Sunglasses have been around us for a long time, protecting our eyes from the dangers of sunlight and its harmful UV rays. With the advent of prescription sunglasses, people with vision defects can also protect their eyes while enjoying a day at the beach. Availability of prescription sunglasses online has made things even simpler and safer for humans all across the world. They may seem like a banal, common creation but there are always a few intriguing aspects you are unaware of.
You may see them as modern inventions that are merely used to safeguard your eyes but here are some facts about them that is bound to leave you wondering more about them:
- Did you know the Chinese invented the first sunglasses in the 12th century for two reasons; one was to protect their eyes from sun’s glare and second reason was to conceal their facial expressions when in court of law. Sunglasses were initially only designed to reduce eye exposure to sun’s rays when they were first thought of, in the form of snow goggles.
- The gladiator fights/battles that took place at the time of Roman Emperor Nero were viewed in polished emeralds by the emperor from the stands of the Coliseum.
- The Ray-Ban aviators that took the world by storm after Top Gun were a work of science and not fashion. They were initially manufactured by Bausch and Lomb as medical equipments to be worn by US Air Service pilots so as to eliminate headaches and sickness caused by strong hues of the sky at higher altitudes.
- There is an ongoing debate on whether your eyebrows should be visible after you have your sunglasses on. This debate is unresolved till date with many people believing that it is a matter of face shape while the opposition being completely obsessed that it is a crime.
- Polaroid sunglasses are especially designed to block harmful UV rays and they were invented back in 1936. Before then, tinted sunglasses were used which only reduced the amount of sunlight exposure and sun’s glare.
- Inexpensive or cheap sunglasses can block and protect your eyes from harmful rays of the sun as just as well as expensive sunglasses. It’s just that the costlier ones tend to utilize all sorts of preventive technologies in order to safeguard your eyes from even a particular frequencies of light rays emitted.
- Elton John, the very popular British singer, is known for his strong admiration for quirky sunglasses and has a play written on it called “Elton John’s Glasses” in 1998! He is also known to own around 30,000 pairs of sunglasses making it the biggest personal collection in the world.
- Seventy five percent of world’s designer sunglasses are manufactured by just one luxury goods company.
I bet you didn’t know these intriguing facts about sunglasses proving that there’s always more than meets the eye. Now you can wear your sunglasses with a little more knowledge about them.
It’s time to go show off your new found knowledge to everyone, at least before you start forgetting it.