A look at how your solar eclipse glasses are made

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WSAZ) - It’s time to grab your glasses for the Great North American Solar Eclipse!

If you’ll be watching it, the glasses are crucial to keep your eyes safe.

So where do all of these glasses come from, and how are they made? Well, a Tennessee-based company American Paper Optics has been hard at work to make sure North America can watch the eclipse safely.

“We’re the largest eclipse glasses manufacturer in the world, so this is something we’ve been gearing up for since, well the end of 2017,” said Jason Lewin with American Paper Optics. Lewin says many of the eclipse glasses you’ve seen at Walmart, Lowe’s and Cracker Barrell are likely from their facility in Memphis.

They’ve supplied glasses for Ohio State University, NASA, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even some weddings.

“We have manufactured what will end up being over 75 million glasses,” Lewin said.

Getting that many pairs of glasses made, packed and shipped no simple feat.

“Manufacturing glasses is not an easy thing to do,” said Lewin. “A lot of people at home may think it’s just a sheet that goes in and it just spits out glasses, but it’s a lot of handwork, and then you’ve got to have the eyeholes cut out and that’s a process on its own. Then, it goes to another machine where glue gets put down and film gets put on.”

The two sheets have to sandwich the film together, to then be sent through a cutting machine that cuts out 17 glasses per page.

Employees have to pull each pair out, fold them, stack them, pack them and ship them. It’s a lot, but it’s the last time we’ll see it until the year 2044.

“To know that we’re providing the one thing people need to take in this event, it’s a good feeling and something we’ve been working really hard to do,” Lewin said.

American Paper Optics first manufactured solar glasses for the eclipse in 1991.

“It’s this one moment everybody is going to be taking in together, and nobody is rooting for a certain team, so it’s probably the one bipartisan moment we’ll have in 2024,” Lewin said.

The people at American Paper Optics told us they’ve actually made custom eclipse glasses for five weddings getting married on the eclipse.

Thursday is the last day to order from them if you want to get them in time for Monday.

You can order on their website.