The history of a well known accessory: sunglasses
Who does not know what sunglasses are? They are one of those accessories that people scavenge for right after they buy a dress. There is a pair of sunglasses available in almost every color. Forget the color, that’s comprehensible, you would not believe the uncountable number of designs and patterns that the sunglasses are available in.
Sunglasses just did not drop out of the sky. They have a history that dates back up to the era of the Inuit people. Well they did not have the chance to wear the Gucci that we have nowadays, their sunglasses were the first ancestors of the glasses that we know of now. They claimed that their glasses were actually made up of ivory that was flattened and had two slits in it. These two slits helped them see while the main purpose of the sunglasses was to protect the people form sunlight.
The Romans were never far behind in anything, it has been reported and documented that the Roman Emperor Nero used to watch his entertainment from behind emeralds. The way emeralds would work actually resembles the way mirrors work. In the 12th century, the Chinese made use of another type of sunglasses. They were made from smoky quartz that was flattened; this did not help to alter any viewing defect in the eye. All it did was guard the eyes from the reflected sun rays. Crystal sunglasses have appeared in other Chinese ancient texts where the crystal glasses were worn by people at court. This was a clever plan devised to ensure that the expressions of people over there were masked and remained unknown to the others.
It was James Ayscough who actually began formulating and devising ways to use lenses (brilleglas is the term we Danes use) that were tinted in a variety of spectacles. He started such experiments in 1752. Then they were not known as sunglasses at all. He was experimenting on a theory. He believed that tinted glass of green or blue color could be used to help improve the vision or correct some defects and vision impairments. He was not working for protection against the sun. Later in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries amber tinted glass, yellow tinted glass or brown tinted glass was commonly used by people who had contracted syphilis.
The widespread implementation of sunglasseswas originally initiated by stars. It was said that they wore sunglasses so that they could roam the streets in discretion by avoiding detection. But it was also largely said that they wore sunglasses because they got red and puffy eyes after working long hours under the film making equipment that was not hygienically protective. The main cause that was attributed to such eyes was the use of arc lamps during film making.
But the man who started selling sunglasses to the public was Sam Foster. And he discovered a market for such glasses on the sun stroked beaches and other such areas that received a huge amount of sunlight.
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