1 Water-filled tube microscope/device (contact lens) of Thomas Young (1773-1829)

Slideshow 1
1 Water-filled tube microscope/device (contact lens) of Thomas Young (1773-1829)

2 Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), courtesy of National Portrait Gallery

3 House of Frederick Mueller (1862-1939) and brother August Muller (1864-1949) in Wiesbaden

4 Adolf Eugen Fick (1852-1937)

5 Eugene Kalt (1861-1941)

6 August Muller (1864-1949)

7 Ernst Abbe (1840-1905)

8 Adolf Muller Welt (1904-1972)

9 Josef Dallos (1905-1979)

10 Theo Obrig (1896-1967)

11 Kevin Tuohy (1921-1968)

12 Heinrich Wöhlk (1913-1991)

13 Neill, Sohnges and Dickinson at the White House 1962

14 Norman G Gaylord (1923-2007)

15 Otto Wichterle (1913-1998) and Martin Pollack of NPDC

16 Ken O'Driscoll

17 John deCarle

18 Geoff Galley

19 Michael Bay

20 Ron Hamilton

21 Newton K Wesley (1917-2011), had keratoconus and with George Jesson (1916-1987) worked out how these distorted eyes could be successfully fitted with contacts. They formed Wesley Jesson in Chicago.

22 William Feinbloom (1870-1940), developed the first contact with glass and plastic

23 Tim Bowden

24 Muller blown lenses

25 Zeiss lenses

26 Dallos Plaque

27 MIA Lens also known as Dana Lens

28 Purevision and Night & Day Lenses

29 Aculens

30 Cavendish Square, London where Dallos was installed in the first contact-lens-only practice in the UK in 1937.

31 SPOFA lens, made by Otto Wichterle in the early 60s. The test tube had to be broken and the contents spilt out into a Petri dish, ensuring no glass splinters. The lens was then soaked for several hours in saline to stabilize the parameters as lens was stored in the test tube in distilled water of different pH.

32 Very early version of the Meccano set device Otto Wichterle used to make the world’s first usable soft lenses on his kitchen table on Christmas Day 1961. All homemade, it was powered by the dynamo from his son's bike. Photo at the International Library and Museum of Optometry, St Louis.

33 Later version of the Meccano device with more spindles to make more lenses at the same time. This needed a stronger, more powerful motor so Otto cannibalized his record player! Photo taken at a Congress of the Czech Contact Lens Association.