"Who Made That Contact Lens?"

We don't know why, but the New York Times Magazine published a short article entitled "Who Made That Contact Lens?" It starts as follows:

In 1887, a German doctor named Theodor­ Samisch saw a patient whose lower eyelid had been destroyed by carcinoma, leaving his cornea exposed and desiccated and his lashes curling inward. To preserve the patient’s vision, Samisch contracted with two brothers who specialized in artificial eyes. They made a protective shell of handblown glass, transparent in the middle and opaque around the edge, with reddish threads for blood vessels. “I have worn the glass supplied by you continuously, day and night,” the patient wrote the brothers 21 years later, “and my eye has always felt very well with it.” Read more.