With winter on the horizon it is hard not to think about the cold temperatures that will soon be here. There have been many inventions to ward off the cold but the ELECTRICALLY HEATED GARMENT (U.S. Patent No. 5,032,705) may be a one stop shop for cold gear needs.
This invention is described as an electrically heated cold weather garment. It includes a lightweight, stretchable, form-fitting fabric for covering portions of the body of a wearer of the garment; a plurality of flexible, electrical heating wires cover stitched to the fabric by sewing; an electronic controller for controlling current flowing through each of the heating wires.
One issue that plagued inventors when creating electrically heated garments was the fact that the garment distributed heat to all areas of the body at the same rate. Unfortunately, certain parts of the body do not lose heat at the same rate. This electrically heated garment addressed that issue and regulated the flow of heat based on a measured temperature of each part of the body. Kevin Brekkestran, one of the inventors stated the key to this, “is a control device that measures the resistance in wires going to different places, which provides a basis for calculating the temperature in each part of the body.”
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