Comfort! Everyone wants comfort. Air-conditioning systems have been invented for the purpose of providing comfort to the inhabitants of buildings. The science of psychometry was developed to understand the properties of the air - the temperatures, humidity and the heat values.
However, the human body, a marvelous piece of creation can adjust itself to changing climatic conditions to provide comfort to the owner. It has become quite common knowledge that sweating and their evaporation cools down the body.
Have you tried wrapping yourself in a plastic sheet? You will feel warm because of the air trapped within the sheet. However, after a while, you will sweat and you will feel very uncomfortable indeed. Why?
It has to do with what air-conditioning people call the comfort zone. According to them, most people will feel comfortable between 70 to 78 degree Fahrenheit at about 50% relative humidity wearing light clothing and when seated or at rest and without much wind.
There is also a difference in comfort levels when we do different activities. When we feel comfortable wearing woolen jackets to keep warm while we are at rest, don't we feel uncomfortable when we are running or doing strenuous activities? Clearly just wearing a jacket will not automatically make us more comfortable.
On a hot day, you will want to take off everything. Well, society dictates that you cannot do that, or you will be charged with indecent behavior. Anyway, that's the easiest way to become comfortable. The body's thermoregulatory action will make your comfortable automatically.
In nature, the body has a very good self-temperature regulatory action. When we sweat, the latent heat of vaporization takes away the heat from the body. However, if the sweat were to be evaporated, a person with all the sweat glands fully opened up can even feel a chill. Putting on clothing will hinder that process of evaporation.
In cold weather, how would you want to wear just a thin piece of clothing, instead of layers after layers of thick clothing? You don't want to look like an astronaut with their bulky suit, do you? You might look a bit too fat and clumsy!
Moreover, some clothing will retain the water, so much so that even when the outside is cold, you are actually sweating inside. That's the condition of condensation. The same thing happens when a glass of cold water is put in a warm atmosphere. The water comes out from the air around the glass and become water droplets. Your body becomes wet from your perspiration.
You become uncomfortable.
How do furry animals keep warm or cool? They don't wear clothing like humans. They seem to be able to adjust their body temperatures in their fur to all weather conditions. Can that be duplicated?
Scientists have been searching for the solution to comfortable all weather clothing for ages. They were searching for that special fiber that can duplicate the thermoregulatory action of a human body and yet feels comfortable to wear.
They have tried using capillary action of closely spaced fibers to draw the liquid from the sweat to the surface and then to evaporate. However in order to be effective, the fabric need to be worn close to the skin in order to transport the moisture. Whenever the capillary fabric gaps, the draw is broken and it becomes ineffective. The result - heat is lost for the wearer. Wearing tight clothing can be quite uncomfortable sometimes. Maybe they are not so fashionable, or just do not fit the many different body sizes.
The latest technological breakthrough lies in utilizing electrostatic charges in the fibers. Scientists are now able to move moisture from the body whenever a wearer perspires in warm temperatures using electrostatic charges in the fibers. As the wearer's activity decreases, the fabric will reduce the evaporative process, leaving a constant water barrier between the wearer and the fabric.
In cold temperatures, a layer of 100% relative humidity is formed between the skin and the fabric, creating an area of moist air that holds more heat during cooler temperatures. By using electrostatic charges to pull the moisture away from the skin, scientists are able to increase the heat capacity of the trapped air next to the skin and the wearer feels warm.
Individual molecules are separated much faster and thus favor evaporation.
These fibers are special.
They actually duplicate and enhance the thermoregulatory actions of the body! They create a vapor barrier to keep you cool when the weather is warm and warm when the weather is cold.
Truly a technological breakthrough!
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