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
Another sign of the umbrella's increasing ubiquity is its appearance in poetry.
In a verse entitled, Rain, the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, the rain is falling all around.
It falls on field and tree.
It rains on the umbrellas here and on the ships at sea.
At some point, the umbrella also acquired negative associations.
The Victorians were a superstitious bunch.
They believed that opening an umbrella indoors brought bad luck.
It was seen as unlucky because, at the time, interior spaces were small and spring-loaded mechanisms could be unpredictable.
There were many instances of broken vases or injuries caused by using an umbrella inside.
By the 19th century, the umbrella had also crossed the Atlantic Ocean and found its way to American shores.
In Baltimore, the first factory opened in 1828.
It was known as the Beeler Umbrella Factory.
and it was founded by Francis Beeler, a woodcarver from Germany.
When the umbrella first debuted in America, people were not overly impressed.
Many thought the accessory looked ridiculous and even effeminate.
However, the introduction of more elaborate and creative designs soon had the public changing their tune.
Practicality of the device also appealed.
Baltimore soon became the umbrella capital, not just of the nation, but of the world.
By 1920, there were seven umbrella factories in Baltimore, manufacturing millions of umbrellas each year.
The punning motto of one company was, born in Baltimore, raised everywhere.
Showing 2241–2260 of 2,981 · page 113 of 150
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