# Protective goggles

> Shielding the eyes from glare, impacts and water

- Date: c. 100
- Era: Antiquity
- Domain: [Optics & Imaging](https://lastcodex.org/en/domains/optics/)
- Rebuild stage: II (Settlement)
- Difficulty: 2/5
- URL: https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/protective-goggles/

Protective goggles hold a shield in front of the eyes against glare, flying particles, splashes or water. The oldest known pairs are snow goggles of walrus ivory from the Bering Sea region, about 2000 years old: a narrow slit in front of each eye cut the glare of sunlit snow. Industrial eye protectors were patented in the nineteenth century, and swimmers began to seal goggles against water in the early twentieth.

![Protective goggles · Shielding the eyes from glare, impacts and water](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/plate.B3XvBcOv_4inhH.webp)

## Legend

1. Narrow slit in front of the eye
2. Carved wooden body shaped to the face
3. Notch for the nose
4. Inner face blackened with soot
5. Strap of braided sinew
6. Ridge shading the slits

## What it is

Goggles are a shield held close in front of the eyes, usually by a strap round the head. They protect the eyes from what would harm them in a given place: too much light on snow or ice, chips flying off a grinding wheel, a splash of liquid or dust, or the water that blurs sight when a swimmer opens their eyes under the surface. Each danger calls for a different design, and one pair seldom guards against all of them.

Arctic snow goggles are the oldest kind known. They are a band of wood, ivory, antler or bone carved to fit the face, with a narrow slit in front of each eye and a notch for the nose, and they are tied on with a cord of sinew, rawhide or cloth. Workshop goggles have a clear, tough screen and cover the sides of the eyes, and swimming goggles press a small cup round each eye to keep water out. Goggles that correct poor sight belong to the history of [eyeglasses](/en/inventions/eyeglasses/).

## How it works

In spring, sunlight reflected by snow and ice reaches the eyes from below as well as from above, and the ultraviolet part of it can burn the cornea, the clear front of the eye. This burn, called snow blindness or photokeratitis, is not felt at once: pain, tears and blurred sight come some hours later, and they usually pass within one or two days. The slit of a snow goggle lets in only a thin band of light, so much less reaches the eye, while the field of view stays wide from side to side. Some peoples rubbed soot or charcoal on the inside so that the wood would not reflect light back into the eye.

At work, the danger is often a particle thrown at speed. A protective screen must withstand the blow, and since fragments can arrive from the side, the eyewear must also cover the sides. Sealed goggles go further and follow the face all round, so that splashes and fine dust cannot slip past the edges. Welding and furnace work call for dark filters, because their light can burn the eye as snow does.

![A cutaway of one cup of a swimming goggle on an eye under water: a flat clear window with water in front, a soft seal pressed against the skin, a pocket of air before the eye and the strap running back along the head](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/v3.DZ2UiJDY_ZvB2zI.webp)
_The goggle keeps a layer of air in front of the eye, so that the cornea can focus again._

Under water, the problem is focus. In air, the cornea does most of the eye's focusing, because light bends strongly where it passes from air into the eye. Water bends light almost as much as the cornea does, so in water the cornea loses most of its power and everything looks blurred. A swimming goggle or a diving mask keeps a pocket of air in front of the eye, and the cornea works again. Its window is flat, so the view stays sharp, but light bends as it leaves the water through it, and things look larger and nearer than they are: seen straight ahead, about a third larger and a quarter nearer, and more towards the edges of the window.

Real protection depends on tested equipment. Goggles made at home, toys and ordinary sunglasses do not stop flying fragments or chemicals and do not filter welding light. Use eye protection certified for the task, as workplace rules require, and never look straight at the sun, even through dark glass.

## History and evolution

![A one-piece pair of goggles carved from yellowed walrus ivory, lying on a hide, with two narrow eye slits and fine engraved lines and dotted circles on the front](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/v1.BV5SbhZU_ZSbchh.webp)
_Ivory goggles of the Bering Sea cultures are about 2000 years old._

The oldest known goggles are snow goggles carved from walrus ivory by the peoples of the Bering Strait. NASA's education team notes that such goggles have been found at archaeological sites about 2000 years old, among them an Ipiutak pair dated between about 100 BCE and 800 CE, and the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown dates a pair of the Old Bering Sea culture to around 100–500 CE. Later pairs are more common. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York keeps Thule goggles of walrus ivory made in Alaska about 800 to 1200.

In the nineteenth century, Iñupiat, Yup'ik and Dené makers used whatever their land provided: wood, ivory, antler, baleen, birch bark, braided grass, or the softened hooves of caribou or Dall sheep. Some goggles had a single long slit, others one slit per eye with a notch for the nose, and on St. Lawrence Island several parallel slits. A ridge above the slits shaded them like a visor. Many people in Alaska now wear sunglasses, but snow goggles remain part of a living heritage.

