|
Umbrella
An umbrella made for protection from the sun is called a parasol. These are
often meant to be fixed to one point and often used with patio tables or
other outdoor furniture, or on the beach for shelter from the sun. However
parasols can also be hand held devices.
The word umbrella is from the Latin word umbra, which in turn derives from
the Ancient Greek όμβρος (omvros). Its meaning is shade or shadow. Brolly is
a slang word for umbrella, used often in Britain and Australia.
Derivation
Umbrella is another term for the parasol, which was first used as a
protection against the scorching heat of the sun, "para" meaning prepare or
shield and "sol" meaning sun. The word "umbrella" has evolved from the Latin
"umbella" (and "umbel" is a flat-topped rounded flower) or "umbra" meaning
shaded.
History
China
The collapsible umbrella is said to have been invented during Cao Wei in
ancient China, roughly 1,700 years ago. The Chinese character for umbrella
is 傘 (sǎn) and is a pictograph resembling the modern umbrella in design.
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 one occasion at least, we hear
of twenty-four umbrellas being carried before the Emperor when he went out
hunting. In this case the umbrella served 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, to this day
remains similar to the original Wei Dynasty designed.
An even older source on the umbrella comes from an ancient book of Chinese
ceremonies, called Zhou-Li (The Rites of Zhou), dating 2400 years ago, which
directs that upon the imperial cars the dais should be placed. 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 28 arcs, which are equivalent to
the ribs of the modern instrument, and the staff supporting the covering to
consist of two parts, the upper being a rod 3/18 of a Chinese foot in
circumference, and the lower a tube 6/10 in circumference, into which the
upper half is capable of sliding and closing....
Ancient Middle East
In the sculptures of Nineveh the parasol appears frequently.[2] 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.[2] It has a curtain
hanging down behind, but is otherwise exactly like those in use today.[2] It
is reserved exclusively for the monarch, and is never carried over any other
person.[2]
In Egypt again, the parasol is found in various shapes. In some instances it
is depicted as a flaellum, a fan of palm-leaves or coloured feathers fixed
on a long handle, resembling those now carried behind the Pope in
processions.[2] Gardiner Wilkinson, in his work on Egypt, has an engraving
of an Ethiopian princess travelling through Upper Egypt in a chariot; a kind
of umbrella fastened to a stout pole rises in the centre, bearing a close
affinity to what are now termed chaise umbrellas.[2] According to
Wilkinson's account, the umbrella was generally used throughout Egypt,
partly as a mark of distinction, but more on account of its useful than its
ornamental qualities.[2] In some paintings on a temple wall, a parasol is
held over the figure of a god carried in procession.[2]
In Persia the parasol is repeatedly found in the carved work of Persepolis,
and Sir John Malcolm has an article on the subject in his 1815 "History of
Persia."[2] In some sculptures, the figure of a king appears attended by a
slave, who carries over his head an umbrella, with stretchers and runner
complete.[2] In other sculptures on the rock at Takht-i-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.[2]
Antiquity
In Greece, the parasol was an indispensable adjunct to a lady of fashion. It
had also its religious signification. 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 Dionysius 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.
In the Panathenæa, the daughters of the Metceci, or foreign residents,
carried Parasols over the heads of Athenian women as a mark of inferiority.
Its use seems to have been confined to women. In Pausanias, lib. vii., cap.
22, Section 6. there is a description of a tomb near Pharæ, a Greek city. On
the tomb was the figure of a woman, "and by her stood a female slave,
bearing a parasol".
Aristophanes seems to mention it among the common articles of female use (Thesmophoriazusae
821).
For a man to carry one was considered a mark of effeminacy (Anacreon,
Athenaeus, lib. xii., cap. 46, Section 534.)
From Greece it is probable that the use of the parasol passed to Rome, where
it seems to have been commonly 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.
We find frequent reference 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. (Ovid Fast. lib. ii., 1. 31 I.; Martial, lib. xi., ch. 73.; lib. xiv,
ch. 28, 130; Juvenal, ix., 50.; Ovid Ars. Am., ii., 209). From such mentions
the Umbrella does not appear to have been used as a defence from rain; this
is curious enough, for we know 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.
Gorius says that the umbrella came to Rome from the Etruscans, and certainly
it appears not infrequently on Etruscan vases, as also on later gems. 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.
Very many curious facts are connected with the use of the Umbrella
throughout the East, where it was nearly everywhere one of the insignia of
royalty, or at least of high rank.
