December 5, 2025 • 16 mins
Did a 15-year-old really invent the snowmobile? What was the original use for a Kleenex? How come Eddie Bauer gets zero credit for his genius idea? And what's so special about Greenwood Champion Ear Protectors, anyway? Will and Mango spend a cold winter's day digging into some spectacular seasonal inventions.
This episode originally aired on January 24, 2019.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Guess what mango's that will. So I was flipping through
the channels the other day and there was the sitcom
on TV and I started thinking about this because there
was snow on the ground, and I was wondering how
they make that fake snow for TV and movies because
you think about all the things that could melt the
snow there, Like there's these hot lights, they have these
long shoots, and they can't use real snow obviously. So
(00:23):
I looked it up and where do you find out? Well,
the good news a lot of it. It's edible mango.
You can eat all that snow. So in early movies
they use corn flakes that were painted white to make snow.
But then when sound came into film, you know, obviously
all the crunchy sounds would be too loud if they
were stepping on it, so they had to find a replacement.
(00:44):
And over the years, sets have used everything from firefighting
foam to instant potato flakes to flower, even marble dust.
But the stuff they used today is actually mostly paper.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Believe it or not. That's pretty weird.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I feel like paper is the last thing I would
have expected for like fake snow and movies.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, I wouldn't have thought about that either, But you know,
it's available in all different grains and sizes depending on
what kind of snow you're looking for. But actually the
process of making it is pretty cool. So the paper
snow is packaged in these huge bales and then it
shot through a special hose that lightly dampens the paper
so that it will stick to whatever it lands on,
just like snow. And according to Roland Hathaway of the
(01:25):
Snow Business Hollywood, are you familiar with snow Business Hollywood?
Oh yeah, the technique can cover up to thirty seven
square meters per minute, plus it never melts. So that's
just the burst of nine facts we've got for you
today about winter time inventions.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh hot ticketter and sitting behind the soundproof booth
wrapped up in his slanket Mango.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I know, which I really thought was like an off
brand Snuggie, but Tristan insists it's the original blanket with sleeve.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
He is very passionate about this. Yes, that's our friend
and producer Tristan McNeil, so mango. I know it's boring
to talk about the weather, but the weather definitely inspired
this week's episode.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I know, this weekend was so miserable in New York City.
It was just like rainy and wet, and when you've
got two feral kids like I do, who are just
like hard to tame and even harder to keep indoors,
it is truly miserable. But uh, you know, anyway, all
this winter weather made us wonder, like, what are some
great wintertime inventions worth celebrating?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, yeah, actually I love that old quote that everyone
always talks about the weather, but no one does anything
about it.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
And we definitely have a few people on this list
who did something about it, including my first fact, which
is about ear muffs. So I don't know if I
knew this before and forgot it or I just never
heard this, but the inventor of the ear muffs was
a fifteen year old boy from May named Chester Greenwood,
and Chester had this horrible allergy to wool.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So before you could keep the story going, well when
are we talking about here?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I think it was like the late eighteen hundreds, so yeah,
might not say eighteen seventy three, And of course it's
surprising that a kid invented them, but you know, basically,
Chester wanted to go skating with his friends at the pond,
which of course sounds so wholesome and so American, but
you know, he couldn't wear a hat because of this
wool allergy he had, and his ears got so cold
(03:38):
that he had to turn around and go home immediately.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And apparently this was a pretty common occurrence.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
For little Chester, but this time he was totally fed up,
and when he got home he asked his grandmam to
help him assemble this thing he'd been thinking about. It
was like little shields for his ears, and once he
described what he wanted, his Grandmam got out her sewing
materials and she whipped up the world's first pair of
ear muffs and the device Chester later called it the
(04:03):
Greenwood Champion Ear Protectors.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh, I like that name. We should call him that down.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I feel like it's a much better name than ear muffs.
