluloid; highly flammable), cel-
Although it was widely used in the USA and the UK, it had lulose acetate (used in spectacle frames), Bakelite (multiple
the following drawbacks (Dickinson & Hall 1946): household objects), polyvinyl acetate (emulsion paint and
adhesives), polyacrylates (developed by Otto Rohm and
■ Cosmetically, the lens was ugly. Otto Haas, Darmstadt, and used in paint) and polystyrene
■ As the optic had to remain filled with fluid for the wearer (made by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)). In 1931 John
to see, a glovelike seal was required on the scleral zone. Crawford and Rowland Hill, working separately for ICI in
Any bubbles trapped in the steep apex of the lens affected the UK, developed polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), which
vision. had the registered trade name of ‘Perspex’, but it was also
■ Due to this seal, corneal oedema developed after some 2 known as Lucite, Plexiglas and Diakon. Rohm & Haas were
hours of wear. Initially seen as a faint blue haze resembling licensed to use the ICI process to make Plexiglas sheets in
 1  •  The History of Contact Lenses 7

Germany (Anderson 1952; www.plastiquarian.com) (see also 1938: C. W. Dixey & Son Ltd (London, England) intro-
Chapter 2). duced preformed PMMA scleral lenses, precision lathed from
1933: Hans Hartinger (Jena, Germany) of Zeiss suggested solid blocks of ICI Transpex materials which were easier to
blending the sharp junction between the optic and scleral produce and modify (Dixey 1943, Ridley 1946). The lathe,
zones, giving the option of lenses with totally blended transi- developed by dispensing optician Harry Birchall and engineer
tions (Dallos 1936). Cyril Winter, allowed greater variability in dimensions and
1936: Carl Hubert Sattler, an Austrian ophthalmologist reduction in thickness, reducing weight by 60% (Graham
working in Leipzig, investigated the corneal oedema induced 1959).
by wearing contact lenses which became known as Sattler’s 1938: Dallos developed a telescopic combination of a contact
veil (Sattler 1938). lens and spectacle lens as a low vision aid (LVA).
1936: Josef Dallos, having accumulated so many glass 1939: Dallos devised an astigmatic scleral lens to correct
shells from earlier impressions, was able to fit from his stock lenticular and residual astigmatism.
of ‘type shells’. He demonstrated that the secret of fitting 1939+: Dallos successfully fitted 84 late-onset mustard gas
scleral lenses was not just the initial selection or the initial keratitis casualties dating from World War I with scleral lenses
impression but the careful tailoring of this first lens to the (Fig. 1.11) (Mann 1973; see also Section 8, History available
individual eye to allow adequate exchange of tears beneath at: https://expertconsult.inkling.com/.
the lens (Dallos 1936). 1946+: Josef Dallos and Norman Bier, working inde-
1936: Ida Mann (London, England) was the first woman pendently, formulated the fenestrated or ‘ventilated’ scleral
to become a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye lens (Bier 1945, Bier & Cole 1948, Dallos 1946). Earlier,
Hospital (1927) and the first female professor at Oxford Dallos had happened upon the idea by accident when he was
(1945). Together with fellow ophthalmologists Andrew Rugg- forced to cut a 4 mm hole in a glass scleral lens to relieve the
Gunn and Frederick Williamson-Noble, she visited Dallos in pressure on a ‘filtration scar’ (trabeculectomy) (Fig. 1.12).
Budapest to learn the skills of making scleral lenses. They
soon realised that the skills required were too complex to
learn on a short trip and tried to persuade Dallos to move
to the UK, but he refused.
1936: William Feinbloom (New York, USA) was granted
a US patent for a bifocal scleral lens, but it was never made.
1937: Josef Dallos and George Nissel, Dallos’s brother-
in-law, arrived in London. With war looming, Ida Mann had
returned to Hungary, because, as a Hungarian of Jewish
extraction, it was obvious that Dallos and his work were at
risk, Ida persuaded Dallos to return to England with her.
Gerald Wingate, who owned the Theodore Hamblin dispens-
ing practices, had agreed to set up a contact lens clinic for
Dallos in Cavendish Square, attached to their Wigmore Street
premises, forming the first contact lens–only practice in the
UK. A commemorative plaque, unveiled by his widow Vera
Dallos-Pinter in 2010, marks the spot.
1938: Theodore Obrig (New York, USA) accidentally dis- Fig. 1.11  Mustard gas injuries from World War I.
covered that a blue filter introduced into a slit-lamp beam
made the fluorescein solution fluoresce, thus enhancing obser-
vations of fit and corneal abrasions (Obrig 1938a). In the
same year, Obrig, together with engineer Ernest Mullen, made
the first US all-plastic contact lens using the newly manufac-
tured (poly methyl methacrylate) ‘Plexiglas’. The material was
lightweight, optically clear, nonreactive, easily moulded, ground
and polished and inexpensive. However, Obrig was still using
fluid-filled sealed scleral lenses, which meant that the saline
solution filling the lens had to be changed every few hours to
prevent corneal oedema. Often the pH of the saline was
increased each time, a procedure known as stepping up. He
set up the Obrig Laboratories to make these lenses.
1938: Dr István Györffy (Budapest, Hungary), an oph-
thalmologist working in the Maria Street Eye Clinic (where
Dallos had worked), was the first in Europe to use PMMA for
contact lenses. He came across the material during a visit
to Germany in 1938 (Györffy 1964), and on his return to
Budapest he developed a technique for moulding this sheet
plastic and grinding the back and front optic surfaces. By late
1938 he had begun to fit PMMA scleral lenses and later went Fig. 1.12  Dallos’s original glass lens with a hole for the filtration scar,
on to fit corneal lenses using this material (Györffy 1968). lens engraved ‘… 3703’ with repair at the upper temporal edge.
8 SECTION 1  •  Contact Lens History and Material Development

