Sunglasses were invented in China

In Roman times, Emperor Nero liked to watch gladiator fights through emeralds, to prevent the sun from entering his eyes. It is likely that humans, in periods prior to the invention of sunglasses, also applied various materials to their faces to protect their eyes from the sun's brightness, but there is little evidence of this phenomenon before the twelfth century.

The 12th century is when sunglasses were invented correctly, in China. They used lenses made of imperfection-prone quartz to block sunlight and primitive frames to protect them from the face. These sunglasses do not protect against harmful UV rays and do not allow the wearer to see better (in fact, they make it very difficult to see), but they somewhat relieve the sun from shining in their eyes. Only the rich possessed them, but they found many uses: Chinese leaders and judges, for example, realized that they could use sunglasses to hide the expression of their faces when talking to someone. one, thus allowing them to appear emotionally detached. situations.

It was not until the twentieth century that the sunglasses really took off, as Hollywood stars began to wear to protect their eyes from the bright light of the studios. In 1929, a contractor named Sam Foster, who was producing sunglasses for mass production in America, was trading wildly through his company, Foster Grant, of Atlantic City. In 1936, polaroid filters were invented, allowing the glasses to protect themselves from UV rays for the first time, making them an object of choice for reasons of health, fashion and comfort - useful during the Second World War world, when soldiers had to fight in the French summer. Since then, sunglasses have changed little. Scientific knowledge and basic materials have remained virtually unchanged over the last seventy years - but, like other useful inventions of this period, they remain a big seller.