Evening star., 1953-09-25
Electric Suits Keep
Flyers Warm at -650
Problem Is to Control
Wide Temperature Ronqe
By Thomas R. Henry

Electric suits which keep the body
comfortable, without interfering with
freedom of movement, down to IS de-
grees below zero Fahrenheit, now are
available to Air Force flyers.
These suits are described by r. F.
Sambleson, General Electric engineer,
in the General Electric Review. The
latest version of the electrically heated
flying suit is a complete coverall with
a parka, and electrically heated gloves
and shoes. The heat is adjusted auto
matically as temperature rises or falls.
At present 65 below is about the
lowest flyer or Arctic explorer is likely
to encounter.
LAS starting point" Mr.. Sambleson
says. psychologists have established a
value, the 'clo,' defined as a unit of
insulation. One clio is about the equiv
alent of mans business suit. This
the average person-undreSsed and
resting comfortably at 84' F.-can
achieve the same degree of comfort at
To- F. with one clio of thermal insula-
ton.
Roughly, one clio can be defined as
that amount of insulation necessary
to protect the human body for a 12-
degree lowering of room temperature.
When you consider 65' below F. in
terms of these values it readily can
be seen that an excessive amount of
clothing is necessary. Actually the
wearer of an adequate amount of un-
heated clothing wouldn't be able to
move.
Heat Increases.
Flying suits, in general, are designed
to provide comfort for aircrewmen
down to 40 F. without electric heat.
From there down to 65' below F. pro-
portionately larger amount of heat Is
delivered as the temperature decreases.
Because of the constantly changing
concepts Of air warfare there Is also
the problem of throwing off heat from
supersonic aircraft. This presents a
dual problem. The pilot must be kept
warm in temperatures as low as 65'
below and, under certain conditions
of flight, he must be cooled off when
the temperatures reach as high as
200 F.. because of air friction or solar
heat. There has been some develop
mental work on a ventilated suit that
provides heating or cooling by means
of a control that anticipates these
changes. The cooling is done by re-
frigerating equipment and the heating
by resistance heaters and a blower.
A duct system in the flying suit dis
tributes in correct quantity the warm
or cool air where needed"
Alaska and Spain are the latest pros
pecting fields for uranium ore.
Four regions in the Spanish penin-
sula offer possibilities, according to a
report of the Atomic Energy Commits
sion'S raw materials division. Various
occurrences have been reported in the
past and the geology of Spain offers
quite favorable environments for the
Stabilization of uranium in ore forma-
tions.
Uranium in Alaska.
Radioactivity detected in the Darby
Mountains of Alaska's Seward Penin-
Sula, according to an abstract of a
Geological Survey reconnaissance re-
port published by the commission, in
dicateS concentrations of as much as
one part in a thousand of radioactive
materials in the GRANTEES there. .
Near the headwaters of the Kwiniuk
River and on Golovin Bay, the report
says, concentrates of materials washed
from granitic terrain indicate a uran-
ium equivalent of as much as one part
in hundred.
Neither Spain nor Alaska seem to
offer much immediate prospect of add
ing materially to the available supply
of the parent material for atomic
bombs 1t is now known that traces Of
uranium can be found over most of
the world, especially where granite Is
present. The problem is to find suf-
f1ciently concentrated deposits, with the
uranium sufficiently easy to extract,
to repay exploitation.