to the front of each optic section, giving a small air space to

provide clear vision underwater.
1948: Arthur Forknall (Nottingham, England), an
optometrist, designed the ‘offset lens’ – again a scleral lens
with a spherical optic and an aspherical scleral zone – attempt-
ing to give even pressure on the sclera (Forknall, 1948).
It simplified fitting by eliminating the need to adjust the
scleral zone radius when the total diameter was changed.
This design was neglected by most contact lens practitioners
until it was reintroduced by Professor Montague Ruben
(originally an ophthalmic optician, then an ophthalmologist
at Moorfields Eye Hospital) as an offset corneal lens in 1966
(McKellen, 1963).
1949: Alexander Cross reported that there were at least
31 members of the RAF during WWII wearing contact lenses
whilst flying. These were mainly experienced pilots who had
suffered traumatic cataracts (Cross 1949).
1950: Frederick Williamson-Noble, UK ophthalmologist,
produced several scleral lenses with a small reading zone in
the centre of the optic zone (Bowden 2009).
With increased interest in contact lenses invoked by the
more comfortable and easier to fit corneal and soft lenses,
you might assume that interest and development in scleral
lenses waned. However, a small percentage of the population
cannot be fitted with corneal or soft lenses, so for them scler-
als remain the only option (For further information see https://
expertconsult.inkling.com/).
1967: Stephen Gordon (Hungary, then Manches-
ter, England), contact lens director of Hamblins (https://
www.andrewgasson.co.uk/stephen-gordon-1922-2004/),
together with J.P. Fraser, designed the ‘Apex lens’ (derived
from ‘aphakic experiment’) specifically for the UK Hospital
Fig. 1.13  Norman Bier’s patent for fenestrated lenses. Service. The large semiscleral design was quite thick and
heavy in aphakic prescriptions, but it provided stability
of vision from its limbal locating characteristics (Ruben
1967). However, its long-term use in PMMA material led to
corneal neovascularisation in many cases (Fraser & Gordon
Immediately the comfortable wearing time of the lens 1967). The design is still used in high-Dk materials for high
doubled. He experimented with slots and holes and found prescriptions.
the most successful position for a small hole or fenestration 1970s: John James Little (Edinburgh, Scotland) and
was on the temporal part of the lens close to the limbus, Arthur Irving (Northampton, England, working at David
which had the effect of sucking in an air bubble on nasal Thomas Contact Lenses) claimed to have fitted scleral lenses
gaze. Independently, Bier took out a patent (Fig. 1.13), which made from cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), a gas-permeable
was never enforced, for a series of slotted and fenestrated material (personal communications, Bowden 2009).
lenses to ‘permit lachrymal fluid and air to flow’ through 1983: Don Ezekiel (Perth, Australia) reported, at the
the lens. BCLA conference, making scleral lenses using two different
1946: George Nissel (Transylvania, Romania, then rigid gas permeable (RGP) materials. It was later called the
London, England) set up the first independent contact Gelflex Scleral and gained Food and Drug Administration
lens laboratory in the UK, located in Siddons Lane, London (FDA) approval for use in the USA.
(a commemorative plaque was unveiled there in 2010). He 1992: Ken Pullum (Hertford, England) founded Innova-
went on to produce contact lens machinery of international tive Sclerals to supply and fit RGP scleral lenses. An impression
renown. He produced the ‘wide-angle lens’ based on the Fein- taken of the eye was then scanned, and the back surface of
cone design, a scleral lens with spherical optic and scleral the lens was lathe cut using CAD CAM technology. The front
zones linked with a conical section. This, together with the surface was finished by hand to minimise the thickness (the
Feincone and Kelvin conic lenses, aimed to reduce the vast company was bought by Bausch & Lomb in 2015).
numbers of permutations introduced by the Dixey system 1998: Eaglet Eye surface profiler was invented by Dr Frans
by standardising the diameter of the optic zone. Jongsma to measure the curvature of 20 mm in diameter of
1947: Obrig Laboratories opened a London branch with the front surface of the eye. It would take another 15 years
David Thomas as general manager, and Moldite became to bring it to market.
readily available in the UK. 2007: William Masler, Acculens president and Fellow of
1948 Underwater scleral lenses were developed for covert the Contact Lens Society of America, designed the Maxim
operations. A scleral lens with a small ‘goggle’ was cemented scleral lens, later licenced to Bausch & Lomb.
 1  •  The History of Contact Lenses 9