But the original muffs were made from beaver fur on
the outside and velvet on the ear side, and it
had a band of wire connecting it too. And over
the years, Chester improved on the design and he patented
it and by the time he was twenty five, he'd
actually become the owner of an ear muff factory that
cranked out fifty thousand pairs every year.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Wow, that's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it gave come me the
weirdest thing about this. Apparently, like Chester's legend, or the
legend of his ears and their sensitivity grew over the
years into like something of a myth, and even like
the Wall Street Journal report on it, and this is
what they said, quote Chester Greenwood's ears were so sensitive
that they turned chalky white, then beat red, and deep
(04:51):
blue in that order when the mercury dead.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Wow blue.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I know it feels like a gobstopper or something, but
you know it's total nonsense. According to his grandkids' ears
were just cold, just big and cold.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, that's much less dramatic. Oh well, here's a quick
fact that I liked. Did you know that the first
makeshift snow vehicles that were used in the northern US
and Canada were actually just pimped out model ts. Apparently
this started as far back as the nineteen tens, when
people would remove the cars undercarriage and then what they
would do is they would mount a pair of skis
to the front and a set of tracks to the rear.
(05:27):
So these converted cars were referred to as snowflyers, and
they were a god send to these rural residents, especially
when it came to mail delivery.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Oh that's really interesting. I like that people were almost
like hacking forwards, like it's ikea furniture or something. Pretty
soon after they were.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Made, right, Yeah, I mean I think it was just
a year or two after the first model te came
out that people thought to put them on skis. But anyway,
while I'm talking about snow vehicles, I'm actually gonna throw
out another fact. The first snowmobile was invented by a
fifteen year old, So I'm gonna match your fifteen year
old fact with one of my own.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I feel like inventing a snowmobile is like a little
bit more impressive than getting your grandmam to sew some
ear musk.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Well, the story's pretty fascinating. So apparently in nineteen twenty
two there was this kid from Quebec named Joseph Armand Bombardier,
and he built and tested the first full scale snowmobile.
So Joe Armand had been interested in playing with mechanical
things since he was a kid, and had been making
his own since he was thirteen. He built these toy
tractors and boats for his younger siblings. He had made
(06:29):
a steam powered spinning wheel for his aunt, and even
a miniature train that he built with his old clock part.
So yeah, the guy was pretty resourceful. But none of
those prior works could prepare Bombardier's family for what he
sprang on them.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
On New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So, taking a queue from the locals, he had started
with the model T engine, but rather than use the
rest of the car, this young inventor instead mounted the
engine to two wooden sleds that he hitched together. And
if that doesn't sound dangerous enough, he also added a
handmade wouldn't propel her to the back of the engine
to help propel the rig through the snow. I mean
this guy, this is I love this story anyway. Actually,
(07:08):
it was that last part that ultimately led his dad
to order the contraption be dismantled. Although Bombardier's younger brother
was able to pilot the prototype snowmobile for more than
half a mile, watching his son's speed across the snow.
That close to an open propeller, he said, made his
stomach turn.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
That is incredible. And of course, like as a dad
watching your kid like wander on this like rickety contraption.
What's also amazing to me is like the fact that
uh Bombardier got his hands on an engine, like a
fifteen year old kid, just like ending up with an
engine and two sleds and taking this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Especially at that time, you wouldn't think that it would
be that easy. But anyway, later on, when his dad
wasn't hovering over him, he perfected the invention, adding caterpillar
treads to the design.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So here's what I didn't know. It's that Eddie Bauer
invented the first puffy down jacket in nineteen thirty six,
and he actually he has a pattern on it. The
jacket was originally called the blizzard Proof Jacket and later
was rebranded as the Skyliner. I guess. But Bower's coat
was unusual because it used goose down to maximize warmth
and breathed the ability. But the thing that's most interesting
(08:14):
about this whole story is that the coat was actually
created out of necessity. It was after Bauer had nearly
died of hypothermia while on a winter fishing trip, so
you can imagine not only was Bauer the owner of
this sporting good store that was kind of famous, but
he also loved the outdoors. So this was January of
nineteen thirty six. His friend asked him to go fishing,
and he decided to jump at the chance, and the
(08:35):
day went super well. They caught about one hundred pounds
of steel head in a matter of hours, which is
I guess impressive. But as Bauer was hiking back to
his car, he was soaked from the sweat and also
just tired from this bag of fish he was hauling,
and he started to fall asleep on his feet. Apparently
the moisture in the wool clothes had actually frozen in
(08:55):
the cold, and hypothermia was setting in. But Bauer was
an outdoorsman and he was quick thinking. He actually had
a gun on him, so he shot it twice in
the air to signal to his friend, and his friend
came running and saved him. But apparently after he almost
died from hypothermia, he realized that people really needed a
lightweight jacket that could be worn comfortably. Especially in cold weather,
(09:15):
while they were doing things that were like strenuous or
working or whatever. And the very next year he invented
the down jacket.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I actually didn't realize that Eddie Bauer himself had invented
so many of these things. But yeah, well here's a
quick one, since we're talking about staying warm. I was
