People are often surprised to learn that contact lenses were actually invented over a century ago, when in 1887, a Germanic glassblower managed to successfully create an eye covering which could actually be tolerated by the eye (without causing permanent damage, a common problem that had dogged many earlier models!) and which also improved the vision as well.
However, it should be noted that whilst the first contact lens was successfully produced as late as 1887, the actual idea and theory behind this remarkable invention can be traced back as far back as the 16th century, with Leonardo da Vinci.
Widely hailed by many as a genius whose intellect and ground breaking discoveries would later shape the modern world actually drew up tentative blueprints to an optical device, to improve vision defects.
Whilst regarded as one of his less well known inventions, his ideas certainly struck a chord with the French philosopher, René Descartes who was to later expand upon Da Vincis original ideas, in a desperate (but ultimately doomed) attempt to match the intellect of the man who had such an inspiration upon his life.
From their original creation in 1887, the inherent defects and flaws which dogged the early contact lens were subsequently worked upon and evened out, and the modern examples are remarkable.
We now have the likes of Focus Contact Lens which unlike their ancestors, can now be worn all day and night, which is an astonishing level of advancement given that previously, contact lens could be worn for only a few hours at a time.
The reason that the Focus Contact Lens can be worn for such prolonged periods of time is their unique design and the usage of porous materials such as silicon which actively permit oxygen to enter into the cornea and thus oxygenate it.