forgotten inventors

Portrait of Otto Wichterle with a contact lens and a close up of a human eye, illustrating the invention of soft contact lenses

Otto Wichterle Contact Lenses: The Inventor Who Changed Vision but Died Without Fortune

11.01.2026

Otto Wichterle contact lenses changed the way hundreds of millions of people see the world. While his invention made American companies billions, the Czech scientist himself received almost nothing in socialist Czechoslovakia.