when were sunglasses invented

Sunglasses trace their origins back approximately 2,000 years ago with the Inuit people who created primitive snow goggles from materials like driftwood, ivory, and bone with narrow slits to protect against snow blindness. Around the 12th century in China, smoked quartz lenses were worn by legal officials to hide their emotions rather than for sun protection. The form of sunglasses more akin to today's came about in the 18th century, with James Ayscough, an English optician, experimenting with tinted lenses (mainly blue, green, and amber) around 1752 to treat vision problems. However, these were not primarily made for sun protection. In the 1760s, gondoliers in Venice used green-tinted glasses—known as Goldoni glasses—to protect their eyes from sun glare off the canals. These were among the first sunglasses resembling modern styles. The modern mass-produced sunglasses era began in 1929 when Sam Foster started selling plastic sunglasses under the Foster Grant brand in the U.S., making sunglasses widely affordable and popular. Thus, sunglasses evolved from ancient protective eyewear made thousands of years ago to modern fashion and functional accessories primarily developed in the 18th and early 20th centuries.