Maskless Contact Lenses??? from old SI article

[jjintn]

Came across an old article from Sports Illustrated from 1963. Never heard of anything like this and was just curious if anyone knew where their research went or if anything ever came of it. It sounds somewhat like fluid goggles, but couldn't really find any info on it.

A novel contact lens that replaces the bulky face mask now - 12.16.63 - SI Vault

Noticed near the bottom it says "Captain Beckman and members of his research team have worn the contact lenses to a depth of 300 feet with no appreciable loss in acuity." Sounds interesting.

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Interesting ... never heard of anything like this

 

[bill_bain]

I've been wearing "hard" contact lenses for > 40 years -- first the plastic ones like the SI article described (not the oversize ones, just regular size) and now gas perms. The lenses would have to be non-permeable, since they would otherwise absorb sea water and likely have a huge sterilization problem. The older non-permeable lenses were not very comfortable, even with the "cushioning solutions" that were available back then.

 

[Shaka Doug]

Cool article. I don't think anything ever happened with these lenses other than this story. And 300feet?? Are they sure about that?

Did you look at the magazine and the photo? There's a way to view the entire old magazine in a nice little "page flipper type box". Pretty cool. By the way, lot's of liquor ads in that old mag!