Visual Symbols Sampler

The Greeks introduced horseshoes to Western culture in the fourth century, believing that its iron composition, and its cresent moon shape, brought good fortune. Throughout history these beliefs were carried forward to the Roman and Christian culture. With the fear of witchcraft peaking, the Christians endowed the horseshoe with even greater powers. In legend, witches traveled on broomstick instead of horsback because of their fear of the iron horseshoes on the horse's hoofs. Soon after, blacksmiths were credited with the ability to repel evil with the good spell of a horseshoe, instead of a Bible. A buried witch would often have an iron horseshoe nailed to her coffin .The configuration was always the same, from the witch's coffin to the house- door: the points were oriented upward so that none of the luck would drain out. As recently as 1805 the British hung a horse- shoe from the mast of their command ship in their battle against Napoleon's army. Sunglasses existed as early as the fifteenth century in China. At the time, howev- er, the purpose of these glasses had nothing to do with sun. Even before the inven- It would seem odd that a bank would be tion of corrective lenses in 1430, smoked named after a pig. After all, the pig is not the quartz lenses were devised to conceal a most likely candidate for an animal symbolizing judge's eyes so that his evaluation of evidence prudency. would not be disclosed until the conclusion of a trial. In fact the piggy bank was not named for the animal to which it bears a close resemblence, Later, corrective lenses were sometimes rather it was named after a type of clay jar. smoke tinted but they were still used mainly by judges - only rarely to block the sun. In the Middle Ages metal was so rare that most household utensils were manufactured The widespread use of tinted glasses to block from an orange clay called pygg. Then, as the sun gained popularity after the United now, prudent types often saved their cash in States Army Air Corps hired Bausch & Lomb these clay jars-which, by the eighteenth cen- to design glasses for Army air pilots to block tury in England, were called pygg jars or pygg dangerous high-altitude solar glare. They were banks. As time moved on, the name of the aptly named Ray-Ban for their ability to ban bank remained but its shape become more the sun's rays. appropriate to the name - it was cast in the shape Sunglasses as fashion became prevelant in the of the pig. 1960s wit…