2008: Dr Robert Breece designed the Jupiter lens. Later 1952: Frank Dickinson (St. Annes, England), Wilhelm
made by Visionary Optics in the USA and licenced to Essilor. Sohnges (Munich) and John C. Neil (Philadelphia, USA)
The Jupiter was available in 15 mm and 18 mm diameters cooperated with modifications to the corneal lens and its
and usually had five curves organised into three zones, and introduction into all three countries. It was lathe cut in the
it was available in three configurations. UK and either lathe cut or moulded in Germany. The mono-
2009: Scleral Lens Education Society was founded curve lenses were fitted approximately 0.65 mm flatter than
by Greg deNaeyer, Christine Sindt and Rob Breece (www. flattest K with a diameter of 9.5 mm correcting up to 4 D
sclerallens.org). of corneal toricity. Dickinson’s wife, Muriel, coined the name
With the renewed interest in scleral lenses the Scleral Lens ‘Microlens’. According to Dickinson, they were much better
Education Society designed a classification system. than the larger Tuohy lenses (Dickinson 1954)!
Both the Microlens and the Tuohy lens produced heavy
Corneal lenses (8–12.5 mm) are supported completely by
apical touch, causing corneal erosions. However, the smaller,
the cornea and do not hold a tear reservoir.
thinner Microlens covered less of the cornea, thus reducing
Corneal-scleral lenses (12.5–15 mm) extend beyond the
corneal oedema.
limbus, are supported by both corneal and scleral tissue
1955: Norman Bier (Munich, Germany, then London,
and hold a limited tear reservoir.
England) introduced his contour lens, a 9.50- diameter
Scleral lenses (15–25 mm) place all lens bearing on the
corneal lens with multiple back surface curves fitted in align-
sclera. Miniscleral lenses (15–18 mm) have a limited tear
ment with the cornea and a peripheral curve 1.25 mm wide
reservoir capacity, whilst full scleral lenses (18–25 mm)
to reduce the incidence of corneal erosions. Bier postulated
have an unlimited tear reservoir capacity.
that flatter corneas required greater peripheral curve flat-
tening relative to the back optic zone radius (BOZR) than
steeper corneas. He recommended fitting sets where peripheral
Corneal Lenses flattening ranged from 0.3 mm for a BOZR of 7.3 mm to
0.7 mm for a BOZR of 8.5 mm. From about 1960, fitting
The ‘invention’ of corneal lenses is usually credited to Kevin sets used a standard peripheral flattening and later a constant
Tuohy. Tuohy worked with Theo Obrig, later becoming an edge lift for simplicity. Bier also laid down the principles of
optical dispenser and partner in Solex, California, with Solon apical clearance fitting (Bier 1956a,b).
Braff and Xavier Villagram. Whilst a scleral lens of high 1955: John de Carle, an optometrist in London, developed
negative power was being made, the corneal portion broke a bifocal corneal lens of concentric design with a centre
away, producing a perfect disc. This was something that had portion focused for distance correction, surrounded by the
happened to lots of other lens makers. The disc was approxi- reading portion. This was based on an idea of ophthalmolo-
mately his wife’s prescription, so Tuohy took it home for her gist Frederick Williamson-Noble, who had observed unlikely
to try. Success led him to design, manufacture and patent the distance and reading vision by a patient with central cata-
corneal lens (granted in 1950). However, Zeiss catalogues racts. Dallos had previously made scleral bifocal lenses from
show glass corneal lenses in 1912, 1923, 1932, 1965 and the same inspiration (Fig. 1.14) (de Carle, J., personal com-
1966 (Bowden 2009). Glass corneal lenses tended to be munication to Sabell, 2004). One had a central distance
heavy and ride very low, whereas PMMA lenses, being much portion, the other a distance portion at the top and reading
lighter, were raised by the upper lid after each blink, giving segment below. These had limited success due to difficulty
better performance. The Tuohy lens was a monocurve fitted with translation of the lens. The de Carle corneal version
flatter than flattest K (www.nova.edu), 11 mm in diameter was more successful.
and 0.4 mm thick. Two dioptres of corneal astigmatism was Between 1960 and 1970 corneal lenses continued to
considered to be the limit of its corneal astigmatic correction develop. Narrower intermediate and peripheral zones in
(Bier 1957) (for further information see https://expertconsult. multicurve lenses led to numerous variations of back surface
inkling.com/). designs: aspheric corneal lenses with tangential conic periph-
1946: Heinrich Wöhlk (Kiel, Germany), an engineer, eries (Thomas 1968, Stek 1969), continuous offset bicurve
became interested in contact lenses after his 8-D of hyperme- lenses (Ruben 1966, Nissel 1967), lathe-cut continuous
tropia was corrected by Professor Leopold Heine with Zeiss aspheric lenses (Nissel 1968) and the ‘Kelvin continuous
scleral lenses. Wöhlk’s first PMMA lens, the ‘Parabolar’, was curve’ lens designed by Raymond Kelvin Watson. Lenses
similar in size to modern corneal lenses (Bier 1957). Wöhlk could be fenestrated to minimise central corneal oedema,
also developed a method of making PMMA lenses from raw truncated in weighted prism ballasted cases or back or front
material polymerised between quartz moulds (Bowden 2009). surface toric. The quality of vision from PMMA corneal lenses
1950: George Butterfield (Oregon, USA), an optometrist, generally surpassed that of soft lenses, which were starting
produced a better-fitting corneal lens (than Tuohy’s) with to become available, but comfort was limited and corneal
progressively flatter peripheral curves, 9.50 mm diameter hypoxia common.
and 0.2 mm thick, to aid tear exchange.
1950: Kyoichi Tanaka (Nagoya, Japan) produced the first
corneal lens made in Japan, hand carved from the PMMA
windscreen of a Mitsubishi aircraft. Within 3 months not Rigid Gas-Permeable Materials
only had he designed corneal lenses that fitted and were
comfortable, but he had also designed a machine to make 1970: Titmus Eurocon of Germany launched the Persecon
10 of them at a time. This was the start of what would become GP lens made from CAB with an elliptical back surface (per-
Menicon Contact Lenses. sonal communications with Peter Höfer). This was the first
10 SECTION 1  •  Contact Lens History and Material Development

A B
Fig. 1.14  Two of Dallos’s glass lenses adapted as bifocals: (a) engraved ‘7104387’ with a circular reading zone close to the centre; (b) with a central
bifocal lens fused onto the scleral carrier. Note the slight yellowing of the central fused lens.

