Mannequin for Assessing Thermal Properties of Clothing

I was introduced to the copper mannequin located at the Army testing laboratory located at Natick, MA. in 1968. Since then I have become aware of copper mannequins located in several other locations in the USA as well as Canada. Then there is the plastic mannequin located at the REI testing facility in Seattle, WA. I also believe there is at least one and maybe more in Europe. During all of the years that I have either sold insulation to companies that manufacture cold weather apparel or sleeping bags or been a manufacturer of these same types of product I have never seen one of these machines give even close to reality information about how one of the products tested would perform in the field when used by a human being. As a point of fact I have written about these machines many times giving factual information about the erroneous information that is derived from tests done of sleeping bags in particular on these machines. One of the most interesting aspect of these machines is the fact that a temperature in either Fahrenheit or Centigrade. What the people who own or run these machines tell you is a 'clo' value not a temperature. 'Clo' has no value as it is meaningless.

Recently I received from the University of South Florida's Division of Patents and Licensing a letter introducing me to their latest accomplishment a mannequin for assessing thermal properties of the fabrics used in the manufacture of clothing. In view of the fact that I manufacture clothing as well as sleeping bags for use in cold weather situations made me an ideal candidate for their piece of equipment. It is quite obvious to me that those involved in the making of this latest mannequin have no prior knowledge of how successful their predecessor's failures have been with all of the copper mannequins and other plastic mannequins. Yes, successful failures since there never has been, does not exist now nor do I believe there ever will be a machine that will ever be able to duplicate a human.

The Europeans as I informed you in a past newsletter created their EN (European Normal) test methodology. Thus far not one sleeping bag performs in the field according to what the machine results suggest. Why you might ask; easy answer machines are again not humans.

I did suggest to the person whose name was on the cover letter to go to my web site and click on the archived newsletters so they could get an education and of course would then know why their new mannequin is of no value for testing of insulations.

My advice to consumers who are interested in cold weather clothing or sleeping bags is to ask the sales person showing you the product for proof positive of the products ability to perform at the temperature the product is made for. At Wiggy's we do have reams of documentation of Wiggy's products performance not from paid staff people but from the now thousands of satisfied customers who have taken the time to write to me expressing their personal experience with my products. The word of mouth advertising I have experienced has been the major reason for the success of Wiggy's, a situation for which I am very grateful. So in conclusion I trust the human to actually tell me their experience something that cannot happen when you try to communicate with a mannequin.