The Fremen on Frank Herbert's desert planet, Dune, wear tight black garments that retain bodily moisture but would they not also retain heat and thus boil their wearers?
Poul Anderson describes how the Merseians cope with the heat of the Talwinian summer. First, the flying bus hangar has not an airlock but a heatlock. Secondly, before leaving the bus, every member of an exploratory team dons a heat suit:
a white coverall;
multiple pockets and sheaths;
boots;
thick, stiff gauntlets;
plectrum-like finger extensions for finer work;
thermoconductor insulation;
fishbowl helmet;
chowlock;
mechanical wipers;
two-way sonic amplification;
short-range radio;
accumulator-run heat pump on a backpack;
well-distributed weight.
One is modified for Flandry, whose sensations are:
weight;
enclosure;
chattering pump;
blown, cool, dry, unprocessed air;
odors of growth, decay, exudations and volcanic fumes.
He is able to dismiss the sensations and their associations and to concentrate on his immediate environment where the river booms and steams and the jungle grows high but is drying out.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Oh, I remember the stupefying heat of Talwin's summers! And how it stunned Flandry! I can certainly see why the Ruadrath were compelled to estivate.
If the natives of the planet Ivanhoe thought the ordinary ambient temperatures comfortable for humans were intolerably hot, just think of how the summer heat of Talwin would appall them!
Ad astra! Sean
IIRC on Dune the Fremen wear robes over their stillsuits; and the stillsuits use evaporative means to distill waste water and recycle it -- which would have a cooling effect. It essentially uses the ambient heat to recycle the water.
Most Bedouin robes are black. The cooling effect is done by trapping and moving air between the fabric and the skin.
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