1st July: Sunglasses

It was on this date in 1200 that Sunglasses were invented in China, and it was also World Sunglasses Day recently. So here are some facts about sunglasses.

1. Before this, Inuit people made crude sunglasses out of walrus ivory with narrow slits in, and the Roman emperor Nero liked to watch gladiator fights through polished emeralds.
2. The first Chinese sunglasses were made from flat panes of smoky quartz, and their primary function was not only to stop glare from the Sun but for judges to wear in court so the witness they were questioning could not see their facial expressions. Incidentally, the world's largest sunglass manufacturer is based in China today. Xiamen exports 120 million pairs each year.
3. In the Western world, the pioneer of tinted lenses was James Ayscough, around 1752. He wasn't interested in protecting eyes from the sun, though. His interest lay in whether lenses tinted in different colours could correct visual impairments.
4. Mass produced sunglasses appeared in 1929 when Sam Foster produced cheap ones made from celluloid and sold them in Woolworth's on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. By 1937, 20 million pairs were being sold a year but only about 25% were buying them for eye protection. Edwin H. Land invented polarised sunglasses in 1936.
5. The best selling style today is Ray-Ban Wayfarers. 10 million of them were sold in 1998. These are the ones worn by the Blues Brothers in the film of the same name.
6. While on the subject of films, most of the characters in the movie The Matrix wore sunglasses. In the film, the good guys all wear round lenses and the bad guys wear rectangular ones.
7. Every 14 minutes an American loses, breaks or sits on a pair of sunglasses.
8. Astronauts wear sunglasses. They need even more eye protection than the rest of us because sunlight is even more harmful in space. They're needed even inside the spacecraft and have darker lenses and are coated with a thin layer of Gold. The frames are highly regulated, too - they must be flexible and durable, and fit firmly in zero gravity.
9. The most expensive pair of sunglasses sold on E-bay for $250,000. They were formally owned by Elvis Presley.
10. The record for the biggest personal collection of sunglasses is said to belong to Elton John who has so many wacky pairs that a play was written about them, called Elton John's Glasses. There have also been songs about sunglasses, though not necessarily Elton's. In 1980, American rock bank ZZ Top released a single called Cheap Sunglasses, and Tracy Ullman released a song called Sunglasses. Other sunglasses related songs include Sunglasses At Night and The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.