VISIONARY PLAN
Bartlett firm ready for sun to make a spectacle of itself
The Bartlett-based American Paper Optics wants to sell at least 100 million solar eclipse sunglasses by Aug. 21, 2017.
That may seem like an astronomical number, but the date marks the biggest astronomical event of the past century in the United States.
“Once we get close (to Aug. 21, 2017), people are going to get really excited. We need to have all the glasses.’’
Those words don’t come from the local company that has been making 3D, special-effects and eclipse glasses for 25 years, but from University of Missouri astrophysics professor Angela Speck.
She’s placed an initial order for 5,000 cardboard glasses decorated in the Mizzou logo and stripes of the school’s tiger mascot.
The university will sell eclipse glasses in the campus bookstore and at its observatory in preparation for a most unusual first day of the fall 2017 semester. The total eclipse will darken the Columbia campus of 35,000 students during lunch.
Not since 1918 has a total eclipse cut a 70-mile-wide swath across the entire continent.
The moon’s shadow will diagonally cross the U.S., slanting from Oregon to South Carolina and coming as close to Memphis as Nashville.
The phenomenon is different from a partial eclipse. Not only does day turn to night and the temperature drop, but the moon and sun choreograph themselves for a bejeweled performance lasting two minutes or so. The sky ring is called a ‘‘diamond’’ or ‘‘corona’’ or
“plasma.’’
“People think they have seen an eclipse, but they haven’t,’’ Speck said.
Both Speck and John Jerit, president of American Paper Optics, believe the buildup to the eclipse eventually will hit a fever pitch. But Jerit’s 35-employee company, housed at 2995 Appling Road, must get ahead of the excitement to reach its sales goals.
His company can produce 50,000 glasses an hour.
The biggest order so far is 110,000 glasses for Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which like Columbia, Missouri, will be within the path of total eclipse and plans a number of related festivities to entertain citizens and tourists alike. The National Solar Observatory in Hawaii ordered 25,000. And so far universities in Wyoming, Indiana and Ontario are buying glasses from the Bartlett firm.
Protecting the eyes is a must, whether by creating a projected image of the sun with a “pinhole camera’’ or by wearing the kind of special glasses American Paper Optics makes.
Glasses that are 10,000 times darker than sunglasses, Jerit says.
“People should not look at the solar eclipse with bare eyes except for a second or two,’’ said Dr. James C. “Chris’’ Fleming, chairman of the department of ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. “It causes burns to the retina, done by ultraviolet light. The sun is so bright, if you gaze for a period of time you cause permanent damage.’’
Even during the minute or two that the moon fully blocks the sun, the bright ring around the moon is still bright enough to cause harm, he said. “The pupils dilate to let in more light. The bright ring is just as bright as the sun, but people tend to look at it longer.’’
The fovea is burned. That’s the center part of the retina where the acuity is highest and where, said Fleming, “the best 20/20 vision comes from.’’
American Paper Optics’ eclipse glasses are ISO certified for the protection they provide. The company has never had a claim that its glasses failed to protect someone’s eyes, Jerit said.