actually looking up facts about mittens, so I actually.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Looked up facts about mittens too, But the only thing
I found that was even remotely interesting was there's something
called a beer mitten.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, even though I was about to share my fact,
I have to ask what is a beer mitten.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I guess it's like a mitten and a beer koozy
in one, so like you can keep her hands warm
and your beer cold.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's this Icelandic convention and there are all these knitting
patterns from them online. But the weird thing is that
it's super single purpose, so you can't really do anything
other than drink and hold a beverage in your hand
if you're wearing a beer midden.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
But I did cut you off. So you said you
were looking up middens.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well, I'm glad you found something, because I didn't find
anything great. But you know, one thing I did find
was that mittens are surprisingly old, like they've been around
since prehistoric times. What's interesting is, according to a publication
called Fashion Time, is that the earliest gloves were found
in King tuts Too, and since he died around thirteen
twenty three BCE, that actually makes the oldest known pair
(10:29):
of gloves well over thirty three hundred years old.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's weird to think that gloves are like three thousand
years old and ear muffs are only like one hundred
and fifty years old. But speaking of muffs, which is
not a transition, I normally about to say, do you
know what hand muffs are?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I don't what are hand muffs?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
They are like those furry cylindrical things that rich people wear.
Sometimes you see him in like old Hollywood movies or
in ski towns, and you know, people just stuff their
hands into them. But apparently hand muffs have been a
staff to symbols since the fourteen hundreds, and they've actually
been called different things in different places. In France they're
called man sean. In England they were called snuffkins, which
(11:09):
I like. But the name we know it by came
from the Flemish word mouf or muff, and according to
the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, this trend grew in
popularity after the colonies started sending furs to Europe. So
women in England and France would actually warm their hands
with the furs of sables or martins, and sometimes they
jazz up their muffs with stylish accessories, so listen to this.
(11:30):
They'd actually add bejeweled animal skulls to hang.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
From the chain, which is so weird it is to me.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Also, fashionable women in the sixteenth century would tote their
tiny dogs in them, so they're kind of like the
tiny dog purses you see today. And weirdly, men also
got in on this muff craze, although of course they
wanted to wear more manly furs like otter and tiger,
and people who were cash strapped and just kind of
aspiring fashionistas they'd settle for lesser animals like squirrel.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Fur muffs knew they were so to history there.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I feel like we've learned enough about hand muffs for
a while, so why don't we take a quick break
and come back with two more facts. Welcome back to
Part time Genius. We're talking about winter inventions. All right, mego,
(12:25):
so what do you want to end with here?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
So, in honor of my cold, which doesn't seem to
go away, ever, how about we talk about Kleenex.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So how long have you been sick? Now? Is it
thirty eight years?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I think so. I feel like every time I start
to get better, my kids bring back like different germs
to invade my system. But back to Kleenexes. And so,
it is fairly obvious that handkerchiefs pre date disposable tissues
by several centuries, you know, but the disposable option is
actually older than you might guess. It turns out the
Japanese have been using disposable facial tissues since about the
(12:57):
seventeenth century, and they use a super far paper called Washy.
The Western world, though they were a little later of
the game, they didn't get into until the nineteen twenties.
And that's when Kimberly Clark Corporation, which I'm sure you've
heard of, they released Kleenex to the market in nineteen
twenty four. But this is the weird part. Kleenex actually
wasn't intended for blowing your nose at all. Instead, Kleenex
(13:18):
tissues were originally men as a way for women to
remove cold cream and clean their faces, which is where
the clean in the name comes from. So even the
early ads from the period have like Hollywood makeup departments
endorsing them, and they show movie stars like Helen Hayes
or Gene Harlow and how they supposedly used Kleenex to
wipe off the theater makeup. But the public sort of immediately
(13:40):
knew what to do with them, and within two years
Kimberly Clark was getting all these letters from customers praising
Kleenex as the perfect disposable handkerchief. Apparently sixty percent of
customers used Kleenex for blowing their noses, which totally outnumbered
the number who were using them to wipe off the
cold cream, and Kimberly Clark took the hint. By nineteen thirty,
the company he had completely changed course and changed their
(14:02):
marketing entirely, and Kleenex sales.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Had doubled as a result.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Wow, So, well, what fact do you want to end on? All? Right?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Well, since I started with the fact about artificial snow,
I kind of want to end with one on how
man made snow got invented in.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The first place.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But before we talk about the snow, actually, let's talk
about a special kind of ice that's called rime. So
when the water vapor in a cloud or fog collects
on the surface of an object, it can sometimes freeze
and form this white ice frost, which is rime. So
in the nineteen forties there was this low temperature lab
in Canada that was experimenting to see what kind of
(14:37):
effect rime had on the intakes of a jet engine.
