Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/360

 3-44 Popular Science Monthly

Ventilated Costumes for Use in the Unlimited Heat — But How Can You Arctic Circle Use It?

��EVEN in the Arctic Circle, there is dan- ger of perspiring when the tempera- ture is endeavoring to drop through the thermometer. The colder the weather, the greater the danger. Swathed in heavy furs, as the white man goes, he may

get overheated ^

while traveling. When he stops to make camp, he will freeze in a very short time. Ter- rible suffering is the result.

The Eskimo has solved the problem of how to keep warm without per- spiring, in a simple but original man- ner. Instead of covering himself completely with Arctic furs, he leaves some portion of his body partly uncovered. This allows the air to penetrate between his heavy furs and his body and ven- tilates his costume.

If the Eskimo woman from East Greenland, shown in the illustration, remains out of doors for some time in the most severe part of the year,

she covers the middle of the open space above her boots with belts of foxtails, but adjusted in such a way that she will get the necessary air ventilation.

In North Greenland, the men's suits have an open space around the waist, be- tween the coat and trousers, while the Greenland tribes in Northern Canada wear wide, short trousers, which expose the knee and part of the leg to the cold air. The leg may be inirtially protected when walking or working. I wore this costume myself when on my Arctic exploring expeditions. — Chkistian Leden.

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��HY should we enrich the coal barons

���This Eskimo woman wears a costume in which there is an open space for ventila- tion between the boots and the trousers

��warm, though in summer we have such a superabundance of heat that we must pay tribute to the ice kings in order to be comfortable? It is exasperating to think of the warmth that ^ goes to waste in the dog days. How soon will mankind discover a cheap method of bottling it up for use when wanted? Equally tantalizing is the thought of the enormous amount of heat in the in- terior of the earth, which, as far as we know, is of no use to anybody. Why can we not tap it, for use both as heat and power? Attempts have been made by en- gineers to harness hot springs, but the power thus produced was in- significant. It has been suggested that the continuous streams of lava which flow to the sea at Stromboli, in the Mediterra- nean, might in some way be made to do useful work. Sir Charles Parsons, in an address before the British Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, once discussed the feasibility of sinking a bore hole 12 miles deep, at which the tempera- ture of the rock would probably be more than 270 degrees Fahrenheit, and down which water would be pumped to return to the earth's surface at a high tempera- ture. Such a boring would cost millions of dollars, if it could be made at all.

It would surely be sinking money "in a hole in the ground!" But it won't be done for some davs vet.

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