material available that would transmit a small amount of

oxygen.
1971: Leonard Seidner, an optometrist with Polymer Optics
laboratories, together with his brother Joe, an engineer, com-
missioned Norman Gaylord, a polymer chemist, to produce
a new material. The ‘Gaylord patent’ was awarded in 1974
for the first silicone/acrylate rigid gas-permeable material.
1979: Polycon. The first commercially successful RGP lens
was designed by Donald Korb to fit in alignment with the
cornea and to be ‘lid attached’ (personal communication
with Don Korb).
1979: CAB was approved by the FDA in the USA. CAB con-
tained 2% water when fully hydrated and had better in-eye
wetting properties than PMMA and was comfortable. However,
CAB was dimensionally unstable, could not be tinted, was
difficult to manufacture and had poor oxygen permeability.
Silicone acrylate materials were more gas-permeable than
PMMA and CAB, but silicone is hydrophobic. Methylmeth-
acrylic acid was therefore added to improve hydrophilic quali-
ties, but made the surface more prone to cracking. Fluorine,
another hydrophilic component, was incorporated (Morris
1980) to allow a reduction in the content of methacrylic acid.
Gas permeability and hydrophilic properties could thereby
Fig. 1.15  Tangent Streak bifocal lens RGP.
be maintained whilst surface problems were reduced. The
addition of fluorine allowed other manufacturers to produce
RGP materials without being restricted by the Gaylord patent.
1982: Boston II Material was granted FDA approval. Perry in RGP materials. However, it was soon found that RGP lenses
Rosenthal, an ophthalmologist from Harvard Medical School, could be fitted in alignment with the central cornea with
Boston, together with Louis Mager, a physicist, and Joseph larger optic zones and reduced edge clearance, thus producing
Salamone, professor of chemistry at the University of Mas- more comfortable, optically stable lenses. RGP lenses became
sachusetts, Lowell, set up Polymer Technology in 1974 to available in spherical, toric, bitoric, bifocal, keratoconic and
investigate oxygen-permeable materials for contact lenses. scleral designs.
In 1975 they began producing Boston RGP materials from a 1982: Diffrax RGP bifocal lens (Fig. 1.15) by Pilkington
silicone/acrylate combination. Boston I was sold to a Cana- was a simultaneous-focus bifocal using a diffraction grating
dian company, Boston II was developed and widely used, to create distance and reading foci. The gratings produced
Boston III was researched but never released and Boston IV interferometry patterns with good resolution (Ruben 1989),
is still widely used today. Each development produced higher similar to the technology used to produce holograms. The
oxygen permeability. Polymer Technology was sold to Bausch design worked well but needed to be fitted steep to avoid the
& Lomb in 1983 (Bowden 2009). diffraction grating imprinting the surface of the cornea. It
The transition of wearers from PMMA to RGP materials was was expensive to make, and the gratings tended to attract
gradual. At first, standard PMMA lens designs were ordered deposits.
 1  •  The History of Contact Lenses 11

1984: Brien Holden and George Mertz reported that

oxygen demand of the cornea range from 7.5 to 21% and
suggested that a level of 10% oxygen must be available to
the cornea to prevent oedema.
1989: G&T Labs in Chicago received FDA approval for the
Tangent Streak Bifocal (Fig. 1.15).
1989: Paul Rose of New Zealand launched the Rose K
system for keratoconus.
1997: Wesley-Jessen PBH launched the Asphericon, a full
back surface aspheric RGP lens with three different eccen-
tricities, the only lens at the time to offer this (personal com-
munication with Ron Loveridge).
Further materials and lens designs followed, with higher
and higher Dk and better surface-wetting characteristics, Fig. 1.16  Portrait of Otto Wichterle in his Institute of Macromolecular
allowing overnight wear of rigid lenses. Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences, 12 July 1962. (Courtesy of the
Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, from the
personal papers of Otto Wichterle.)
Soft Lenses
1952: Otto Wichterle (Prague, Czechoslovakia) was
professor of chemistry and director of the Institute of Mac-
romolecular Chemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of
Sciences (Fig. 1.16). He worked with his assistant, Drahoslav
Lim, on a new, water-swellable gel for human prosthetics.
They produced a cross-linking gel, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate
(pHEMA). It was transparent, absorbed up to 40% water and
exhibited good mechanical properties (Dreifus 1978).
1953: Wichterle thought HEMA could be suitable for contact
lenses and gained his first soft lens patent.
1956: Walter Becker (Pittsburgh, USA), an optometrist,
developed silicone elastomer lenses with very high oxygen
transmission, but they did not wet well and tended to stick
to the eye.
1957: Wichterle used closed polystyrene moulds to make
about 100 soft lenses from HEMA. These were not successful
due to the edge damage when removed from the mould Fig. 1.17  Apparatus devised by Otto Wichterle using a Meccano con-
(Bowden 2009). struction kit, motor and moving parts of a gramophone to produce a
1961: Wichterle continued his experiments at home to 14-spindle device on which he produced spun-cast gel contact lenses.
transform hydrogels into a suitable shape for a contact lens. (Reproduced with permission from Contact Lenses: the Story, T Bowden.)
Using his son’s construction set he assembled the first pro-
totype of a centrifugal casting device driven by a bicycle
dynamo connected to a bell transformer. All the glasswork
was blown by Otto. Production of the first wearable lenses,
on Christmas afternoon 1961 at his kitchen table, was
announced in New Scientist January 18, 1962 (Wichterle
et al. 1961) (Fig. 1.17).
1964: Geltakt and SPOFA were the first production soft
lenses by the Wichterle method manufactured by Protetika
in Prague (Fig. 1.18). The lenses had a single aspheric back
surface curve produced by spin casting, 10–13 mm in diam-
eter. This was steeper than the cornea, but they conformed
to shape, as the material was so flexible. The optical quality
varied, as did the power and thickness, due to changes in
humidity during manufacture. Corneal oedema often limited
the wearing time to less than 8 hours, but they were popular
because they were supplied free by the government. Some
doubts started to emerge concerning the bacterial contami-
nation of soft lenses (Larke & Sabell 1971).
In 1964 the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts sold
the patents to Robert J. Morrison, an optometrist from Har-
risburg, USA. Patent lawyers Martin Pollak and Jerome
Feldman, owners of the National Patent Development Fig. 1.18  Geltakt and SPOFA lenses in original posting packets.
12 SECTION 1  •  Contact Lens History and Material Development

