The storm which hit much of the north Midwest did not leave much snow here. Instead it sent the thermometer to minus ten when I looked at it this morning, and barely got up to zero this afternoon. I have never walked very far on a day so cold, so I did the safe and conservative thing—a couple of jaunts about town, not out for more than half an hour at a time. The only real problem was fogging of my glasses, or I should say “icing.” Fog usually evaporates away, but ice tends to get thicker. Removing it requires taking off my gloves, finding the napkin in my pocket and rubbing hard to remove the ice. By then my hand is cold. Everything is harder at minus ten than it is at ten. And it’s not long before the glasses are iced again. Any Eskimos out there with suggestions?I did some work in the meantime, a little AutoCad, and in the process made this plot of the temperature data I have been collecting from the thermometer outside my door. You can see that while November was mild, December has plunged way below normal. And the next few days are supposed to be about the same.
Maybe this will help?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.icebike.org/Clothing/eyewear.htm
Being both a former professional researcher and a former eskimo... I felt in a position to help... remember it was us Inuit Eskimos who invented sunglasses, oh alright, well maybe I am not Inuit, but I have good intuition. Old Eskimo saying "better four eyes than none"!
ReplyDeleteThe icing of glasses seems to be caused by exhaled breath. I am discovering ways of exhaling that never crossed my mind and are solving the problem, I think. I need to keep my mouth covered so that I can exhale through the fabric; this allows the warmth of exhaled air to warm inhaled air. The mask covers my lips and nose, leaving a gap under my nose and another gap for eyes. This allows the nose to direct its exhale downward. At temperatures above zero this was all I needed. The problem in sub-zero is that some of the exhale was rising above the face covering through the nose hole and reaching my glasses. Having learned this, I developed a way to direct exhale downward over my chin and onto my neck. By retracting my lower lip while exhaling, the upward draft is stopped and the glasses do not ice. Now, isn’t that a wonderful discovery? It is probably so common to Eskimos such as yourself that you don’t even think about it. I am still forgetting to retract my lower lip sometimes, just an Eskimo-in-training.
ReplyDeleteHee hee, you become your own Eskimo neck warmer too! A lot easier than crocheting a scarf like people do at arts club here...I love this detailed explanation, you should make an instructional poem out of it.
ReplyDeleteI can totally appreciate your frustration with fogged up glasses... Luckily, if you are walking in a place you sort of know -- you can take off your glasses. For me, its kind of trippy walking with my glasses off. I see the world from a totally different perspective and then finally forget I don't even have them on... Goggles are nice though, as it keeps your eyes kind of warm.
ReplyDeleteI have goggles, but have only tried them once. They fogged up. I have wrap-around sun glasses which I tried for the first time today when the sun finally came out. They seem better than goggles because air can get in around them. I think that goggles fog (or ice) because the warmth from my skin heats the enclosed space and condensation comes like it does on a cold window.
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