Eyeglasses

Ever notice in those old yearbooks the predominance of eyeglasses on students. The styles always look strange to our modern views…just like neck tie and lapel widths. Today, there are few student pictures with eyeglasses in yare books. Why? Contact lenses. Not that they were not available in 1965. It is said that Da Vinci…yes he who painted the Last Supper that is observable in Milan and the focus of the Dan Brown novel…was the first to outline a design for a lens to be placed over the human eye to improve vision. Various inventions were tried over the years: the first glass contact lenses was manufactured by German glassblower F.E. Muller in 1887; Fick & Kalt used them to correct vision in 1888; Hungarian Joseph Dallos perfected making molds of the human eye to perfect fitting in 1929; in 1946 the first combination plastic/glass contact lens was made; and the first contoured plastic lens was produced in Oregon in 1950. So, contacts are not a “modern invention”. Yet, widespread use was not a part of eyewear until Bausch & Lomb introduced the first available soft contact lens in 1971. Since that time, with improved fit, comfort, and both disposability and permanence, contact lenses have become the eyewear of choice for the high school types. So, in reviewing the 1965 Yearbook of DAHS [or any other school for that matter], look at all the eyeglasses on faces. You are “looking” at ancient history.