Corporation (NPDC), saw the potential of the product and 1983). The lenses were 11.5 mm in diameter, although
were involved in the transfer of Morrison’s rights to Bausch 13.5 mm was available, fitted in alignment or slightly steeper
& Lomb (Bowden 2009). than the cornea.
1964: Kyoichi Tanaka of Menicon produced the first soft 1970: Contact Lens Manufacturing (CLM) (UK)
lenses made in Japan. launched Sauflon lenses, a lathe-cut, 79%-water soft lens
1965: Nissel and Morrison used buttons of dehydrated made from MMA/PV, invented by Donald Highgate and
HEMA material to develop new lathe-cutting techniques so John Frankland, and Sauflon 85, available in the UK for
they could apply conventional back surface designs (Turner, extended wear and therapeutic use (www.eyetech.me.uk).
1964a,b). The Czech lenses were used internationally by CLM was founded in 1964 by optometrist David Clulow and
institutes and hospitals experimenting with the new material. science graduate Philip Cordrey to provide lenses for their
1965: Allan Isen, a New York optometrist and owner of contact lens–only practice set in three elegant townhouses
Frontier Contact Lenses, Buffalo, USA, set up Griffin Labora- in Earls Court, London (Highgate & Frankland personal
tory in Toronto, Canada, to develop a new lens outside the communication).
jurisdiction of the FDA. Working with Ken O’Driscoll, a 1971: Bausch & Lomb (USA) were finally granted FDA
polymer chemist from Waterloo University, Ontario, Canada, approval to market spun-cast SofLenses as a lens, although
they produced a new hydrogel material called Bionite. It was they had originally wanted it classed as a drug.
a copolymer combining HEMA with a pyrrolidone ring, pro- 1972: Dow Corning bought a silicone elastomer material
ducing a higher water content than HEMA but a lower tensile from Breger Müller-Welt of Chicago and produced a flexible
strength. Initial lenses had problems with tearing, variability lens called SILCON. Silicone rubber is highly oxygen perme-
of fit and unreliable optics. able, so normal levels of atmospheric oxygen reached the
The FDA approved the lens as a therapeutic or bandage cornea. The lens surface was treated to improve its wettability,
lens, but it was widely used elsewhere as the Griffin Natu- but this was prone to breaking down, and it suffered badly
ralens for refractive errors. It was 15.5 mm in diameter, had from surface deposits. In 1984 they sold the silicone elastomer
60% water content and was disinfected by soaking in 3% licence to Bausch & Lomb.
hydrogen peroxide followed by neutralisation with saline 1972: Hydron Lenses Ltd (a UK subsidiary of Hydron Ltd)
(Isen 1972). The Griffin lens was sold to American Optical started supplying lenses which were lathe cut from solid
and renamed Softcon; it was subsequently sold to CIBAVision buttons of dehydrated pHEMA. The optic zone diameter
and became the basis for their Focus and NewVues lenses. decreased as the power of the lens increased, and the initial
1966: Seymour Marco, Don Brucker and Dave Ewell lens was fitted 1 mm flatter than flattest K and 2 mm larger
in the USA made their own soft lens materials and lenses, in diameter than the corneal diameter. The edge geometry
one being etafilcon A, which was later used by Johnson & remained constant: a 0.6 mm-wide peripheral curve of 12.25
Johnson in their Acuvue range (Bowden 2009). mm radius cut onto the posterior surface, giving 0.18 mm
1967: Hydron Ltd (UK) was formed jointly by the NPDC edge thickness. Diameters ranged from 13.5–15.0 mm,
and Smith & Nephew Associated Co. Ltd, to investigate other although 14.0 and 14.5 mm were most common. The fitting
products made from Hydron (the registered name for poly- set contained around 30 hydrated lenses in glass bottles with
HEMA). These included nail extensions, antigraffiti paint, screw tops. After use the lenses were cleaned with 0.9%
hull coatings, stoma dressings, burns dressings, artificial saline, replaced in their glass vials in fresh saline and heated
blood vessels, stents and many more. to 90°C in a lens hygiene unit for at least 15 minutes (Hydron
1968: The US Government decided that soft lenses should Fitting & Service Manual 1973).
be regarded as a drug, thus needing FDA approval before 1972: Titmus Eurocon began production of the Weicon
their general use. This required extensive premarket testing, pHEMA lens. It was lathe cut with a spherical front surface
toxicologic and clinical trials, regulatory procedures and and characteristic elliptical back surface with a choice of
extensive documentation, slowing the introduction of new two back central optic radii: F (flat) and S (steep). In 1983
designs and materials to the American market. The long, Titmus Eurocon was sold to Ciba Geigy.
safe use of PMMA lenses allowed them to be exempt from 1972: Peter Fanti (Hamburg, Germany) patented the
these regulations. During this period, work was being carried thin zone stabilisation soft lens, later manufactured as the
out, both in America and the UK, on another type of soft Weicon toric lens. This was dynamically stabilised using
lens material. Instead of HEMA, it contained a copolymer the blinking action to keep the lens oriented correctly.
of methylmethacrylate (MMA) and had a pyrrolidone ring 1975: Duragel MMA/PV material was developed by IH
as the hydrophilic unit – MMA/PV (Morris 1980). The con- Laboratories in the UK. It was a 75%-water-content material
centrations of the monomers could be altered, producing and was supplied as dehydrated buttons to many contact
differing water contents, rigidity and swell rates. lens manufacturers to make their own branded lenses such
1970: John de Carle began experiments on his kitchen as Scanlens 75.
stove developing a soft lens with a water content similar to Over the next few years, soft contact lenses became increas-
that of the cornea to improve comfort and safety for extended ingly successful. Available as low (38%), medium (50–65%)
wear. He founded Global Vision with Geoff Galley and named or high (68–80%) water content, they were produced either
the lens Permalens (HEMA/VP). The company was later by spin casting or lathe-cutting. Spin-cast lenses were limited
bought by Cooper Laboratories, signalling the start of Cooper- in design, with the front surface being formed by the shape
Vision. The water content was more than 70% for extended of the die, while the power and shape of the back surface
wear on healthy eyes, sometimes for 6 months or more depended upon the amount of material used, properties of
without removal. John and his wife were always the first to that material (viscosity, etc.) and rate of revolution. These
trial any development of the lenses or material (de Carle lenses could be mass produced, whereas lathe-cut lenses
 1  •  The History of Contact Lenses 13