Eastern Asia
Simon de la Loubère, who was Envoy Extraordinary from the French King to the
King of Siam in 1687 and 1688, wrote an account entitled a "New Historical
Relation of the Kingdom of Siam," which was translated in 1693 into English.
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.
Jean Baptiste Tavernier, in his "Voyage to the East," says that on each side
of the Mogul's throne were two umbrellas, and also describes the hall of the
King of Ava as decorated with an umbrella. The Mahratta princes, who reigned
at Poonah and Sattara, had the title of Ch'hatra-pati, "Lord of the
Umbrella." The cháta of the Indian and Burmese princes is large and heavy,
and requires a special attendant, who has a regular position in the royal
household. In Ava it seems to have been part of the king's title, that he
was "King of the white elephant, and Lord of the twenty-four Umbrellas."
Persons of rank in the Mahratta court, who were not permitted the right of
carrying an Umbrella, used a screen, a flat vertical disc called AA'-ab-gir,
carried by an attendant. In 1855 the King of Burmah directed a letter to the
Marquis of Dalhousie in which he styles himself "His great, glorious, and
most excellent Majesty, who reigns over the kingdoms of Thunaparanta,
Tampadipa, and all the great Umbrella-wearing chiefs of the Eastern
countries".
In Bengal it appears that no distinction is attached to the umbrella, since
the poorer classes there use a cháta or small umbrella, made of leaves of
the Licerata peltata. These are of conical form and have numerous ribs and
stretchers. The higher class in Assam use a similar umbrella.
Europe
Church
As a canopy of state, umbrellas were generally used in the south of Europe;
they are found in the ceremonies of the Byzantine Church; they were borne
over the Host in procession, and formed part of the Pontifical regalia.
Consequently, the ombrellino or umbraculum, the papal umbrella, is found in
the arms of a sede vacante (the papal arms used between the death of a pope
and the election of his successor), and can be used in the arms of a
basilica.
A medieval gem represents a bishop, attended by a cross-bearer, and a
servant who carries behind him an umbrella.
In the Basilican churches of Rome is suspended a large umbrella, and the
cardinal who took his title from the church has the privilege of having an
umbrella carried over his head on solemn processions. It is possible that
the cardinal's hat may be derived from this umbrella. Beatiano, an Italian
herald, says that "a vermilion umbrella in a field argent symbolises
dominion."
The extreme paucity of allusions to umbrellas throughout the Middle Ages
shows that they were not in common use. In an old romance, "The Blonde of
Oxford", a jester makes fun of a nobleman for being out in the rain without
his cloak. "Were I a rich man," says he, "I would bear my house about with
me." It appears that people depended on cloaks, not umbrellas, for
protection against storms.
17th Century
Thomas Wright, in his "Domestic Manners of the English," gives a drawing
from the Harleian MS., No. 603, which represents an 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. It probably could not be closed, but otherwise it looks
like an ordinary Umbrella, and the ribs are represented distinctly.
The general use of the parasol in France and England was adopted, probably
from China, about the middle of the seventeenth century. 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.
John Evelyn, in his Diary for June 22, 1664, mentions a collection of
rarities shown him by one Thompson, a Catholic priest, sent by the Jesuits
of Japan and China to France. 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.
In Thomas Coryat's "Crudities," a very rare and highly interesting work,
published in 1611, about a century and a half prior to the general
introduction of the Umbrella into England, we find a curious reference to a
custom of riders in Italy using umbrellas:--
"And many of them doe carry other fine things of a far greater price, that
will cost at the least a duckat, which they commonly call in the Italian
tongue umbrellas, that is, things which minister shadowve to them for
shelter against the scorching heate of the sunne. 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."
In John Florio's "A WORLD of Words" (1598), the Italian word Ombrella is
translated
"a fan, a canopie. also a testern or cloth of state for a prince. also a
kind of round fan or shadowing that they vse to ride with in sommer in
Italy, a little shade. Also a bonegrace for a woman. Also the husk or cod of
any seede or corne. also a broad spreding bunch, as of fenell, nill, or
elder bloomes."
In Randle Cotgrave's "Dictionary of the French and English Tongues" (1614),
the French Ombrelle is translated
"An umbrello; a (fashion of) round and broad fanne, wherewith the Indians
(and from them our great ones) preserve themselves from the heat of a
scorching sunne; and hence any little shadow, fanne, or thing, wherewith
women hide their faces fro the sunne."
