Simon Mattacks
speaker
2,981 appearances
17 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 13 Sep
Simon Mattacks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
The umbrella trend expanded into Western Europe, including France.
By the early 1700s, umbrellas in France were known as parapluie.
The name derived from Latin and literally translated as against rain.
French umbrellas were often crafted from whalebone ribs and wax-coated canvas cloth.
They were heavy to carry, yet popular, and shops would rent them out on rainy days.
Around the same time, a purse maker from Paris, Jean Marius, came up with a clever design for a compact, foldable umbrella.
It would weigh a kilo or less and come with a jointed shaft and folding ribs.
His invention was elegant and practical.
It soon caught the eye of King Louis XIV.
The king was so impressed that Jean Marius was awarded a royal privilege.
This meant that every umbrella in France had to carry his trademark for five years.
Hundreds of inventors across France were motivated to adapt and improve their own designs.
and over the following century, nearly 1,400 patents were filed.
Across the English Channel, umbrellas were also becoming popular.
The first recorded use of the word umbrella in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from 1609 in a letter by the poet John Donne.
But at that time, the accessory was still viewed as a foreign curiosity.
It wasn't until the 18th century that the umbrella really took off in England.
However, to begin with, umbrellas were mainly used by women and much ridiculed by men.
That is, until a gentleman named Jonas Hanway began walking the London streets with an umbrella.
Hanway was an explorer, merchant, and writer, a well-known public figure in London during the 18th century.
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