![An eye protector of 1880 lying on a table: two pairs of round wire hoops, each hoop holding a dark cloth disc with a narrow slit, the inner pair carrying hinged side arms and the outer pair swung out to the sides](https://lastcodex.org/_astro/v2.BnxTMWFK_2cvNzr.webp)
_Powell Johnson's eye protector of 1880 held discs of cloth in two pairs of wire hoops._

Industry brought new dangers. On 2 November 1880, Powell Johnson of Barton, Alabama, was granted a United States patent for an "eye-protector" meant for furnace workers, puddlers, firemen and others exposed to the glare of strong light. It held discs of cloth in two pairs of wire hoops, worn like spectacles, and the outer pair could be swung aside. Later safety goggles replaced the cloth with tough screens, and in the United States employers must now make sure that workers wear eye protection that meets the ANSI Z87.1 standard, or that the employer shows to be at least as effective, wherever flying particles, molten metal, chemicals or harmful light threaten the eyes.

Swimmers came to goggles later. When Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, on 6 August 1926, she wore goggles of her own design, kept watertight with wax. They are now in the National Museum of American History in Washington. Modern swimming goggles seal against the skin with cups of soft [rubber](/en/inventions/vulcanized-rubber/) or silicone.

## Key facts

- Oldest known goggles: Walrus ivory, Bering Sea region, about 2000 years old
- Snow blindness: An ultraviolet burn of the cornea, felt hours after exposure
- Eye-protector patent: Powell Johnson, Barton, Alabama, 2 November 1880
- Swimming goggles under water: A pocket of air restores the focusing power of the cornea

## Requires

- [Stone Tools](https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/stone-tools/): The first cutting edge (3.3 million years ago)
- [Rope & Cordage](https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/rope/): Twisted fibres that hold the world (46,000 years ago)
- [Control of Fire](https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/control-of-fire/): Light, heat and cooked food (1 million years ago)

## Sources

- [Make Snow Goggles: traditional technology to protect eyes from sunlight (Ipiutak goggles, UA67-011-0005)](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Make-Snow-Goggles-Activity.pdf), NASA Science
- [Goggles, Old Bering Sea culture, c. A.D. 100–500, walrus ivory](https://collections.fenimoreart.org/objects/751/goggles), Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown
- [Snow goggles](https://ourwinterworld.org/snow-and-people/snow-and-alaska-native-peoples/traditional-snow-tools-and-technologies/snow-goggles/), Our Winter World: Snow in Science, Culture, and Climate
- [Snow goggles, Thule, 800–1200, walrus ivory](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/751542), The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Snow goggles, Punuk period, Bering Sea](https://sainsburycentre.ac.uk/?p=32104), Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia
- [Photokeratitis (ultraviolet burn, arc eye, snow blindness)](https://www.college-optometrists.org/Clinical-guidance/Clinical-Management-Guidelines/Photokeratitis_Ultraviolet_UV_Burn_ArcEye_SnowBlin), The College of Optometrists
- [Photokeratitis](https://eyewiki.aao.org/Photokeratitis), EyeWiki, American Academy of Ophthalmology
- [US 234,039, Eye-protector (Powell Johnson, 2 November 1880)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US234039A/en), Google Patents
- [Eye protection from a Black inventor](https://2020mag.com/article/eye-protection-from-a-black-inventor), Linda Conlin, 20/20 Magazine, 2023
- [29 CFR 1910.133, Eye and face protection](https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.133), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (US)
- [Power compensations in dive masks](https://www.abdo.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Power-compensations-in-Dive-Masks.pdf), Association of British Dispensing Opticians
- [Underwater vision: how do we see beneath the waves?](https://www.howitworksdaily.com/underwater-vision-how-do-we-see-beneath-the-waves/), How It Works
- [Diving mask with lenses and method of fabricating the same, US patent 5,625,425 (flat faceplates make objects appear about 33% larger and 25% closer)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US5625425A/en), United States Patent and Trademark Office, via Google Patents
- [Do things seem 33% bigger underwater?](https://www.scubageek.com/articles/wwwbigr.html), ScubaGeek
- [Do things seem 25% closer underwater?](https://www.scubageek.com/articles/wwwclosr.html), ScubaGeek
- [Discover the story of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to successfully swim the English Channel](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-american-womens-history-museum/2026/08/05/discover-the-story-of-gertrude-ederle-an-olympic-gold-medalist-and-world-record-setter-who-made-waves-as-the-first-woman-to-successfully-swim-the-english-channel/), Smithsonian American Women's History Museum
- [Gertrude Ederle](https://ishof.org/?p=18585), International Swimming Hall of Fame

Fact-checked on 2026-10-19.

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The Last Codex · https://lastcodex.org/en/inventions/protective-goggles/ · © The Last Codex. Texts, plates and figures: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.