could be made in different base curves, as toric or prism

ballasted or with lenticulated high powers. However, they
were labour-intensive, more costly in material wastage and
possibly less consistent. Bausch & Lomb later produced spun-
cast lenses of a greater thickness which were then lathe cut
on the back surface to extend the range of fittings.
1975: Tom Shepherd (UK) filed a patent application for
cast-moulded soft lenses (Bowden 2009). A measured amount
of lens material was injected into the space between two
dies, with polymerisation taking place when the mould was
full. Although costly to set up, no lens material was wasted,
and lens production could be significantly speeded up. This
method of manufacture eventually led to the production of
disposable lenses.
1976: Soft toric contact lenses were approved by the FDA.
These had been evolving for several years.
1977: K L Rowley (Kingston upon Hull, England) opened
a specialist contact lens practice. He designed a truncated
soft translational bifocal lens with prism ballast. In the same
year Focus produced bifocals with either a translational or
concentric design. Many small labs followed suit using older
hard lens designs.
1978: Hydrocurve soft toric gained FDA approval. This
was the first soft toric available in the USA. Hydron produced
a 38%-water HEMA, lathe-cut, truncated, prism-ballasted
toric lens called the ‘Rx toric’. It was a stable lens that could
correct high degrees of oblique astigmatism. A major change
Fig. 1.19  The iconic Hydron Z6 soft lens.
was the design of the Hydron Z6 Toric, which had a centre
thickness of 0.06 mm with no truncation. Modern lenses
now are generally a combination of prism ballast and thin-
zone technology with either a front or back toric surface.
1979: Hydron Z6 marked the breakthrough of the simple
three-lens fitting sets (from previous 20 or 30 lenses). The
first thin (0.06 mm centre thickness) lathe-cut spherical lens,
the iconic Hydron Z6, had three standard BOZR (8.4, 8.7 and
9.00) and one standard diameter (14 mm) (Hydron lenses
fitting and service manual, 1973) (Fig. 1.19).
1980: Geoff Galley (UK) set up CV Labs to develop soft
lens moulding. By exerting more pressure on the male and
female parts of the mould during polymerisation, he solved
the problem of producing good edges on moulded lenses.
1981: FDA approval was given for the use of extended-
wear soft contact lenses to correct refractive errors. Non-
powered therapeutic lenses had been approved for extended
Fig. 1.20  Michael Bay, originator of the ‘disposable lens’.
wear in 1971.
1982: Danalens. The first lens manufactured and marketed
as a disposable lens, the Danalens was invented by Michael
Bay, a Danish ophthalmologist (Fig. 1.20). Concerned about optical chain, with people queuing around the block to get
damage caused by extended-wear soft lenses, he decided to their hands, or eyes, on these new lenses. Bay also set up the
visit Scanlens in Sweden to see whether he could determine regular supply route with monthly payments and regular
what the problem was. He decided that there must be a better rechecks (Bowden 2009).
way of making lenses, so he set up a small team who devel- 1982: Vistakon was founded when Johnson & Johnson
oped a new method of moulding lenses. Called the Stabilised bought Frontier Contact Lenses (Florida, USA) from Seymour
Softlens Moulding system, the lens came out of the mould Marco and signalled their entry into the contact lens
hydrated with a diluent to keep it soft, which was exchanged business.
for saline before packaging. This produced more consistent 1983: Vistakon bought the Stabilised Softlens Moulding
lenses at a lower cost, allowing more regular disposal. Bay system of Michael Bay.
set up the MIA Lens Company (named after Michael, his wife 1983: Hydron Zero T, first cast-moulded toric.
Inga, and their daughter Annette) and tried various differ- 1984: Bausch & Lomb’s Crescent soft bifocal lens. A
ent wearing modalities, preferring weekly extended wear, truncated, prism ballasted, translational, segmented lens.
but settled on 2 weeks of extended wear due to limitations 1985: The ALGES (Automated Lens Generating System)
in production. They were launched via Synoptic, a Danish soft lens was launched in the UK. This had a small central
14 SECTION 1  •  Contact Lens History and Material Development

