<P> In 1888 , German ophthalmologist Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick constructed and fitted the first successful contact lens . While working in Zürich , he described fabricating afocal scleral contact shells , which rested on the less sensitive rim of tissue around the cornea , and experimentally fitting them ; initially on rabbits , then on himself , and lastly on a small group of volunteers . These lenses were made from heavy blown glass and were 18 -- 21 mm ( 0.71 -- 0.83 in ) in diameter . Fick filled the empty space between cornea and glass with a dextrose solution . He published his work , `` Contactbrille '' , in the journal Archiv für Augenheilkunde in March 1888 . </P>
<P> In 1888 , German ophthalmologist Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick constructed and fitted the first successful contact lens . While working in Zürich , he described fabricating afocal scleral contact shells , which rested on the less sensitive rim of tissue around the cornea , and experimentally fitting them ; initially on rabbits , then on himself , and lastly on a small group of volunteers . These lenses were made from heavy blown glass and were 18 -- 21 mm ( 0.71 -- 0.83 in ) in diameter . Fick filled the empty space between cornea and glass with a dextrose solution . He published his work , `` Contactbrille '' , in the journal Archiv für Augenheilkunde in March 1888 . </P>
when did the first contact lenses come out
when did the first contact lenses come out
1888
1888