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Otto Wichterle
(October 18, 1913—August 8, 1998)
Working at his kitchen table,
using an old phonograph and an Erector set, Otto Wichterle
invented the soft contact lens and the process to manufacture
it. In addition to being more comfortable than traditional glass
or hard plastic lenses, Wichterle’s lenses were less expensive,
required a shorter adjustment period, and could be worn for
longer periods of time.
Born in Prostějov in the Czech Republic, Wichterle
earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague (ICT). He worked as a professor at ICT in the 1950s
creating a material suitable for eye implants known as hydroxy
ethyl methacrylate, or HEMA, a polymer gel that absorbed water
and was transparent.
Forced to leave ICT in a political purge, Wichterle continued
his work on hydrogels at home with his wife, a doctor. In 1961,
using his homemade device, he developed a spin-casting process
that used centrifugal force to forge HEMA into soft, pliable
lenses. Wichterle and his wife produced 5,500 lenses within five
months. He made little money from his invention because the
Czech government owned the rights to his process. The government
sold those rights to an American optometrist for $330,000.
In 1966, Bausch and Lomb purchased the rights for 3 million
dollars. More than 100 million people improve their vision with
contact lenses.
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William A.
Goddard
Peter
Carl Goldmark
Maurice
Ralph Hilleman
Godfrey
Newbold Hounsfield
John Joseph Lynott
Arthur
Nobile
Miguel
Angel Ondetti
Otto
Wichterle
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