The history of fans is a story of improvisation before the age of electricity. The earliest ones were known as "screen" or "fixed leaf" fans, They were manipulated by the hands of slaves to cool, produce a breeze and ward off insects from royal faces and bodies. Some of these fan types have been found in Egyptian tombs. Even though the air temperature equals that of the surrounding environment, the movement of the air has a chilling effect that helps to lower body temperature. This thermodynamic feature was well known to all cultures of the ancient world.
Assyria as well as Egypt employed slaves to manipulate fans. The tomb of King Tutankhamen brimmed with golden fans adorned with ostrich feathers, which matched the depictions on the gilded walls. Servants of this era often carried long-handled, disk-shaped fans, which they used in various religious ceremonies. The plumage of birds was a common fan component in the Egyptian, Aztec, Mayan, South American and Native American cultures.
Since ancient times, fans have served as both useful ornaments and status symbols. Over the centuries, many different materials and decorative techniques have been utilized. Leaves and flat objects are the most rudimentary and although somewhat rigid, they are very effective as cooling agents, air circulaters and as ceremonial accoutrements. The Greeks, Romans and Etruscans used fans extensively for cooling and ceremonial purposes. The Greeks stretched linen over leaf-shaped frames while the Romans painted and gilded wooden fans. Roman ladies were known to prefer circular fans.
In the Orient, particularly China, fans were linked to mythical and historical characters and screen fans were used throughout Chinese society. The earliest known Chinese fans, a pair of woven bamboo side-mounted fans, date back to the 2nd century BC. The 8th folding fan was invented in Japan and taken to China in the 9th century. The Japanese folding fan, known only to the aristocrats of the day, originated in the 6th century.
The word, "fann" comes to us from the Old English and refers to a basket or shovel for winnowing. Derived from the Latin vannus or ventus (wind), the word is first seen in print in 1390 and the world's first recorded hand-held "device for moving air" occurred in 1555. The punkah fan was the very first recorded mechanical fan. It dates back to the 1500s and originated in the Middle East. It had a canvas covered frame that was suspended from the ceiling and servants known as "punkah wallahs" pulled a rope connected to the frame which moved the fan back and forth.
In the 1600s, Europe adopted the folding fan from China and it became very popular among aristocratic classes as displayed in many portraits of the era. Queen Elizabeth I is often depicted carrying folding fans of different types, many decorated with feathers and jewels. Some of these fans can be found in museums today and they were considered exotic items to the European upper crust in the same vein as elaborate gloves and other accessories.
The first industrial fans date back to the Industrial Revolution and were developed by attaching wooden or metal blades to shafts overhead that were used to drive the machinery. In 1832, A.A. Sablukov built one of the first workable mechanical varieties. He called his invention, which was a kind of a centrifugal fan, an Air Pump. These machines were successfully tested inside coalmines and factories from 1832-1834. |
