TIL: The first snow goggles were made from caribou antler

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-Oldest surviving- snow goggles, not first. :stuck_out_tongue:

Antler preserves much better than other, easier to to obtain and/or shape materials like tree bark or leather, which are more likely to have been what the actual “first” such items were made out of.

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Check out these snow goggles in the Smithsonian that my great grandfather brought back from St. Lawrence Island in 1913. You’ll see exactly where Kanye got his inspiration!

Snow-Goggles

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I have seen snow goggles with caribou fur insulating from the bone/antler, in casing the goggles.

Edit, wolf or caribou fur will not freeze with moisture and ice up, under normal conditions. There is always ‘that point’ as the mercury descends.

Huh. When I was a kid … 30-mumble years ago … I had a pseudo-scientific book about gnomes. it was kinda cool. Anyway, one of the things in it that I distinctly remember was that in wintertime the gnomes would make themselves sunglasses that used exactly that technique.

I’ve also seen a lot of buildings which use that technique to reduce the internal glare on sunny days.

Sounds like the work of Howard Roark. If he ever existed.

Yeah, none of the ones made of meat survived.

Tauntaun sleeping bags would be nice in a pinch.

Bark, leather and meat are all, technically, flesh. :stuck_out_tongue:

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There are statues from pre-historic Japan, dated to roughly 2500-3000 years ago that depict strange alien-like figures with big googly eyes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakōkidogū#Shak.C5.8Dkidog.C5.AB

They’re thought to be depictions of people wearing snow goggles.

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