5 SEPTEMBER 1998, Page 25

Misty-eyed

Sir: I was interested in the claim that the first contact lenses were available in 1961 (Leading article, 22 August), subsequently amended to 1959 (Letters, 29 August), because I wore them in 1946 in a vain effort to prolong my footballing days. These lenses were supplied by a Polish eye specialist in the Oxford Street area and he told me that at least one RAF pilot wore them in active combat during the war.

Unfortunately I found that my lenses tended to mist up at inconvenient moments, such as when driving in heavy traffic, and I had to abandon them.

Ronald A. Williams

3 Second Avenue, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex