{"id":348,"date":"2016-06-21T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/21\/the-gift-of-prometheus\/"},"modified":"2016-06-21T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T19:53:00","slug":"the-gift-of-prometheus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/the-gift-of-prometheus.html","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of Prometheus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nIn the beginning only the
\nImmortals had Fire.  Prometheus looked
\nwith compassion on the cheerless creatures of earth.  In defiance of the gods he stole Fire from the heavens and
\nbrought it to earth.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nYesterday was the first day
\nof summer in the Northern Hemisphere.  Although, it has felt as if summer
\nhas been with us for several weeks.  Across the country temperatures have
\nsoared, creating new weather records.  Living in the southwest we are no
\nstrangers to summer heat and drought.  The combination all too often
\nresults in disastrous wildfires.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nThroughout history
\nfirefighters have been the heroes who braved the flames of Prometheus to
\nprotect the towns and homes of the citizenry. 
\nBecause of the dangerous conditions they faced, firefighters were given
\nspecial protective clothing which differentiated them from the populace.  One of the most familiar apparel was worn
\nfrom the earliest times by Japanese Firemen. 
\nTheir jackets (Hanten) were made of various materials.  In the Edo period some were made from deerskin.
\nIn the 19th<\/sup> C they were constructed from quilted wool or cotton,
\nsometimes with silk linings.  The unique
\nfeature of these jackets, from an artistic point of view, was the elaborate
\ndecorations (many were considered lucky or protective symbols) which were
\nwoven, painted or embroidered on the surface of the garment, as well as on
\nchest protectors (Maekeke).  There are
\nmany examples of these vintage fire jackets to be seen on the internet.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOne component of many
\nprotective garments has been used for centuries.  It is the mineral asbestos. 
\nAsbestos is found throughout the world and its fibers were used as  reinforcement in early pottery. Once the
\nfire resistant properties of asbestos were known the fibers were woven into
\ncloth.  The unfortunate aspect to the
\nuse of this mineral in a wide variety of applications, is the fact that
\nasbestos fibers are carcinogenic and could cause Mesotheliosis.    Over 50 countries have banned the use of
\nasbestos fibers, the US is not one of them.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nModern firefighters wear garments
\ncalled \u201cturnouts\u201d, protective clothing. 
\nThese garments have 3 layers: an outer shell, a moisture barrier and a
\nthermal barrier with pockets of air (dead zone) in between the layers.  Footwear is boots with a steel toe
\ninsert or rubber boots. There are additional items such
\nas gloves, helmets and hoods.  Depending
\nupon the type of fire, they may also wear hazmat suits.  For fighting wild fires their clothing is modified.  Their garments are a single layer, they wear industrial hard hats and leather logging boots.  They cannot wear steel-toed boots nor rubber boots due to the heat conditions of the fire.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThese garments are made of a
\ncombination of two fibers of the nylon family : Nomex and Kevlar.  Both of these synthetics are product of the
\nDuPont Corporation and are variants of aramid.    Kevlar is an aramid that does not melt, is highly flame
\nresistant, is exceptionally strong (5 times stronger than steel on a weight
\nbasis). It has a high resistance to stretch and maintains its shape and form at
\nhigh temperatures. It was first synthesized in 1971.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

Nomex is a variant of aramid but unlike Kevlar,
\nNomex cannot align during filament formation and therefore has poor
\nstrength.  However it also has excellent
\nthermal, chemical and radiation resistance. 
\nNonex was developed in the early 1960\u2019s and first marketed in 1967.<\/span>
\n
<\/span>
\nMay the Immortals protect them all.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the beginning only the Immortals had Fire.  Prometheus looked with compassion on the cheerless creatures of earth.  In defiance of the gods he stole Fire from the heavens and brought it to earth. Yesterday was the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.  Although, it has felt as if summer has been with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}