what is nomex made out of
Comparison Between Modern and Traditional Inuit Cold Weather Clothing
A few months back I did a post comparing the performance characteristics between modern and early 20th century cold weather clothing. The comparison was along several different factors such as insulation, wind protection and weight, and was performed with respect to the clothing choices of several well known early 20th century explorers. You can see the post here. The result was that the modern clothing outperformed the early 20th century clothing in terms of insulation, and in particular, insulation per unit weight. The early 20th century outfits tested were largely comprised of wool as insulation, with the exception of Amundsen, who used a fur outer layer. His outfit performed the best out of the traditional clothing options.
In one of the comments, a member of this blog pointed me to another study, which looked at a comparison between modern clothing, and traditional Inuit cold weather clothing. I've gone through the study, and wanted to share some of the very interesting conclusions with you. For those interested, the study is Comparison of Traditional and Manufactured Cold Weather Ensembles, Clim. Res. Vol. 5: 83-90, 1995.
The study compared three different clothing ensembles. For each of the three choices, the test subjects were wearing the same cotton/polyester underwear and turtle neck shirt, wool socks, and a wool toque. All three ensembles were rated to -40 degrees C/F.
First Ensamble-1991 Canadian military arctic clothing comprised of an inner and outer hooded parka, pants, wind pants and mittens. The inner and outer pants were made from uncoated nylon canvas outer shell with an inner layer of Polargard (100% polyester) and a layer of Dermoflex (coated fabric) lined with Nomex (a plain-weave natural-colored fabric). The parka (outer layer) and jacket (inner layer) were made from coated fabric (Dermaflex) and lined with Nomex. The parka also had a Polargard (100% polyester) insulation layer. Mitts made of the same layers as in the parka and Amry Mukluks completed this ensemble.
I tried to find a picture of the 1991 Canadian military arctic outfit, but was not able to do so. The closest thing I could find was a picture of soldiers wearing the 2008 Canadian military arctic clothing. Clearly there have been changes since 1991, but I hope it at least gives you an idea of what it would be like to wear it. If someone has a picture of the 1991 version, please let me know.
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