The very first artificial eyes were made by Roman and
Egyptian priests as early as the 5th century BC.
They were made of painted clay attached to cloth and
worn outside the socket. Centuries later, the first
in-socket artificial eyes were made of gold, coated with coloured enamel.
Then, in the later part of the sixteenth century, the
Venetians started making artificial eyes
out of glass.
In New Zealand at the end of the nineteenth century,
optometrists (e.g. Peacock Optometrists of
Auckland)
were importing stocks of glass eyes from Germany.
They came in trays from which clients
would select the
best fitting eye
from an assortment.
Too bad if the
colour or size did not match up.
When polymethylmethacrylate (acrylic) was invented just prior to the Second World War it was first introduced as a material for making dentures. Dental technicians found that it was superior to the old vulcanite rubber material which it quickly replaced. They also discovered that the new acrylic was better for making artificial eyes than glass and it wasn't long before this new material supplanted the 400-year-old glass eye industry. After the war, more dental technicians adopted the new technology and extended their denture making skills to artificial ears, noses, cranial implants,
oral and plastic surgery appliances etc. Today this new discipline is called maxillofacial technology.
In the United States, the onset of World War 2 cut of the import of glass from Germany. The solution was poly-methylmethacrylate and the Department of the Navy set up a crash course in applying this new technology to the
field of eye-making.
These different origins appear to have resulted in 2 main schools for manufacturing artificial eyes. The US school centred on the American Society of Ocularists and the English school which is rooted in dental technology.
A New Zealand plastic surgeon, Sir William Manchester observed the technique for making plastic artificial eyes
while serving at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, England during World War 2. He introduced the technique
to New Zealand after the war.