Big solar event calls for huge glasses Tennessee company shows off 31-foot-long solar eclipse glasses

A Bartlett, Tenn., company trotted out its biggest pitch yet last week as part of a campaign to sell 100 million pairs of solar eclipse glasses before the astronomical event happens on Aug. 21.

Be it a publicity stunt or good old-fashioned marketing, American Paper Optics placed what it describes as the world’s largest pair of eclipse glasses in front of FedExForum to show Beale Street tourists and others walking by.

Unfolded, the 31-foot-long pair of glasses actually functions in protecting eyes from the sun. The film, or lens, is 10,000 times darker than average sunglasses.

“The reason why we’re doing it is because this is going to be such a large event for the United States,” company president John Jerit said. “We thought we’d make a giant pair of glasses to signify this is huge.”

American Paper Optics still wants to land a mammoth customer that would place its logo on

20 million or so pairs of the cardboard glasses to give to customers. But sales are going “great,” Jerit said.

“We’ve got major retailers on board that are going to be putting their glasses in stores for sale in late June, early July. And we’re getting lots of good corporate sponsorship coming on,” he said.

“We just produced over 400,000 glasses for NASA that will be given away. We’re doing 1.6 million glasses that will be given away in public libraries around the United States. And we just did 500,000 glasses for the Adventure Science Center in Nashville,” said Jerit, whose company has been making 3-D, special-effects and eclipse glasses for 26 years.

Portions of Tennessee will be among the areas within the total-eclipse zone: A swath of the moon’s shadow, 70 miles wide, that will cross the United States diagonally — northwest to the southeast — from Oregon to South Carolina.

It’s been 99 years since a total eclipse crossed the entire continent.

Inside the total-eclipse corridor, day will turn to night and the temperature will fall. The sun and moon will be aligned into a “diamond” or “corona” or “plasma” in which the outer edge of the moon will sparkle. The total eclipse will last two minutes or so.

Protecting the eyes is important, and can be accomplished by creating a projected image of the sun with a “pinhole camera’’ or by wearing the type of special glasses American Paper Optics makes.

Jerit has said the key to selling at least 100 million glasses is recruiting big advertising agencies and major companies that would give away the glasses featuring their company logo and colors.

“We want to build the excitement now,” Jerit said as he and his crew prepared to move the giant pair of glasses from FedExForum to Tom Lee Park. “We’re right at six months away from the eclipse. We want people to know that this is such a big deal.”