How it's Made: The First Contact Lenses

Many people remember the first time contact lenses hit the mainstream in 1971.  But the idea for contact lenses is much, much older.  That unparalleled visionary, Leonardo Di Vinci, drew a design for contact lenses back in 1508, which looked a lot more like a helmet than what we've come to know and love today.  The lenses from the 40s described in the video below involved a rather invasive on-eye mold, and the lenses themselves were not for the light of pocket, coming in at over $4000 when adjusted for inflation.  Looking back at images like this, less than a century old, just shows you the remarkable path of how far we've come in the world of ophthalmics!