Evening star., 1941-12-30
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
Bu Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas II. henry.
Father says it's too hot.
Mother says it's too cold.
Mother turns up the heat. Father
turns it down. There Is an endless
suuabble. Mother goes to bed to get
warm. Father goes out and gets drunk.
This is familiar scene every winter
evening in thousands OF American
homes, helps maintain the high divorce
rate, and supposedly is due to irrecon-
cilable differences between the two sexes
In skin temperature.
But let father and mother try wear
ing each others clothes and much OF
the squabbling would end.
committee of the American Medical
Association has just reported on eXten-
sive tests carried on at the Harvard
School of Public Health to get at the
seat OF the trouble. Men and women
were subjected to various temperatures
in different kinds Of attire. In special
test men were dressed in womens cloth
ing and vice versa. Precise measure
ments were taken of the temperature at
the surface of the body, the temperature
under the clothing over 18 parts of the
body. and the metabolic rates. All the
subjects were asked to report when
they felt comfortable.
Some basic differences were found, as
was expected. At temperature OF IL
Fahrenheit the average woman, dressed
In her ordinary indoor winter clothing,
reported she was uncomfortable. Her
skin temperature was about degrees
lower than that of the average man
but the mean temperature under her
clothes was 2 degrees higher. On an
average the hands and feet Of women
were about degrees cooler than those
of men, the arms 4 degrees cooler. the
legs and head 25 degrees cooler. There
was only a half degree difference be-
tween the two sexes in the skin tempera-
ture of the trunk, constituting most Of
the body.
All the men reported that they were
comfortable at 70. In order for the
women to be comfortable the air and
wall temperatures had to be raised to
rs. Then the men protested that they
couldn't stand the heat In warm sum-
mer weather, when air and wall tempera-
lures averaged about 80. the women were
comfortable while most of the men were
too warm. The mean skin temperature
of the women still was about degree
lower than that Of the men.
But despite these differences, says DR..
c. P. Yaglou, who conducted the tests,
when men and women wore similar
clothes, they were comfortable at about
the same environmental temperatures.
With a minimum OF clothing tempera-
ture between 50 and SO satisfied both
sexes When men dressed in women S
summer clothes, weighing about 0S Of a
pound, they wanted a temperature OF
about 80, which is about as high as that
| But when the men wore their own sum-
mer clothes, weighing 3 pounds, they
wanted temperature of rs.
Conversely, when women wore men.
winter clothes, weighing six and q fifth
| pounds instead Of their own which weigh
| a pound and half, temperature Of 72
was required for comfort. This is only
half q degree higher than that pre-
| ferred by men wearing similar clothes
TN all but few OF the subjects com.
fort was associated with mean skin tenn
peratures between 9l5 and 935 in botl
men and women, regardless Of air tenn
| peratures, which varied from 535 to "a
The mean skin temperature of womel
appears to average half degree lowe
| ~f Ill
conditions
IF women would dress in winter will
clothes that are comparable in warmth
to those of men they would be com
! Portable in a temperature of u instea'
| Of rs and there would be less discoro
Conversely, If men would take of their
vests coats and collars in hot weather
buildings would not have to be coole'
below 80, instead of rs to 80 as at pres
ent, and differences now experienced
with sharp temperature contrasts woult
be alleviated."
| Either increase or decrease of tn
| earths temperature may cause an ic
age. depending on local conditions.
This is the hypothesis advanced b,
DR.. Walter Knocke, chief climatologis
of the Argentine weather bureau, in
bulletin just issued by the Smithsonian
Institution.
It often is popularly assumed that thu
great Ice sheets which covered larg
areas of the northern United States dur
| ing the last geological period must hav
been due to q decline in temperature
for ice and snow naturally are associated
with cold.
A few years ago both the British
meteorologists, Sir George Simpson ane
DR.. Knocke himself, advanced con-
trary, and seemingly quite paradoxical
explanation-that ice ages may be dut
to a rise In temperature. This woulo
cause more precipitation. In the polal
regions, where the average temperature
most of the year would be close to tn:
freezing point, this would fall in tht
form OF snow. The snow would pile ul
and become compacted into glacial ice
The glaciers would flow southwark. The!
would produce their own cooling effec
as they progressed. There would b.
considerable melting each summer bu
never enough to overbalance the nev
Ice arriving from the north.
BY the same reasoning, an ice ag'
would begin to decline as the earth grew
cooler and precipitation decreased. Th
summer melting in temperate climate
af ell