http://www.eyetopics.com/articles/18/1/The-History-of-Contact-Lenses.html

1887 Glassblower F.E. Muller of Wiesbaden, Germany, produces the first eye covering designed to be seen through and tolerated.
so they have been around for a while. The first ones were heavy, not well tolerated and made from solid glass. they could be worn for short periods of time and a plain saline solution was used to lubricate teh lens. BUt small ridges were often created like scar tissue.

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