August Müller (1864 – 1949), born in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

, was a medical student at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and a pioneer in the manufacture of

contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

es. In 1889, he presented at the university his doctoral thesis titled ''Eyeglasses and corneal lenses''Müller A. ''Brillenglaser und hornhautlinsen.'' Inaugural Dissertation, University of Kiel; p 20.(1889). in which he described his efforts to grind scleral lenses from blown glass. Refinements in his process led him to be able to correct his own severe -14

dioptre A dioptre ( British spelling) or (American spelling), symbol dpt or D, is a unit of measurement with dimension of reciprocal length, equivalent to one reciprocal metre, . It is normally used to express the optical power of a lens or curved mi ...

myopia Myopia, also known as near-sightedness and short-sightedness, is an eye condition where light from distant objects focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry, while close objects appear normal. ...

to within 0.50 D.''Hard Contact Lenses''
Royal College of Optometrists. URL accessed 09 March 2006 Müller's compatriot Adolf Fick had published his work on contact lenses earlier in 1887, but his lenses were heavy and could only be worn for short periods. Müller's lenses were lighter and shaped to match the curved contour of the

cornea The cornea is the transparency (optics), transparent front part of the eyeball which covers the Iris (anatomy), iris, pupil, and Anterior chamber of eyeball, anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and Lens (anatomy), lens, the cornea ...

. He suggested that the lens would remain in place on the cornea due to

capillary action Capillary action (sometimes called capillarity, capillary motion, capillary rise, capillary effect, or wicking) is the process of a liquid flowing in a narrow space without the assistance of external forces like Gravitation, gravity. The effe ...

lubricated by the tear film. Müller called his development ''Hornhautlinsen'' or 'corneal lenses'. His efforts to develop a new

corrective lens A corrective lens is a transmissive optical device that is worn on the eye to improve visual perception. The most common use is to treat refractive errors: myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. Glasses or "spectacles" are w ...

were ultimately unsuccessful, since a patient could only tolerate the lens bearing down heavily on the

sclera The sclera, also known as the white of the eye or, in older literature, as the tunica albuginea oculi, is the opaque, fibrous, protective outer layer of the eye containing mainly collagen and some crucial elastic fiber. In the development of t ...

for half an hour, less than those of Fick. Moreover, it had to be inserted underwater to prevent trapping air bubbles, and

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

administered to anaesthetise the eye, but he did however lay the groundwork for later researchers and his ideas and recommendations on fit, tear flow and rounded edges still form the basis for contact lens fitting today. In 1932, Müller donated three lenses to the German Museum in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. These were the same lenses that he had discussed in his thesis.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, August 1864 births 1949 deaths 19th-century German inventors German ophthalmologists People from Mönchengladbach

Further reading

Notes