Top 10 facts about earmuffs

1. Greenwood’s first earmuffs were made when he was 15 years old from pads of beaver fur sewn on the ends of a loop of wire.

2. He had the idea while ice-skating and got his grandmother to do the sewing for him.

3. In the patent document No.188,292, which he obtained four years later, the invention is described as “Improvement in Ear-Mufflers”.

4. Since 1997, Farmington has celebrated Chester Greenwood Day on December 21, together with a parade on the first Saturday in December.

5. Greenwood opened an earmuff factory which by 1883 was making 50,000 pairs a year.

6. In 1936, the year before Greenwood died, his factory turned out 400,000 pairs and Farmington called itself the Earmuff Capital of the World.

7. Greenwood had over 100 patents including a washing machine, a folding bed, a shock absorber, and a mousetrap that used fake cheese.

8. The European Patent Office now lists 293 patents with earmuff or ear-muff in the title.

9. A ‘Healthcare Earmuff with Function of Bluetooth’ was patented this year.

10. ‘Earmuffs’ as one word was first used in 1889.