Umbrella Day

What the day is

Umbrella Day is observed on February 10. The object is far older than its use against rain.

Origin and background

It began as shade. The word comes from the Latin for little shadow, and parasols appear in ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, Chinese and Indian imagery, generally held over rulers as a marker of status rather than by them for comfort. Waterproofing came later, with the Chinese developing oiled-paper versions that shed rain.

The European story has a good detail. When Jonas Hanway began carrying an umbrella publicly in London in the mid-eighteenth century he was mocked and reportedly had things thrown at him, and the loudest objectors were hackney coachmen, who correctly saw a threat to their trade. Carrying one also carried a class implication: a man who could afford a carriage did not need to stand in the rain, so the umbrella advertised that you could not. Hanway persisted for roughly thirty years and the practice became normal.

The modern collapsible frame dates from 1852, when Samuel Fox introduced a steel-ribbed design light enough to be practical, replacing the heavy whalebone and cane constructions before it.

The engineering problem has never been fully solved. An umbrella is a wing, and wind flowing over the curved canopy generates lift, which is what turns it inside out. The vented double-canopy design, where air passing through an overlapping gap relieves the pressure difference, is the main mitigation, and it works reasonably well.

The genuinely useful fact is that inversion is recoverable. An umbrella blown inside out can usually be turned back by pointing it into the wind and letting the air push the ribs home, rather than by forcing them.

How to take part

• Buy one vented umbrella rather than replacing cheap ones each winter.
• Turn an inverted umbrella back by facing it into the wind, not against it.
• Dry it open rather than rolled, which is what rots the fabric and rusts the ribs.
• Tilt it into the wind rather than holding it upright, which reduces lift.
• Read about Hanway, who spent decades being laughed at and was right.