reading area and relied on the accuracy of precision lathing Council guidelines stated: ‘As a general rule a contact lens
with little or no polishing (Alges 1985). should not be reused on another patient … except in special
1985: Hydron started making spin-cast lenses by Wichterle’s circumstances in which complex diagnostic lenses may need
vertical method. to be used in the management of patients’ (www.official-
1985: Bausch & Lomb launched the Freshlens system, documents.co.uk). This restricted the reuse of trial fitting
the first planned replacement scheme. sets in the UK.
1986: Bausch & Lomb Optima soft toric. This lens was Enormous investment in equipment and advertising pop-
spin cast slightly thicker than usual, and then one side was ularised the daily disposable contact lens. The logistics of
lathe cut. 1-day disposable lenses are phenomenal, with each patient
1988: Vistakon launched the ‘Acuvue’ Disposalens (Fig. requiring approximately 730 lenses a year.
1.21). Using their vast knowledge and resources from the
pharmaceutical industry, they took the crude MIA lens and
changed the material to etafilcon A, which already had FDA Other Lenses
approval, geared up production, improved quality and stream-
lined packaging. The Acuvue lenses were launched as weekly 1966: John de Carle awarded British patent 1,045,065
extended-wear lenses. Later shown to stand up to the rigours describing a contact lens constructed from a plastics material
of daily wear, the lenses were discarded after 2 weeks. where the skirt is softer and more flexible than the central
1989: Ron Hamilton and Bill Seden (Livingston, Scot- part of the lens. This flexible layer could be on the back, front
land) formed the Award company and developed their daily or totally enclosing the lens. The central portion could be
disposable Premier lens using a new moulding technique. made of methylmethacrylate or ethyl acrylate or a copoly-
Amongst other innovations was using one part of the mould mer of methylmethacrylate with ethyl acrylate, whereas the
as part of the final packaging. Award was later bought by skirt could be made from a homopolymer of vinyl chloride, a
Bausch & Lomb, and Hamilton went on to found Daysoft. copolymer of vinyl acetate or from a fluorinated copolymer of
For further innovations in contact lenses from 1990, see ethylene and propylene (de Carle personal communication).
Section 8, History, available at: https://expertconsult.inkling. 1969: Otto Wichterle promoted the concept of tinted soft
com/. lenses.
1995: 1 Day Acuvue was launched in the UK by Johnson 1971: Magatini and Shibata, both Japanese, made a
& Johnson. central rigid lens cemented to a soft lens to improve vision
1998: CE marking to show compliance to the European (Bowden 2009).
Medical Device Directive 93/42/EEC (MDD) became manda- 1971: H I Zeltzer (Boston, USA) was granted a US patent
tory. CE marking of these Class 2a medical devices gave quality for X-Chrom lenses to help improve colour vision differentia-
assurance for the patients and unrestricted access to more tion (Bowden 2009).
than 20 European countries for the manufacturers. Since 1974: Titmus Eurocon launched the Weicon Iris print
the process is time-consuming and costly, several small manu- and the Weicon Iris hand-painted soft lenses, the first cos-
facturers went out of business. metic coloured soft lenses. The original painted lenses used
1998: CIBA’s Night & Day and Bausch & Lomb’s Pure- opaque colours which gave a false look to the eye. As more
Vision silicone hydrogel lenses (SiH) were test marketed. paint was used, the lens became thicker, changing its fitting
Unlike the old silicone elastomer lenses, silicone hydrogel characteristics and producing a stiff, uneven lens.
lenses contain water (Night & Day 24%; PureVision 36%), John de Carle was one of the first to experiment with tinted
which allows fluid and ions to pass through the material, in lenses, having had the idea from a fluorescein-contaminated
conjunction with better surface treatments, better moulding soft lens (de Carle, J., personal communication to Sabell,
technology and disposability. 2004). As an experiment, de Carle dropped vegetable dye
1999: Night & Day and PureVision were launched for into his wife’s eye while she was wearing a high-water-con-
monthly continuous wear. tent lens. The lens absorbed the dye, producing a desirable
1999: vCJD. Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease was recog- colour, which changed during the day as the dye leeched
nised. The UK’s Department of Health and the General Optical out. Subsequently, many of de Carle’s patients, and others,
adopted this technique.
1977: Saturn Lens, a combination or hybrid lens, was
manufactured by Precision-Cosmet with an RGP centre of
8 mm diameter bonded to a hydrogel soft skirt, giving a total
diameter of 14.3 mm. More comfortable than corneal lenses
and providing better vision than soft lenses for keratoconic
eye, the Saturn lens was prone to splitting at the RGP–soft
junction, especially as it dehydrated, and its oxygen trans-
missibility was low.
1984: Saturn II was an improvement on the initial design.
1986: Wesley-Jessen produced their first dot matrix–printed
coloured lenses using both opaque and tinted dots and mix-
tures of collaret patterns. These allowed the eye’s natural
colour to show, providing a natural depth of colour.
1987: Hydron produced a solid, opaque coloured lens, which
Fig. 1.21  ‘Acuvue’ Disposalens. produced an unnatural look.
 1  •  The History of Contact Lenses 15

