Oooooh! A new graphic! Pretty cool what AI can do with very little instruction.
Anyway, did you know that today is National Earmuff Day? Honest. Here’s why:
Earmuffs were patented on this day in 1877. In 1873, at age 15, Chester Greenwood devised a solution for cold ears by having his grandmother sew fur onto wire loops. He reportedly came up with the idea while ice skating. He received a patent for his “earmufflers” on March 13, 1877, at age 19.
Greenwood went on to manufacture these protectors for nearly 60 years, with his factory in Farmington, Maine producing them for U.S. soldiers during World War I. Farmington was known as the “Earmuff Capital of the World!” Earmuffs are actually categorized as clothing accessories or(believe it or not) personal protection equipment (P.P.E), specially designed to cup and protect the ears from either cold weather or noise.
Greenwood received other patents, too. Those included a tea kettle, a variation of the steel-toothed rake, an advertising matchbox, and a machine used to produce wooden spools for wire and thread. He also invented, but did not patent, an umbrella holder for mail carriers.
Celebrate today by wearing your earmuffs (or as Greenwood called them, “Greenwood’s Champion Ear Protectors”).
My flashback photo takes us back only a week or two when my wife snapped this photo of my son in the backseat.
Earmuffs and an X-Box controller (with no X-Box in the car!) – only my kid!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 