Umbrella - Wikipedia. An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs, which is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The word parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun. Often the difference is the material used for the canopy; some parasols are not waterproof. Umbrella canopies may be made of fabric or flexible plastic.
Umbrellas and parasols are primarily hand- held portable devices sized for personal use. The largest hand- portable umbrellas are golf umbrellas. Umbrellas can be divided into two categories: fully collapsible umbrellas, in which the metal pole supporting the canopy retracts, making the umbrella small enough to fit in a handbag, and non- collapsible umbrellas in which the support pole cannot retract; only the canopy can be collapsed. Another distinction can be made between manually operated umbrellas and spring- loaded automatic umbrellas which spring open at the press of a button. Hand- held umbrellas have some type of handle, either a wooden or plastic cylinder or a bent . Umbrellas are available in a range of price and quality points, ranging from inexpensive, modest quality models sold at discount stores to expensive, finely made, designer- labeled models. Larger parasols capable of blocking the sun for several people are often used as fixed or semi- fixed devices, used with patio tables or other outdoor furniture, or as points of shade on a sunny beach.
The collapsible/folding umbrella, the direct predecessor to the modern umbrella, originated in China. An umbrella may also be called a brolly (UK slang), parapluie (nineteenth century, French origin), rainshade, gamp (British, informal, dated), or bumbershoot (American slang). Etymology. Hence, a parasol shields from sunlight while a parapluie shields from rain. Gamp in the Charles Dickens novel Martin Chuzzlewit, although this usage is now obscure. Gamp's character was well known for carrying an umbrella.
Zhou Dynasty bronze castings of complex bronze socketed hinges with locking slides and bolts. The figure of this dais contained in Zhou- Li, and the description of it given in the explanatory commentary of Lin- hi- ye, both identify it with an umbrella. The latter describes the dais to be composed of 2. Chinese foot in circumference, and the lower a tube 6/1. The Chinese character for umbrella is .
The Umbrella Man Most Popular 1 Opinion The Price of Certainty 2 World . The JFK Umbrella Man Home » Interactive Index » MYSTERIES, Strange Deaths, Unsolved Crimes » The JFK Umbrella Man Full online text of There's a Man in the Habit of Hitting Me on the Head with an Umbrella by Fernando Sorrentino. Other short stories by Fernando Sorrentino also available along with many others by classic and contemporary authors. There's a man in the habit of. I’m curious about the man with the red umbrella. Earlier this year, when I was watching him walk past with his food, a stray cat came to him and started rubbing up against his legs. That cat was the skinniest thing you would ever see.
Some investigators have supposed that its invention was first created by tying large leaves to bough- like ribs (the branching out parts of an umbrella). Others assert that the idea was probably derived from the tent, which remains in form unaltered to the present day. However, the tradition existing in China is that it originated in standards and banners waving in the air, hence the use of the umbrella was often linked to high- ranking (though not necessarily royalty) in China.
On at least one occasion, twenty- four umbrellas were carried before the Emperor when he went out hunting. The umbrella served in this case as a defense against rain rather than sun.
The Chinese design was later brought to Japan via Korea and also introduced to Persia and the Western world via the Silk Road. The Chinese and Japanese traditional parasol, often used near temples, remains similar to the original ancient Chinese design. A late Song Dynasty Chinese divination book that was printed in about 1. AD features a picture of a collapsible umbrella that is exactly like the modern umbrella of today's China.
In some instances it is depicted as a flagellum, a fan of palm- leaves or coloured feathers fixed on a long handle, resembling those now carried behind the Pope in processions. The parasol, at that time of its fashion, displayed the luxury of the user's lifestyle. In the Scirophoria, the feast of Athene Sciras, a white parasol was borne by the priestesses of the goddess from the Acropolis to the Phalerus. In the feasts of Dionysos, the umbrella was used, and in an old bas- relief, the same god is represented as descending ad inferos with a small umbrella in his hand. There are frequent references to the umbrella in the Roman Classics, and it appears that it was, not unlikely, a post of honour among maid- servants to bear it over their mistresses.
Allusions to it are tolerably frequent in the poets. Juvenal, ix., 5. 0.; Ovid Ars. From such mentions the umbrella does not appear to have been used as a defence from rain; this is curious enough, for it is known that the theatres were protected by the velarium or awning, which was drawn across the arena whenever a sudden shower came on. Possibly the expense bestowed in the decoration of the umbraculum was a reason for its not being applied to such use. According to Gorius, the umbrella came to Rome from the Etruscans who came to Rome for protection, and certainly it appears not infrequently on Etruscan vases and pottery, as also on later gems and rubies.
Umbrella sets out to understand the nature of the modern world by going back to the source – the industrial madness of World War One. Set across an entire century, Umbrella follows the complex story of Audrey Death. What's wrong with the official explanation about Umbrella Man? The man with the black umbrella in the Dallas crowd on the day of the JFK assassination remains an enigma to some and a sinister figure to others. What's wrong with the official explanation about. In the aftermath of the assassination, two men can be seen sitting together on the sidewalk on the right side of the photograph. The 'umbrella man' is the one in the dark. Born Louie Steven Witt October 20, 1924 Rockwall, Texas, U.S. Died November 17, 2014.
