Editing Umbrella (section)

==== 18th and 19th centuries ====

[[File:Passer-payez-Boilly-ca1803.jpg|thumb|Parisians in the rain with umbrellas, by [[Louis-Léopold Boilly]] (1803)]]

Kersey's Dictionary (1708) describes an umbrella as a "screen commonly used by women to keep off rain".

The first lightweight folding umbrella in Europe was introduced in 1710 by a Paris merchant named Jean Marius, whose shop was located near the barrier of Saint-Honoré. It could be opened and closed in the same way as modern umbrellas and weighed less than one kilogram. Marius received from the King the exclusive right to produce folding umbrellas for five years. A model was purchased by the Princess Palatine in 1712, and she enthused about it to her aristocratic friends, making it an essential fashion item for Parisiennes.  In 1759, a French scientist named Navarre presented a new design to the French Academy of Sciences for an umbrella combined with a cane. Pressing a small button on the side of the cane opened the umbrella.<ref>Fierro, Alfred, ''Histoire et Dictionnaire de Paris'', (1996), Robert Laffont, {{ISBN|2-221-07862-4}}</ref>

Their use became widespread in Paris. In 1768, a Paris magazine reported: <blockquote>"The common usage for quite some time now is not to go out without an umbrella, and to have the inconvenience of carrying it under your arm for six months in order to use it perhaps six times. Those who do not want to be mistaken for vulgar people much prefer to take the risk of being soaked, rather than to be regarded as someone who goes on foot; an umbrella is a sure sign of someone who doesn't have his own carriage."{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=1047}} </blockquote>
[[File:Gustave Caillebotte - Paris Street; Rainy Day - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Paris Street; Rainy Day'', by [[Gustave Caillebotte]] (1877)]]
In 1769, the Maison Antoine, a store at the Magasin d'Italie on rue Saint-Denis, was the first to offer umbrellas for rent to those caught in downpours, and it became a common practice. The Lieutenant General of Police of Paris issued regulations for the rental umbrellas; they were made of oiled green silk, and carried a number so they could be found and reclaimed if someone walked off with one.{{sfn|Fierro|1996|page=1047}}

By 1808 there were seven shops making and selling umbrellas in Paris; one shop, [[Sagnier]] on rue des Vielles-Haudriettes, received the first patent given for an invention in France for a new model of umbrella. By 1813 there were 42 shops; by 1848 there were three hundred seventy-seven small shops making umbrellas in Paris, employing 1400 workers. One of the well-known makers was [[Boutique Bétaille]], which was located at rue Royale 20 from 1880 to 1939. Another was [[Revel (brand)|Revel]], based in Lyon. By the end of the century, however, cheaper manufacturers in the [[Auvergne (region)|Auvergne]] replaced Paris as the centre of umbrella manufacturing, and the town of [[Aurillac]] became the umbrella capital of France. The town still produces about half the umbrellas made in France; the umbrella factories there employ about one hundred workers.{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=1047}}

[[File:John Singer Sargent - Morning Walk.jpg|thumb|A parasol depicted in ''Morning Walk'', by [[John Singer Sargent]] (1888)]]
In [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', Crusoe constructs his own umbrella in imitation of those that he had seen used in Brazil, covered with skins "so that it cast off the rains like a penthouse, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest".<ref>{{cite book|author=Defoe, Daniel |year=1719|edition=1992 reprint|title=Robinson Crusoe|location=London |publisher=Everyman's Library|page= 114}}</ref> From this description the original heavy umbrella came to be called "Robinson" for many years in England.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Captain [[James Cook]], in one of his voyages in the late 18th century, reported seeing some of the natives of the South Pacific Islands with umbrellas made of palm leaves. In the highlands of [[Mindanao]] in the [[Philippines]], the large fronds of ''[[Dipteris conjugata]]'' are used as an umbrella.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chia |first1=Lee Kong |title=Dipteris conjugata |url=https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/dna/organisms/details/604 |url-status=dead|website=lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg |access-date=30 September 2019 |archive-date=30 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930012523/https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/dna/organisms/details/604}}</ref>

The use of the umbrella or parasol (though not unknown) was uncommon in England during the earlier half of the eighteenth century, as is evident from the comment made by General (then Lieut.-Colonel) [[James Wolfe]], when writing from Paris in 1752; he speaks of the use of umbrellas for protection from the sun and rain and wonders why a similar practice did not occur in England. About the same time, umbrellas came into general use as people found their value and got over the shyness natural to its introduction. [[Jonas Hanway]], the founder of the Magdalen Hospital, has the credit of being the first man who ventured to dare public reproach and ridicule by carrying one habitually in London. As he died in 1786, and he is said to have carried an umbrella for thirty years, the date of its first use by him may be set down at about 1750. [[John Macdonald (footman)|John Macdonald]] relates that in 1770, he used to be addressed as, "Frenchman, Frenchman! why don't you call a coach?" whenever he went out with his umbrella.<ref name="sangster"/> By 1788 however they seem to have been accepted: a London newspaper advertises the sale of "improved and pocket Umbrellas, on steel frames, with every other kind of common Umbrella."<ref name="Times1">{{cite news|title=advert|work=The Times|date=13 February 1788|page=3}}</ref>

Since then, the umbrella has come into general use, in consequence of numerous improvements. In China people learned how to waterproof their paper umbrellas with wax and lacquer. The transition to the present portable form is due, partly, to the substitution of silk and gingham for the heavy and troublesome oiled silk, which admitted of the ribs and frames being made much lighter, and also to many ingenious mechanical improvements in the framework. [[Victorian era]] umbrellas had frames of wood or baleen, but these devices were expensive and hard to fold when wet. [[Samuel Fox (industrialist)|Samuel Fox]] invented the [[steel]]-ribbed umbrella in 1852; however, the ''[[Encyclopédie Méthodique]]'' mentions metal ribs at the end of the eighteenth century, and they were also on sale in London during the 1780s.<ref name="Times1"/> Modern designs usually employ a [[Telescoping (mechanics)|telescoping]] steel trunk; new materials such as [[cotton]], plastic film and [[nylon]] often replace the original silk.