KEEPING COOL.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 231, 1 November 1873, Page 2

KEEPING COOL.

1 (EIJIMINEK.) Whbn tho thermometer in an innocent iort of way shows .75 dtgf, and; 85 deg.i.in Jlho sWe, nnd justifies ita conduct i( b/.«pjje«Une ,fo. tli* r.Bun r .8un binzjhg^ liko a furnace round the jCorner ; "and'when human 'furnaces, heated, mit seems, to themselves and to their Vicigiiob'urs, seven times more than they were \*snt to bi- heated, fume and fret through the day's business with a saturated, and smoking outer surface, it becomes 'wliat wo will call a freezing question, whether there i* not Mine creature otidowed with the blessed power of preserving a dry cold ikin. Once found, we might reasonably hope to d.orire some comfort from contemplating the serene life "of such a being, and it would at least bo worth whilo to analyse its nature and watch its habits on the off-chance of picking up tome cool and useful hints. It appears to be habitual in the temperate zones to regard each outburst of summer as a deliberate chance, a Pheaton't aneider.t, which is not in the. remotest degree likely to oocur again. At any rate no one is ready for it ; they crawl about on the shady side of streets dressed in black bloth coats and silk lints — respectable, but miserable. Perhaps three white umbrellas may bo seen in a day ; black' hat* are exchanged here and there for white one's with nothing cool about them but their colour ; and perhaps one man in a thousand wears the " dncks " of a past generation. We speak only of the pain* and follies of men,. but each sex is afflicted after its on a kind. I f »ppy are those who can venture upon a '" sweet disorder in the dress " and appear before men in their shirt sleero^ ; but these bold spirits are becoming increasingly fewer, \rlnlo the great middle class has to wear its coat all day long. Now, when we walk in the streets in a fiery torture, and there is a slop round every drinking fountain, and u queue of thirty candidates for the leaden goblet, cabmen droop on ■ their seats, and every tavern writes up ",Ice, Ice," or " All cool within," it may, be possible to prove to a suffering middle cla«s that its miseries are heightened by its dress. The cooloit things to do, drink, and wear lutve suddenly become to every one the uppermost questions. -Of these we propose lo dispose of the last y for forewarned,, every one can be forearmed in this respect against the heat, and need not cry out at the next assault of the enemy, that the armour in wliiuli he has cased himself it like tho jacketing of a steam- , cylinder, artfully contrived to retain the maximum of heat. A man who is his tailor's slave need nut dream of relief, but much can be done by one who takes the direction of the scissors into hit own hands. " Tho Air in relation to Clothing, Dwelling, and Soil " is the title of a little volume containing three popular lectures by Dr Pettenkofer, of Munich, and from the first of them we extract for the benefit of our Tcwlers cevtain cool maxims which they ate *t liberty to lay to heart. It is not always remembered, though just now we are not likely to forgot it, that every human .body it an important centre of heat. This heat is lost (1) by radiation, (2) by evaporation, and (3) by conduction. The question of koeping cool resolves itself, therefore, into that of stimulating, as far as possible, lliase processes. It is by radiation that our t eighbour in railway carriage affects us, and if he is an ignorant man he will be as pleased to be told so as was Moliere't hero when he was informed he could talk prose. It is at least worth nothing that under cover of a polite intimation of this sort, you may be able to prevail upon him to increase the distance between you us far as space allows. Evaporation and ' conduction, on the contrary, do nobody any harm, and yourself a great deal of good, and it is to heighten these- two processes that the punkab is brought into play. Dry hot air at n temperature of 140d eg. is driven against the body, becomes chnrged with moisture, and by the evaporation so effected, i nnd by conduction, the re.-ult of close contact between the skin and the moist air, the temperature of the body is reduced I to 90deg. These points have to be remembered in deciding , on the cut, material, texture, and color of our clothes. As i far ns radiation from the body is concerned, we want it to be I impeded a* little as possible by our garments. For this purpose silk and cotton are preferable to wool, though it is ■ immaterial whether the color be black or white. But in . .taking into account the radiation we have to encounter from i the sun and other heat-centres, the color becomes all-impor-tant. White takes the coolest place, and next to it pale . straw cDlor, while black is nearly twice as hot, and light blue . almost a* bad. As to material, linen has slightly the advan- , tage over cotton, flannel, and silk. It is a common error to > supposo that loose porous tnatori.il allows the greatest escape i of heat. " Just those textures which are most permeable to the air keep us warmest." Wadding retains more heat when t cirded out tl an when compressed. Hence the multiplication t of fol s and layers must especially be avoided ; for though, if these folds and layers fit tightly to one another, the escape of heat by radiation is very little- checked, they are practically „ separated by intervals of air, and in that condition offer a | very considerable impediment to the passage of heat. Light-coloured linen is the best protection against outside heat. Of the three methods by w inch inside heat escapes, ; two — evaporation and conduction — are best promoted by i allowing; a free current of air to circulate next the skin, and . the third, — radiation — is least hindered by garments of a i thin and compact material hanging singly and not in folds. So that on all accounts a pale linen garment, leaving plenty of space for the joints to work, is the coolest thing to wear.