One gem, figured by Pacudius, shows an umbrella with a bent handle, sloping backwards. Strabo describes a sort of screen or umbrella worn by Spanish women, but this is not like a modern umbrella.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Umbrellas Editors note: This post was a collaboration between AoM and AoM reader David Bastistella who went on the search for a proper umbrella and supplied us with some great info from the hunt. 21, 2011 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Continue reading the main story Video The Umbrella Man On the 48th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Errol Morris explores the. Set in 1983 Pittsburgh, PA, Peter and Annie Brennan face the tragic death of their young son. The boy's death and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, kindles a conspiratorial paranoia.
Ancient India. One time however, it took her a whole day to fetch the arrow, and she later blamed the heat of the sun for the delay. The angry Jamadagni shot an arrow at the sun.
The sun begged for mercy and offered Renuka an umbrella. In Ava it seems to have been part of the king's title, that he was . According to his account, the use of the umbrella was granted to only some of the subjects by the king. An umbrella with several circles, as if two or three umbrellas were fastened on the same stick, was permitted to the king alone; the nobles carried a single umbrella with painted cloths hanging from it. The Talapoins (who seem to have been a sort of Siamese monks) had umbrellas made of a palm- leaf cut and folded, so that the stem formed a handle. Aztec Empire. The pantli was carried by the army general. It appears that people depended on cloaks, not umbrellas, for protection against storms.
Anglo- Saxon gentleman walking out attended by his servant, the servant carrying an umbrella with a handle that slopes backwards, so as to bring the umbrella over the head of the person in front. These are made of leather, something answerable to the forme of a little cannopy, & hooped in the inside with divers little wooden hoopes that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compasse. They are used especially by horsemen, who carry them in their hands when they ride, fastening the end of the handle upon one of their thighs, and they impart so large a shadow unto them, that it keepeth the heate of the sunne from the upper parts of their bodies. Also a bonegrace for a woman. Also the husk or cod of any seede or corne. Their employment, says the author, is dangerous, . The inventory of the French royal court in 1.
It could be opened and closed in the same way as modern umbrellas, and weighed less than one kilogram. Marius received from the King the exclusive right to produce folding umbrellas for five years. A model was purchased by the Princess Palatine in 1. Parisiennes. In 1. French scientist named Navarre presented a new design to the French Academy of Sciences for an umbrella combined with a cane. Pressing a small button on the side of the cane opened the umbrella. In 1. 76. 8, a Paris magazine reported.
Those who do not want to be mistaken for vulgar people much prefer to take the risk of being soaked, rather than to be regarded as someone who goes on foot; an umbrella is a sure sign of someone who doesn't have his own carriage. The Lieutenant General of Police of Paris issued regulations for the rental umbrellas; they were made of oiled green silk, and carried a number so they could be found and reclaimed if someone walked off with one. By 1. 80. 8 there were seven shops making and selling umbrellas in Paris; one shop, Sagnier on rue des Vielles- Haudriettes, received the first patent given for an invention in France for a new model of umbrella. By 1. 81. 3 there were 4.
Paris, employing 1. One of the well- known makers was Boutique B. Another was Revel, based in Lyon. By the end of the century, however, cheaper manufacturers in the Auvergne replaced Paris as the centre of umbrella manufacturing, and the town of Aurillac became the umbrella capital of France. The town still produces about half the umbrellas made in France; the umbrella factories there employ about one hundred workers.
In Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, he constructed his own umbrella in imitation of those that he had seen used in Brazil. About the same time, umbrellas came into general use as people found their value, and got over the shyness natural to its introduction. Jonas Hanway, the founder of the Magdalen Hospital, has the credit of being the first man who ventured to dare public reproach and ridicule by carrying one habitually in London. As he died in 1. 78. By 1. 78. 8 however they seem to have been accepted: a London newspaper advertises the sale of 'improved and pocket Umbrellas, on steel frames, with every other kind of common Umbrella.'.
In China people learned how to waterproof their paper umbrellas with wax and lacquer. The transition to the present portable form is due, partly, to the substitution of silk and gingham for the heavy and troublesome oiled silk, which admitted of the ribs and frames being made much lighter, and also to many ingenious mechanical improvements in the framework. Victorian era umbrellas had frames of wood or baleen, but these devices were expensive and hard to fold when wet.
Samuel Fox invented the steel- ribbed umbrella in 1. Encyclop. The umbrella was called . In 1. 96. 9, Bradford E Phillips, the owner of Totes Incorporated of Loveland, Ohio, obtained a patent for his .
As of 2. 00. 8, most umbrellas worldwide are made in China, mostly in the Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. The city of Shangyu alone had more than a thousand umbrella factories. In the US alone, about 3.