Asbestos Mittens (1942)
Asbestos Mittens (1942)
These mittens would be used to handle machine gun barrels while changing from an overheated barrel for a new one during prolonged firing.
These particular ones were to be used with the American m1919a6 .30 caliber machine gun.
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Asbestos mittens are still a part of standard commercial aircraft emergency equipment, by the way.
Saw a pilot put them on once during a walk-around on a particularly cold morning in CVG.
Saw a pilot put them on once during a walk-around on a particularly cold morning in CVG.
Ah, the great emergency of being slightly chilly.
Hypothetically could you just wear latex under gloves and just be very careful about handling and cleaning yourself after use?
The danger comes more from inhalation of particles that break off. The asbestos fire gloves contain the asbestos laced fabric sheathed inside cloth material to help contain the particles. They're also considered consumable, because handling something on fire will likely destroy the outer fabric (for example, a lithium battery powered device combusting, and placing it into a fire-safe bag).
The fibers can still break off while using them, and you can still inhale them.
Interesting why not just use Nomex instead then? I guess they're a lot more expensive.
They're only almost-as-good. Nomex is great against fire, but it melts around 250 C, which asbestos (being basically a rock) doesn't. I'm guessing that if you're in a big metal tube surrounded by metal parts that you may need to touch for a while, 250 degrees C is not all that high.
Interestingly, with how tightly asbestos is regulated nowadays, it's not really all that cheap. Assuming you don't buy them directly from kazachstan, asbestos gear is pretty expensive.
It still gets hot with the gloves on. I wouldn't want latex melting onto my hands
If you mean pure latex gloves, you should be fine. Latex starts to melt at 180 degrees Celsius. Meaning that if the gloves are melting, your hands would have been fucked with or without the Latex.
I wasn't aware of that. Good to know. Now a days I think latex free gloves are more common but I also don't know the melting point of those