Many people remember the first time contact lenses hit the mainstream in 1971.  But the idea for contact lenses is much, much older.  That unparalleled visionary, Leonardo Di Vinci, drew a design for contact lenses back in 1508, which looked a lot more like a helmet than what we've come to know and love today.  The lenses from the 40s described in the video below involved a rather invasive on-eye mold, and the lenses themselves were not for the light of pocket, coming in at over $4000 when adjusted for inflation.  Looking back at images like this, less than a century old, just shows you the remarkable path of how far we've come in the world of ophthalmics!