至尊英语阅读资料之健康与卫生专题第250集.pdfVIP

health articles 250 [6226]Contact Lens Manufacturer - A History This year (i.e., 2008) will be the 500th anniversary of the original conception of the contact lens. Its present form is the result of centuries of imaginative thinking, scientific reasoning and technological advances. In 1508 Leonardo da Vinci became the first person to conceive of a contact lens. He did not propose this as a way of correcting vision, but as a way of understanding the manner by which the eye is able to preserve the visual clarity of an object as the object moves closer or further within the field of view. Leonardo da Vincis remarkable brainchild was not feasible at the time because of technological limitations. The next development was a hypothetical method put forth by astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1827 for grinding and shaping them to match the shape of the surface of an eye. As part of this methodology, Sir John Herschel suggested that a mold of the eye be taken in order to guarantee that their shape be a precise fit to the shape of the eye. Nonetheless, the technological ability to create a mold of the eye was not present during the first half of the 19th century. With the invention of anesthesia in 1884, a glassblower by the name of F.A. Muller constructed the first glass contact lens in 1887. However, the first version to correct vision was not created until 1888 by Swiss physician A.E. Fick and French optician Edouard Kalt. Originally they were made of glass and covered the entire front of the eye. The glass deprived the eye of oxygen putting its long-term health in peril. Furthermore, they were heavy and uncomfortable so that most people were only able to wear them for a few hours. Plastic was not used within their construction until the 1930s. These plastic forms were lighter and more comfortable than their earlier counterparts, but still covered the entire front of the eye and prevented oxygen from reaching the eye. In the late 1940s, the American