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Contact Lens Spectrum

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HISTORY OF CONTACT LENSES

THE FIRST 40 YEARS OF MANUFACTURING, 1887-1927

By: PATRICK J. CAROLINE, FAAO, CRAIG W. NORMAN, FCLSA
Contact Lens Spectrum August 1, 2022 Vol 37, Issue August 2022 Page(s): 52

The exact date of the production of the first contact lens has been lost to history, although ophthalmic historians believe that it was most likely the Müller brothers (Friedrich Anton and Albert Carl) who manufactured the first glass shell in 1887 (Heitz, 2003).

Our story begins in the 1860s with the brothers’ father, Friedrich Adolph Müller.

Müller, Sr., was a famous maker of glass artificial eyes in Thuringia, Germany, an area that was the center of the glass-working industry in the 19th century. In 1868, he developed Cryolite glass, particularly to produce artificial eyes (Bowden, 2009). Cryolite was easier to blow and gave a superb natural luster to the eye while also being more resistant to the corrosive properties of the tears. The Müller family moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1874, and it is here that Friedrich’s sons expanded the business and rapidly gained professional recognition for their glass-blown artificial eyes.

In 1887, the Müller brothers produced a non-powered glass scleral shell for a patient of Dr. Edwin Saemisch, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Bonn Eye Clinic (Obrig and Salvatori, 1957). The patient’s right eye suffered from exposure due the partial removal of his eyelid secondary to a cancerous tumor. It was reported that the patient continued to wear the glass shell night and day for 23 years until his death in 1907.

The non-powered protective shell was blown from artificial eye glass and resembled an artificial eye in appearance. The corneal section was clear and the scleral portion opaque with veining to match the other eye—a feature of the Müller lenses for years to come.

Our story now shifts to Zurich, and the person many consider the “Father of Contact Lenses,” ophthalmologist Adolf Eugen Fick. Born in 1852 in Marburg, Germany, he received his medical and ophthalmology training at universities in both Germany and Switzerland.

It is unclear exactly when Fick began his work with contact lenses. However, we do know that his early lens designs were based on plaster of Paris casts taken first on rabbit, then human cadaver eyes. His early experimental (non-powered) glass shells were blown for him by the Müller brothers.

In the late 1880s, Fick approached Professor Ernst Abbe at Zeiss about manufacturing powered glass lenses through a new grinding process (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The ground glass lenses from the Carl Zeiss Company in Jena, Germany. Image courtesy of the Contact Lens Museum.
Figure 1. The ground glass lenses from the Carl Zeiss Company in Jena, Germany.Image courtesy of the Contact Lens Museum.

In late 1887, Fick described his work in an article titled “Eine Contactbrille” published in March of the next year (Mandel, 1974). He reported fitting refractive powered contact lenses to traumatized or irregularly shaped corneas, achieving a wearing time of approximately two hours. Though these lenses were produced at Zeiss, they did not commercialize their ground glass scleral lenses until 25 years later.

It is interesting to note that for the first 40 years of our history, all the lenses were produced in Germany by either the Müllers in Wiesbaden or the Carl Zeiss Company in Jena. CLS

References

  1. The History of Contact Lenses, Volume One, Early Neutralizations of the Corneal Dioptric Power, Robert Fernand Heitz M.D. University of Strasbourg, France PhD. Historical and Philological Sciences EPHE, Paris. Translated by Colin Mailer © London Ontario Canada. Publisher, G. Schmidt, Van Iseghem Laan 131, B- 8400 Oostende, Belgium 2003.
  2. Contact Lenses the Story: A Historical Development of Contact Lenses, Timothy J. Bowden, Chapter Two, The Early Pioneers, Pages 40-47, 2009. Bower House Publications.
  3. Contact Lenses, Theo e. Obrig and Philip l. Salvatori, Third Edition 1957. The Historical Development of Contact Lenses, Pages 126-132. The Chilton Company, Philadelphia.
  4. Contact Lens Practice Second Edition, Robert B. Mandel OD PhD, Chapter 1 Historical Development of Contact Lenses, Robert Graham, Pages 6-16. 1974. Publisher, Charles C. Thomas Springfield, Illinois.

Patrick Caroline is an associate professor of optometry at Pacific University. He is co-curator of the Contact Lens Museum. He is a consultant or advisor to Katt, Inc.

Craig Norman is an adjunct faculty member at the Michigan College of Optometry’s Vision Research Institute. He is co-curator of the Contact Lens Museum. He has received speaking honoraria or consulting fees from ABB Optical Group, Bausch Medical, Contamac, Euclid Systems, GPLI, Lentechs, Oculus USA, and Valley Contax.

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