History of design: Face mask

 Topic: HISTORY OF FACE MASK


So hello myself Mehal Vaghela, this blog is about my personal object that is FACE MASK


Face covering is a way of protecting respiratory health which is in use from last 2000 years.


              * Image of my object



From animal skin to houndstooth check and sequins, face masks have undergone many transformation in design over the centuries.




• The Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) used animal skins as masks to filter dust while crushing mercuric sulphide a toxic mineral used at the time for pigmentation in decorations.


 



• In China there is evidence of similar face coverings dating back to the 13th- century Yuan dynasty. In his travelogue written during this period, the Italian explorer Marco Polo (1254 1324) described servants attending to the Chinese emperor and his entourage wearing silks carves  to cover their mouths and noses to prevent their breath from contaminating the food they prepared.


• By the early 14th century, the Black Death, Europe's largest plague epidemic had prompted widespread use of facial coverings. Another outbreak in the 17th century led to the invention of the beak mask - which came to symbolise the plague - by French doctor Charles de Lorme. Covering the entire face, the mask had glass portals so the wearer could see, and the beak was often filled with spice or aromatics, including mint and camphor to filter out disease.




• Artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) soaked cloth in water and placed it on his face in order to prevent toxic chemicals from paint and plaster from entering his lungs. People trying to escape a burning building are still advised to use this effective method to protect their lungs from the effects of smoke inhalation.



•The discovery in 1861 of the presence of bacteria in the air by Louis Pasteur made people aware of the dangers of breathing in harmful pathogens. This led doctors to prescribe cotton masks to limit contagion during epidemics. Fashionable women wore lace veils to protect their lungs from harmful airborne particles.



•During the early years of the 20th century, Wu Lien-teh, a public-health specialist from Malaya, was investigating a pneumonic plague that had broken out in northern China. He developed a mask from layers of gauze enveloped in cotton, with ties so that it could be hung on the ears. This was the prototype from which the masks currently used in medicine today evolved.



• In 1905 Chicago physician Alice Hamilton published a study about the amount of streptococci bacteria expelled when scarlet fever patients coughed or cried. She also measured the bacteria from healthy doctors and nurses when they talked or coughed, leading her to recommend masks during surgery.


• During the global flu pandemic of 1918,

both medics and members of the public

used protective masks, especially in

America, where in some states they were

compulsory in the workplace and on public

transport.




• Increased industrialisation meant that by

the 20th century one of the biggest

threats to public health was air

pollution. It led to people in some of

the worst-affected cities adopting

" smog masks'.



• Early in 2020 French designer Marine

Serre proved to be ahead of the game

when, at Paris Fashion Week in February,

her models wore outfits with matching

face masks, designed months before the

world was attacked by COVID-19. But the

fashion industry as a whole did not

anticipate the demand to come so the

fashion-conscious have now turned instead

to the home-sewn mask


Source: https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XwMmcBQAAGwR9GY8


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