In Fynes Moryson's "Itinerary" (1617) we find a similar allusion to the
habit of carrying umbrellas in hot countries "to auoide the beames of the
sunne." Their employment, says the author, is dangerous, "because they
gather the heate into a pyramidall point, and thence cast it down
perpendicularly upon the head, except they know how to carry them for
auoyding that danger." This is certainly not a generally known fact to those
who use parasols too recklessly.
18th and 19th Century
Kersey's Dictionary (1708) describes an Umbrella as a "screen commonly used
by women to keep off rain."
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe constructs his own umbrella in imitation of
the ones he had seen used in Brazil. "I covered it with skins," he says,
"the hair outwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent-house, and kept
off the sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the
weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest." From
this description the original heavy umbrellas obtained the name of
"Robinson," which they retained for many years, both in England and France.
Captain James Cook, in one of his voyages, sees some of the natives of the
South Pacific Islands, with umbrellas made of palm-leaves.
That the use of the umbrella or parasol—though not unknown—was not very
common during the earlier half of the eighteenth century, is evident from
the fact that General (then Lieut.-Colonel) James Wolfe, writing from Paris
in 1752, speaks of the people there using umbrellas for the sun and rain,
and wonders that a similar practice does not obtain in England. Just about
the same time they seem to have come into general use, and that pretty
rapidly, as people found their value, and got over the shyness natural to a
first 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 1786, and he is
said to have carried an umbrella for thirty years, the date of its first use
by him may be set down at about 1750. John Macdonald relates that in 1770,
he used to be greeted with the shout, "Frenchman, Frenchman! why don't you
call a coach?" whenever he went out with his umbrella.
Since this date, however, the umbrella has come into general use, and in
consequence numerous improvements have been effected in it. 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 1852; however, the Encyclopédie
Méthodique mentions metal ribs at the end of the eighteenth century. Modern
designs usually employ a telescoping steel trunk. New materials such as
cotton, plastic film and nylon often replace the original silk. They now are
available in compact collapsible designs.
As a weapon
Exiled Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov was assassinated in England
by a suspected secret agent of the Bulgarian intelligence service with a
small round pellet containing the deadly poison ricin. The pellet was
delivered with a specially tipped umbrella which the KGB agent had the wood
end taken off and a hypodermic needle inserted inside, stabbing his victim
in the leg as he walked past.[3]
In the 1960s television series The Avengers, the dashing John Steed carried
a sword umbrella with a whangee handle.
In the Harry Potter series, Hogwarts gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid has his broken
wand concealed in an umbrella. He uses it in making some magic, although he
is forbidden to do so by the Ministry of Magic as he was expelled in
Hogwarts.
Umbrella innovations
There are innovative umbrellas that have features that traditional umbrellas
lack. For example, there are now umbrellas that do not invert in very windy
conditions, 'talking' umbrellas that will tell the weather forecast, 'hands
free' umbrellas, and even umbrellas that will not drip water on the floor
when collapsed.
There are also clear 'bubble' umbrellas which allow for greater vision while
keeping completely dry and half umbrellas for small spaces that sit flush
against the wall.
In photography
An umbrella is a valuable tool for photographers, both as a prop when
photographing subjects in inclement weather or, with a reflective inside, as
a diffusion device when employing artificial lighting, most often in
portrait situations.[4]
In a thunderstorm
To the question "Does the use of an umbrella in a thunderstorm increase the
chance of being struck by lightning?". The answer is yes, but only very
slightly.[5]
References
1. ^ "Parts of an Umbrella", Carver Umbrellas, Feb 28, 2007
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sangster, William, 1808-1888. Umbrellas and Their
History - London, New York, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin [1871] - Available
online as Gutenberg etext 6674, retrieved March 2005
3. ^ Times Online(UK) article revealing Giullino as the umbrella killer by
Jack Hamilton and Tom Walker. June 05, 2005
4. ^ "Diffusers & Reflectors - soft lighting usually the best lighting" DT&G
Photographic
5. ^ "Lightning Safety Urged as Thunderstorm Season Heightens", Linda
Anderson, AgNews, July 13, 2001
Sangster, William, 1808-1888. Umbrellas and Their History - London, New
York, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin [1871] - Available online as Gutenberg
etext 6674, retrieved March 2005.
read the
copyright
|