August Müller (doctor, 1864)

August Müller (born March 4, 1864 in Mönchengladbach ; † September 5, 1949 ) was a German physician and one of the inventors of the contact lens .

Life

August Müller was born as the son of a machine factory owner in Mönchengladbach. After completing school at the Stiftisch-Humanist Gymnasium , he studied medicine.

In 1889 he published his doctoral thesis "Spectacle Lenses and Corneal Lenses" in which he described his efforts to grind scleral shells from hand-blown glass. He dedicated his doctoral thesis to the ametropia: “To the normal sighted, the time that the same (following three essays) have cost may appear to be misused. My companions in fate will find my endeavors understandable. ”With the result of his work, it was possible for him to correct his own myopia from −14 diopters to only 0.5 diopters.

Müller's compatriot Adolf Fick published his work on contact lenses as early as 1887. But his lenses were heavy and could only be worn for a short time. Müller's lenses were lighter and shaped to match the course of the cornea . He had the idea that through the tear film between the cornea and the lens, the lenses would hold on to the eye through capillary action. The correct curvature of the lens can then correct ametropia.

However, his desire to become an ophthalmologist failed because of his impaired vision. He took up the profession of orthopedic surgeon and was soon nicknamed "Bone Miller". He opened his practice in 1899 but kept working on his contact lens idea. On a trial basis, he had three lenses manufactured by Carl Zeiss Jena and then called his invention corneal lenses .

His efforts to get a new corrective lens were ultimately unsuccessful, as he himself could only wear the lens for half an hour due to the pressure, less long than Fick's. In addition, the lenses had to be inserted underwater to avoid air pockets and cocaine had to be administered to numb the eyes. As a result, the Zeiss company was not interested in further development. But despite everything, he laid the foundation for later research and his ideas and findings about tear flow and the rounded edges of contact lenses are still the basis for contact lens fitting today.

In 1932 August Müller donated the three lenses manufactured by Zeiss to the Deutsches Museum in Munich .

literature

• Müller A .: glasses and corneal lenses . Inaugural dissertation, University of Kiel; p 20. (1889).
• Hard Contact Lenses Royal College of Optometrists . URL accessed 09 March 2006

Web links

• The invisible glasses on rp.online