CONTACT LENS HISTORY

THE OVERSEAS PIONEERS

Maurice Seiderman

Maurice Seiderman was the owner and director of the Physiological Polymer Company of Hollywood California.  He maintained that Hema had been invented in Russia prior to Wichterle and Lim and had been used in theatrical make-up.

Seiderman claimed to have developed a soft material independent of Wichterle and modified this when asked to develop a new soft lens polymer by Don Brucker in 1971.  The material produced was Hefilcon A, and this was used to produce buttons for lathe cutting the Hydrocurve lens which gained a New Drug Application in April 1974.  Hydrocurve became the second lens to gain FDA approval in the US.  Eventually Hydrocurve lenses were produced in Bufilcon A, with water contents of 45% and 55%, in a range of spherical and toric designs This material was developed separately by Don Brucker.

To investigate materials Seiderman developed a method of measuring the flow through a membrane using Iodine 125 and sodium 22; his technique of labelled water was described in Seiderman et al Macromol. Sci-Chem 3:101-111, 1969. Maurice Seiderman was a private individual but it is known that he died in the 1980s.

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