1989: CIBAVision launched Spectrum Visitint soft lenses 1950: Joseph Soper (USA) developed the topogometer. This
with a handling tint. was an attachment for the keratometer to determine curves
2005: Ultravision launched Kerasoft Durawave, designed of the cornea away from the optical cap (Power 2000).
by John Clamp, a soft lens for keratoconus and post grafts. 1950s: Wesley-Jessen developed the Photo Electric Kera-
2005: SynergEyes received FDA approval for their hybrid toscope (PEK). Townsly, Mandell and Jessen introduced this
lenses designed to correct ±20 D with up to 6 D of astigma- device around 1969.
tism. The patented process HyperBond™ gave an exception- 1956: Robert Morrison (Harrisburg, USA) conducted
ally strong interface between the high-Dk RGP centre and a myopia control study with PMMA lenses; with 1000 teen-
low-water-content soft components. agers fitted 1.50–2.50 D flatter than flattest K, he found there
2011: Triggerfish was launched by Sensimed in Switzer- was no myopic progression (Bowden 2009).
land. An SiH smart contact lens monitored the intraocular 1956: Newton Wesley (Oregon, USA) noticed that after
pressure over a period of time; it contained a microchip and several hours of contact lens wear, patients noticed a blur-
electronic circuitry (see Chapter 27). ring of vision when they returned to their spectacles. He
2014: Google embarked on a project to test the ability of described this as ‘spectacle blur’, a flattening of the cornea
a smart contact lens to detect and monitor the glucose level (McQueen 2003).
in the tears of diabetics. 1957: Frank Dickinson (St. Annes, England) commented
2015: Air Optix Colours, the first SiH monthly coloured on the use of microcorneal lenses in the reduction of the
lens, was launched by CIBAVision. progression of myopia (Dickinson 1957).
1960+: Jessen and Wesley observed that when rigid contact
lenses were fitted flat, the patient stopped becoming more
myopic and could actually reverse his prescription over time.
Corneal topography and Many patients improved to the point where they no longer
Orthokeratology needed any corrective lenses and could see 6/6 (20/20) for
short periods.
The development of orthokeratology is another example 1962: George Jessen formalised his ideas for the ‘reduc-
of great ideas awaiting the technology to catch up. Also tion, modification or elimination of visual defects by the
known as Ortho-K, Corneal Refractive Therapy and Over- programmed application of contact lenses’. He called this
night Vision Correction, this is a method of changing the Orthofocus using the Cycon lens (Bowden 2009).
refractive power of the cornea by the application of a rigid 1962: Victor Chiquiar-Arias met with 15–16 practitioners
contact lens. Nowadays it has become a very straightfor- in the USA, and the term orthokeratology was decided upon:
ward technique with a high degree of predictability. However, ortho to straighten or change; kerato for cornea, and ology
this has only been made possible by the ability to accurately for science. The Society of Orthokeratology was formed the
measure the shape of the cornea both before and after same year (Ruben and Guillon 1994).
treatment, high-transmissibility materials and accurate The rationale was that if normally fitted lenses would
lathing. change the cornea, why not do it on purpose to help the
1619: Christoph Scheiner (Swabia, Germany) first com- patient? Jessen was the principal innovator in this direction
pared the size of reflections from the cornea to reflections and wore a PMMA lens for 12 years, achieving up to 3 months
from glass balls of known radius. lens-free using lenses as a night retainer, much like a dental
1769: Jesse Ramsden (Halifax, England) constructed the device. The National Eye Research Council Foundation (NERF)
first keratometer, although Hermann von Helmholtz (Potsdam, sponsored four universities to study the effects of Ortho-K.
Germany) improved on his design, producing keratometers 1964: Charles May and Stuart Grant, both US optom-
much as we know them today. etrists, published ‘Emmetropization through contact lenses’,
1847: Henry Goode (Cambridge, England), a physician, one of the first articles on the subject. May used the PEK to
inspired by the observations of George Biddell Airy on astig- measure the change in corneal curvature whilst developing
matism, reported on the use of his keratoscope. Antonio his ideas of Ortho-K. Initially PMMA lenses were worn during
Placido (Portugal) independently produced a similar device the day to mould the cornea to a new, flatter shape. The
in 1880. effect was not well controlled, with only small power changes
1888: Photinas Panas (Cephalonia, Greece, and Paris, being achievable over several months.
France) reported on the work of Eugene Kalt, his young 2010: Jaume Paune Fabre (Barcelona, Spain), an optom-
assistant, to the French Academy of Medicine. Kalt had fitted etrist, developed an Ortho-K lens to correct hypermetropia.
a patient with keratoconus with blown glass shells that com- Further work is being conducted by Pauline Cho, the CCLRU
pressed the cornea. Panas reported that ‘they were tolerated and many others on the use of Ortho-K in myopia control
perfectly for many hours … The very thinned cornea moulds in young myopes. The development of Ortho-K still has a
itself exactly to the lenses in their concavity and becomes, way to go.
in fact, reshaped’. For more on Ortho-K, see Section 8, History, available at:
1896: Allvar Gullstrand (Uppsala, Sweden), an oph- https://expertconsult.inkling.com/ and also Chapter 19.
thalmologist, developed many of the optical concepts of
photokeratoscopy by describing the mathematical analysis
and calculating the topography of the cornea before the Summary
advent of computers.
1930s: Zeiss developed the first commercial device for What does the future hold for contact lens wearers? Work
photokeratoscopy. progresses on antimicrobial lenses, lenses to change colour
16 SECTION 1  •  Contact Lens History and Material Development

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