Umbrella

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.

Typically it is depicted as a flabellum, a fan of palm-leaves or coloured feathers fixed on a long handle, resembling those now carried behind the Pope in processions.

[11] The At district of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was reported to have used an umbrella made from feathers and gold as its pantli, an identifying marker that is the equivalent of a modern flag.

[10] Austen Henry Layard gives a picture of a bas-relief representing a king in his chariot, with an attendant holding a parasol over his head, dating from c. 710 BC.

[10] In other sculptures on the rock at Taghe-Bostan, supposed to be not less than twelve centuries old, a deer-hunt is represented, at which a king looks on, seated on a horse, and having an umbrella borne over his head by an attendant.

The Book of Han contains a reference to a collapsible umbrella, mentioning its usage in the year 21 AD when Wang Mang (r. 9–23) had one designed for a ceremonial four-wheeled carriage.

The Sanskrit epic Mahabharata relates the following legend: Jamadagni was a skilled bow shooter, and his devoted wife Renuka would always recover each of his arrows immediately.

The earliest archaeological evidence for a collapsible umbrella was unearthed in Samos in a context from about 700 BC and follows closely the shape of a slightly older Phrygian specimen excavated at Gordion.

[27] Pausanias describes a tomb near Triteia in Achaia decorated with a 4th-century BC painting ascribed to Nikias; it depicted the figure of a woman, "and by her stood a female slave, bearing a parasol".

[32] During the period of their usage, Greek style was inspired by the Persian and Lydian nobility's way of dressing: loose robes, long decorated hair, gold, jewellery, and perfume.

[34] From Greece it is probable that the use of the parasol passed to Rome, where it seems to have been usually used by women, while it was the custom even for effeminate men to defend themselves from the heat by means of the Umbraculum, formed of skin or leather, and capable of being lowered at will.

Beginning in the 8th century, there are numerous contemporary depictions and descriptions of umbrellas and parasols during the remainder of the Middle Ages, predominantly used in the religious ceremonies of the church.

[37] At that period, pictorial representations of it are frequently found, some of which exhibit the peculiar broad and deep canopy belonging to the large parasol of the Chinese Government officials, borne by native attendants.

[37] John Evelyn, in his Diary for 22 June 1664, mentions a collection of rarities shown to him by "Thompson", a Roman Catholic priest, sent by the Jesuits of Japan and China to France.

[37] Among the curiosities were "fans like those our ladies use, but much larger, and with long handles, strangely carved and filled with Chinese characters", which is evidently a description of the parasol.

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.

[37] During Streynsham Master's 1676 visit to the East India Company's factory in Masulipatnam he noted that only the governor of the town and the next three officials in seniority were allowed to have "a roundell [i.e. umbrella] carried over them.

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.

[citation needed] Captain James Cook, in one of his voyages in the late 18th century, reported seeing some of the natives of the South Pacific Islands with umbrellas made of palm leaves.

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.

Samuel Fox invented the steel-ribbed umbrella in 1852; however, the Encyclopédie Méthodique mentions metal ribs at the end of the eighteenth century, and they were also on sale in London during the 1780s.

[43] Modern designs usually employ a telescoping steel trunk; new materials such as cotton, plastic film and nylon often replace the original silk.

[44] The pocket (foldable) umbrella was invented in Uraiújfalu (Hungary) by the Balogh brothers, whose patent request was admitted in 1923 by the Royal Notary Public of Szombathely.

[46] In Vienna in 1928, Slawa Horowitz, a student studying sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Wien (Academy of Fine Arts), developed a prototype for an improved compact foldable umbrella for which she received a patent on 19 September 1929.

In 2005 Gerwin Hoogendoorn,[57] a Dutch industrial design student of the Delft University of Technology[58] in the Netherlands, invented an aerodynamically streamlined storm umbrella (similar in shape to a stealth aircraft)[59][60] which can withstand wind force 10 (winds of up to 100 km/h or 70 mph)[60][61] and will not turn inside-out like a normal umbrella[58] as well as being equipped with so-called "eye savers" which protect others from being accidentally wounded by the tips.

It is held over the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist and its carrier by a server in short processions taking place indoors, or until the priest is met at the sanctuary entrance by the bearers of the processional canopy or baldacchino.

In the ceremonies of Timkat (Epiphany), priests will carry a model of the Tablets of Stone, called a Tabot, on their heads in procession to a body of water, which will then be blessed.

Umbrellas with a reflective inside are used by photographers as a diffusion device when employing artificial lighting, and as a glare shield and shade, most often in portrait situations.

[65] In 1835, the Baron Charles Random de Berenger instructed readers of his book How to Protect Life and Property in several methods of using an umbrella as an improvised weapon against highwaymen.

The largest convertible umbrellas built until now were designed by Mahmoud Bodo Rasch and his team at SL-Rasch[77] to provide shelter from sun and rain for the great mosques in Saudi Arabia.