In addition to holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah , Maine resident celebrate the conception of earmuff each December . Their taste for the winter wardrobe raw material run deep than most , as Chester Greenwood — who is credited with inventing the New - daylight earmuff at age 15 — hailed from Farmington , Maine , accord tothe Associated Press .
In 1977 , Maine ’s legislative body designate December 21 ( typically the first mean solar day of wintertime ) as Chester Greenwood Day . The annual state holiday celebrates Greenwood and his snug capitulum coverings , which he first created in 1873 .
AsThe Washington Postreports , Greenwood love to ice skate , but detest the cryopathy that plagued his raw ears . The adolescent was reportedly allergic to wool cap with earflaps , so he inquire his nan to sew either little flannel or fur pads onto the conclusion of a bent wire closed chain . Greenwood wear the widget around his heading , and it was n’t long before his protagonist ( who ab initio made fun of the headdress ) had also adopted the look .
Greenwood tweaked his cold - weather condition accessory over the year , supersede the wire with band and adding hinges to the capitulum pads , among other changes . In his mid - twenties , the inventor plunge his own manufacturing plant near Farmington , use 11 worker who produce as many as 50,000 pairs of earmuffs in a undivided year . By the metre Greenwood died in 1937 , the phone number had rocket to 400,000 .
Some say that Greenwood technically did n’t pioneer the conception of earmuffs . He just perfect the design by add together the earflap hinges that furnish extra atmospheric pressure , patent agent say . Still , the Farmington indigene would go on to contrive nearly 100 other machine , five of which receive patents .
Greenwood ’s earmuff factory close in the wake of his 1937 last , but his legacy ( and now - ubiquitous winter headgear ) live on , thanks in part to chilly Mainer . While the prescribed holiday is December 21 , Farmington residents come after the state legislature’sinstructions“to observe [ Chester Greenwood Day ] in suitable places with appropriate ceremony and activity ” on the first Saturday in December — nigher to Greenwood ’s natal day of December 4 — with parades and winter activities .
[ h / tAssociated Press ]
