Echoes of the Past: A contact lens revolution

This week’s Echoes of the Past looks at the May 1965 issue of Optician sister-publication Manufacturing Optician.

Today’s contact lens manufacturers constantly strive to produce more comfortable, clearer lenses for wearers and the rate of innovation in the sector is rapid. However, a major shift in technology could be some time away.

An article on a Contact Lens Society meeting pondered whether there was a contact lens revolution on the horizon thanks to the development of ‘controversial’ hydrophilic lenses. The developer of the lenses, Professor O Wichterle, who worked out of Prage, spoke on the future hydrophilic gel lenses and how there had experimental fittings in Czechoslovakia but stressed that they were not ready for general contact lens practice.