Continue to talk about some useless "cold knowledge".
[1] Death of Robert Falcon Scott
On January 16, 1912, Robert Falcon Scott finally reached the South Pole, however, his opponent Amundsen had already planted a flag here, taking away scott's long-awaited honor.
Ten weeks later, All five of Scott's party were killed.
Zweig later wrote their story into The Great Tragedy.
There are many reasons for Scott's death, such as route planning (farther than Amundsen), travel mode (originally intended to use horses and machinery, but in fact the polar regions can not use at all), supply strategy (average daily energy intake is lower than energy consumption, improper supply points), etc., but there is a reason that is not small but easy to ignore - the clothes are not worn correctly.
To be precise, it was Amundsen who wore an extra coat than Scott.
The polar adventurers of the time generally chose a kind of pants and outerwear made of chatterine.
In the early 20th century, Huada was the first choice of adventurers, it was lightweight, rainproof, windproof, and breathable! The inventor of The Huada was Thomas Burberry. He is also the founder of the luxury brand Burberry (Burberry).
If you walk in the ice and snow in a huadane, there is a problem, although this material is rainproof, if the snow that falls on the clothes begins to melt slowly, then the water will still penetrate into the inside of the material - through the outermost layer of weaving, into the wool layer.
Water vapor will make clothes inside and out heavy and wet, in addition to making people uncomfortable, but also consume human physical strength. If you can't understand, try running in the winter and experience the "happiness" of being full of sweat.
The layer of coat that Amundsen wears more than Scott is not a high-tech product, but a thick coat and pants made of reindeer or seal skin. This is the "daily necessities" of the Inuit who have been living in the polar regions, and the ordinary coat isolates the water vapor invasion outside and also "locks" the heat inside.
As a result, the dog sledd on amundsen's team is relatively faster and consumes less energy than the Scott team's people.
Perhaps, the contest between the two people was over by the time they set out.
[2] Phelps' "Genesis"
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an American six feet four inches tall (about 193 cm) won eight gold medals, his name is Michael Phelps.
In the eyes of ordinary people, athletes achieve excellent results from talent, hard work and luck, but please do not ignore the scientific and technological forces behind it - as the saying goes, what cannot be found is called a nutrient, and what can be found is called a stimulant.
The power of technology we are talking about here is the swimsuit of swimmers. The "suit" that made Michael Phelps shine in the Olympic arena, and easily won eight gold medals, was the famous "shark skin" swimsuit - LZR competition swimsuit.
Soon, people noticed the improvement of this scientific and technological product on the competitive level of athletes, and the fairness of the competition was questioned by athletes from all over the world. So, immediately before the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, the organizers explicitly banned the use of new polyurethane swimsuits such as Jaked's Jaked 01 and Arena's X-Glide.
From this perspective, modern fabrics with technological power have indeed changed the history of mankind – at least the history of the Olympic Games.
If you think about it, some people rely on swimsuits to conquer the world, and some people rely on swimsuits to conquer men - indirectly conquering the world, which can also be regarded as the same thing as "rewriting history".
[3] The importance of fabrics to our lives
To add a cold knowledge, the roots of the English word text and textile are derived from the Latin word "texere", that is, weaving.
The history of the development of human civilization can be said to be a woven history of development. It is said that flax is the earliest natural plant fiber used by humans, which has a history of more than 10,000 years. I don't know how the ancestors discovered that flax can be used as a material for weaving. In short, it became a daily necessity and religious object that people wrapped themselves in.
Linen was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the most divine material, and the layers of mummies were wrapped in linen.
For us, the more familiar terms may be silk, wool, cotton and other natural fibers. The traditional male and female weavers have laid the basic social structure of the Chinese nation for thousands of years.
When it comes to wool, one might think of Britain's "enclosure movement", and one of the core trades in the development of modern capitalism is actually cotton, and related to it is the cotton empire and the cotton war.
It is no exaggeration to say that fabrics and textiles have run through the changes of human civilization, the development of global trade, and the innovation of the Industrial Revolution. It's just that we usually have little interest in knowing these familiar things, and even the gossip related to them is rarely noticed.
Here, I would like to share with you a very oriental fabric - Xuanjie Tu.
"XuanJie Tu" is a palindromic poem on brocade, written by Su Hui, the wife and talented daughter of QinZhou's assassin Dou Tao during the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Pre-Qin Dynasty.
It is said that after the husband of the prominent family found the third son (concubine) and abandoned himself, Su Hui, who missed her husband, turned the lovesickness into a deep poetry, and made a wonderful arrangement, and finally embroidered it on a brocade with her own clever hand.
After she embroidered more than 200 poems of palindromes on eight-inch square brocade with red, black, blue, purple and yellow silk threads, she caused a very sensational social effect - in today's words, "overnight red".
29 words in each vertical and horizontal, a total of 841 words (the original 840 words, and then added a "heart") in the middle) of the text square, whether you are reading positively, backwards, seven-color reading, well column reading, etc. can become poetry. There are more than a thousand ways to compose poetry so far—and I don't know if this is Su Hui's original intention.
Many famous artists in the world and later generations have a strong interest in the "Xuanjie Tu", such as the Tang Dynasty Wu Zetian once wrote a preface specifically for Su Hui and the "Xuanjie Tu", and the Song Dynasty talented daughter Zhu Shuzhen wrote the "Xuanjie Tuji".
This is a "milestone" story in the history of Chinese textiles!
[4] The reading of "Golden Thread" refers to the north
All of the above are from the Golden Thread. The author, Cassia St. Clair, also wrote "The Secret Life of Color," which he talked about earlier. The introduction to "The Golden Thread" says—
Set against the backdrop of 13 fabrics, the book tells readers a history of human civilization strung together in thread. From love songs from more than 3,000 years ago to narrative ballads of the 14th century, from temple inscriptions to poems embroidered on silk, the relationship between fabric and human civilization is confirmed.
Personally, I think that neither "The Golden Thread" nor "The Secret Life of Color" can be regarded as a history book, but should be regarded as a storybook with a considerable historical background. However, Cassia St. Clair is not the kind of writer who "weaves" various gossip stories, she has studied the history of women's clothing and makeup in Oxford and Bristol, and has an in-depth study of color, design, fabric and cultural history.
In other words, these two books can be said to be the various "scraps" that Cassia St. Clair collected during his studies.
As a result, "The Golden Thread" and "The Secret Life of Color" are relatively scattered to read, although the whole book is divided into themes and chapters, but there is no strict logical relationship between the theme and the theme, and between the chapters and chapters.
For readers who pursue light reading, such as expecting to open a page casually to learn something new, and may be able to tell a knowledgeable story in 3 or 4 minutes, both books are not bad. However, for readers who want to have a deep understanding of a certain field, such as readers who are looking forward to understanding the detailed development process of hemp cotton wool, the content of this book is relatively superficial, and readers need to devote themselves to the ocean of knowledge according to the reference materials and notes provided at the end of the book.
In short, "The Golden Thread" and "The Secret Life of Color" have the breadth and lightness required by the era of fragmented reading, but the depth of knowledge is not enough. Both books are beautifully packaged and the paper used is more elaborate—it should not be the "light paper" that some people reject. Readers who like useless cold knowledge can look for it.