#7: The First Contact Lenses
Contact lenses are pretty amazing inventions. These tiny pieces of flexible plastic allow people to see in an easy, convenient manner without cumbersome eyeglasses. Contact lenses are so amazing that they seem like a modern invention. However, the first contact lenses were actually invented back in 1888 by German physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick.
These early contact lenses were made entirely of glass and covered the entire eye. Amazingly, before the 19th-century invention of contact lenses, Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci had documented his idea for contact lenses in his famous notebooks from the early 1500s. Da Vinci’s concept was a little different, involving a water-filled dome that would fit in the eye and correct vision. Still, it’s pretty amazing that he developed this idea three centuries before the real thing.