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Inventor laughed at his fate By Michele Legge Professor Otto Wichterle, who hardly saw the fruits of his hugely successful invention -- the soft contact lens -- died at his summer cottage in Strazisko, south Moravia, on Aug. 18. He was 84. Wichterle gained scientific acclaim, if not commercial success, for his contact lens invention. He produced his prototype in the early 1960s using a children's Meccano construction set and a phonograph motor. He was also author of about 150 patents, including one in the 1940s for the production of silon, a synthetic material similar to nylon. Close associates mourn the loss of a wise, inspiring man who kept a twinkle in his eyes despite years of suppression under the socialist regime. "He was an enlightened man. He not only possessed admirable inventiveness, but he had the ability to carry ideas through to the end. And he was a marvelous person," recalled Czech Senate Deputy Chairwoman Jaroslava Moserova, who bonded with the professor after working with him in the late 1960s. "He never gave up, he never backed out, or made concessions. He retained not one ounce of bitterness towards anyone; even the stupidest and most negative characters he looked upon with almost tenderness. He also had a marvelous sense of humor, he was self-depreciating, and so wise." Yet if anyone had cause to turn dark about his fate, it was Wichterle. Despite being the patriarch of a billion-dollar global industry, the professor received a pittance for his invention. Communist Party officials, soured by the prospect of the outspoken scientist becoming a millionaire, whittled down his share of the lens-patent income from 25 percent to 0.3 percent. The same officials later sold his patent to an American firm for a sum roughly equivalent to one year of royalties. "In a normal country, he would have been filthy rich, but that didn't bother him at all," Moserova noted. "I would have had problems with what to do with such an amount of money," Wichterle told The Prague Post in 1994. Far from playing the reclusive scientist, Wichterle was outspoken in civic affairs. During the Prague Spring reform period of 1968, the professor was one of the originators of the "2,000 Words" manifesto. Written by author Ludvik Vaculik, it urged the reformers, led by Communist Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek, to stay on course. In the subsequent crackdown, which sought to repress the intellectual community, Wichterle's research was severely curtailed. Many of his colleagues at the Czech Academy of Sciences fled the country. Although he was courted by offers from the United States and Western Europe, Wichterle remained in the Czech Republic. Later in life he light-heartedly referred to this period as the "entertainment of persecution." "He never concealed his [political] attitudes, so he was more or less blacklisted," said Moserova. "But there was a certain tendency on the part of the officials to be careful in a way because he was a worldwide celebrity."
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