My dearest friends,
Sunglasses served many purposes with and without users’ knowledge. Some consider them solely for fashion and do not care about its usefulness. As a result, it prompts me to write this article on sunglasses, although I have never worked in any sunglasses shop before. To some people, sunglasses are just accessories, made up of plastic or glass. They are fundamentally designed to protect your eyes from UV rays. In the eighteenth century, James Ayscought began experimenting with tinted lenses in spectacles. These were not sunglasses when compare to now, and their protection from sunslight was very much shadowed. The use of sunglasses then began to be widespread in the early 1900, especially among movie stars. Stars wear sunglasses to be recognized and not to use it for its initial intent as protection to their eyes from sun light. The first polarised sunglass was created in America, in 1936. The most popular sunglass, at that time was called the “Aviator”. They come in many different types of colour lenses such as green, grey, brown, red, yellow, orange, purple, blue etc...Grey is a neutral colour that does not caused distorted light. Whereas brown and green lenses are very good: they cause minimal distortion but they have contrasting – enhancing properties. Red and orange lenses are ideal for lower and medium light because they are able to enhance contrast; their defect is that they cause colour distortion. Yellow lenses enhance contrast and they are commonly used by golfers and shooters. Try to avoid the use of blue and purple lenses because they are colours that do not offer real benefits. There are clear lenses which are used to protect eyes from impact, debris, dust, or chemicals. However, some sunglasses allow users to interchange lenses, with optional clear lenses to protect eyes during low light or night time activities. Interchangeable lenses are very useful especially in many sports: these lenses can be easily removed when the weather or light has changed. This is very cost effective because the cost of a set of lenses is cheaper than the price of multiple pairs of glasses. Other types of lenses, called photo-chromic lenses: they become dark with bright light and they become light with darkness. Sunglass lenses are made of plastic or glass: plastic lenses are typically made from acrylic, polycarbonate or CR-39 (the most common ). The advantage of using plastic lenses is that it is very much lighter in comparison with glass lenses. However, the disadvantage of plastic lenses is more prone to scratch when compare to glass lenses. There are many other activities such as riding, skiing apart from reading where our eyes are subject to bright exposition of the sun. If left unchecked, excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation ( UV) can cause many problems such as photokeratitis, cataracts, snow blindness, pterygium, eye cancer, etc...In fact, many medical experts often advise us on the importance of wearing sunglasses to protect eyes from UV rays. Sunglasses are also very important for children. There are also people who wear sunglasses to hide defects (which are caused by drug use but also from birth, for example for people who are blind ). Sad to see lots of people wear sunglasses for fashion rather than for their eyes protection from the sun because they don’t use appropriately good lenses. Moreover, people should be cautious when acquiring sunglasses which are available in the market because there are many types of sunglasses which are made of inferior materials, which are dangerous for your sight. The above illustrations are generally known benefits of using the sunglasses. However, lately I have read about other uses which are rarely known to the public. One great benefit is the usefulness of sunglasses in heavy down pour which caused the car windscreen to become blur and very difficult to see. I have put this to the test when I drove my MPV back to my hometown, after Ipoh when there was a terrible heavy rain during the stretch from Ipoh to Penang. Thank God, it works very well for me and I drove the vehicle very comfortably. Your Chief Servant, James Oh Founder and Group CEO Skype me at james.oh18 |