Why didn't the ancient Egyptians invent sunglasses?

[CplFerro]

They had the ability to make coloured glass, and they lived in a blazing hot desert, for crying out loud. So, were there any pharaohs sporting shades, or not? If not, why not?

 

[geni]

You have the problem of makeing the gass smooth enough so it doesn't distort things.

 

[Lamuella]

and of making intricate devices to hold these smooth pieces of glass in place.

Much easier to get something like a shade that blocked direct sunlight entirely.

 

[Zep]

I understand the Egyptians actually used eye-shades, broad-brimmed hats, plus khol (black) make-up around the eyes, to prevent glare.

 

[CplFerro]

The distortion problem is a good point, but I find it impossible to believe that Egyptian artisans were incapable of coming up with a simple eyeglass frame.

 

[Meffy]

They might've been capable but never tried. Without lenses worth looking through, why would anyone have made frames to put them into? Even if they could, they might've looked too -- forgive me -- dorky to be worn by dignified royalty.

Or maybe they couldn't have done.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Inventions sometimes seem simple in hindsight. We think the wheel is pretty obvious. It is, now. The pulley, pre-sliced bread, windmills, stirrups, and cutlery all seem very simple. Yet they were all innovations at the time, and were received with amazement and enthusiasm. Similarly, future generations will scratch their heads in wonder at our ignorance and stupidity in not inventing simple devices like the electroglorganax and the autobotic aquanubitron.

 

[Meffy]

Similarly, future generations will scratch their heads in wonder at our ignorance and stupidity in not inventing simple devices like the electroglorganax and the autobotic aquanubitron.

Oh, you say that as if it were easy making a mutually stable transtribulatron and cosmotic resonance chamber! You try making a matched pair using just twine and popsicle sticks some time and tell me how you get on.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Oh, you say that as if it were easy making a mutually stable transtribulatron and cosmotic resonance chamber! You try making a matched pair using just twine and popsicle sticks some time and tell me how you get on.

I made one this afternoon, and put it in the garden for something to put the gnomes on.

Not the ceramic kind. Those are stupid. I taxidermied some real ones.

It's easy when you have a a triptohetratetranast.

 

[steve s]

They might've been capable but never tried.

Sometimes they'd try and then do nothing with it. I'm reminded of Heron of Alexandria who invented the first steam engine back in the first century. But he apparently saw it as being little more than a toy. Imagine where we'd be if he had applied it propelling ships. The New World could have been discovered a millenium sooner.

Steve S.

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Sometimes they'd try and then do nothing with it. I'm reminded of Heron of Alexandria who invented the first steam engine back in the first century. But he apparently saw it as being little more than a toy. Imagine where we'd be if he had applied it propelling ships. The New World could have been discovered a millenium sooner.

Steve S.

You lay railroads when it's railroading time. Without the infrastructure to produce ships capable of utilizing the engine, safely, and a supply of fuel, it's little more than a toy. A lot of technolgies aren't useful until the economy can support them, and profit from them.

 

[Meffy]

steve s: Scenarios like that are part of why I love playing "Civilization IV." =^_^= (Well, not quite that dramatic but still rewriting history for fun.)

 

[hgc]

Sometimes they'd try and then do nothing with it. I'm reminded of Heron of Alexandria who invented the first steam engine back in the first century. But he apparently saw it as being little more than a toy. Imagine where we'd be if he had applied it propelling ships. The New World could have been discovered a millenium sooner.

Steve S.

This is a most interesting case of what-if? history. If Heron had thought to hook his novelty steam driven thingy up to a drive shaft of some kind, would the industrial revolution have started 1800 years early?