So to recreate the icing effect in their lab, these
researchers sprayed water in front of the engine that they
had suspended in their wind tunnel. But instead of creating rime,
they accidentally started making snow, and I mean a lot
of snow. And according to the team's report, they had
to shut down the engine multiple times just to shovel
(14:59):
snow out of the wind tunnel. It's been so much.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Fun funny, and I mean it does feel like a
loud way to make snowed right, Like they must have
refined snowmakers over the years.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I guess so I those Canadian scientists were just the
first to accidentally make snow. I mean, now the process
is way quieter. So anyway, after all these facts, who
do you think deserves today's trophy?
Speaker 3 (15:21):
You know, I like the one about the ear muff
dude Chester, but I actually really love I feel like
the one that's gonna be most memorable to me is
the cornflake fact and the fact that people used to
paint all these cornflakes white to make snow in movies.
It's crazy. I think that's probably my favorite fact. So
I think you deserve the trophy today.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
All right, well, I will take it, and that's it
for today's part time genius. If you've got some fun
snow or ice or winter facts to share, we'd love
to hear those from you. We also love to just
hear topics from you, guys, if you ever have ideas
for episodes, but from Gab Tristan Mango. Actually I think
Tristan fell asleep in a slank at Mago. But anyway,
thanks so much for listening to
Speaker 3 (16:11):
The gl
Guess what mango's that will. So I was flipping through
the channels the other day and there was the sitcom
on TV and I started thinking about this because there
was snow on the ground, and I was wondering how
they make that fake snow for TV and movies because
you think about all the things that could melt the
snow there, Like there's these hot lights, they have these
long shoots, and they can't use real snow obviously. So
(00:23):
I looked it up and where do you find out? Well,
the good news a lot of it. It's edible mango.
You can eat all that snow. So in early movies
they use corn flakes that were painted white to make snow.
But then when sound came into film, you know, obviously
all the crunchy sounds would be too loud if they
were stepping on it, so they had to find a replacement.
(00:44):
And over the years, sets have used everything from firefighting
foam to instant potato flakes to flower, even marble dust.
But the stuff they used today is actually mostly paper.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Believe it or not. That's pretty weird.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I feel like paper is the last thing I would
have expected for like fake snow and movies.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, I wouldn't have thought about that either, But you know,
it's available in all different grains and sizes depending on
what kind of snow you're looking for. But actually the
process of making it is pretty cool. So the paper
snow is packaged in these huge bales and then it
shot through a special hose that lightly dampens the paper
so that it will stick to whatever it lands on,
just like snow. And according to Roland Hathaway of the
(01:25):
Snow Business Hollywood, are you familiar with snow Business Hollywood?
Oh yeah, the technique can cover up to thirty seven
square meters per minute, plus it never melts. So that's
just the burst of nine facts we've got for you
today about winter time inventions.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh hot ticketter and sitting behind the soundproof booth
wrapped up in his slanket Mango.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I know, which I really thought was like an off
brand Snuggie, but Tristan insists it's the original blanket with sleeve.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
He is very passionate about this. Yes, that's our friend
and producer Tristan McNeil, so mango. I know it's boring
to talk about the weather, but the weather definitely inspired
this week's episode.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I know, this weekend was so miserable in New York City.
It was just like rainy and wet, and when you've
got two feral kids like I do, who are just
like hard to tame and even harder to keep indoors,
it is truly miserable. But uh, you know, anyway, all
this winter weather made us wonder, like, what are some
great wintertime inventions worth celebrating?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, yeah, actually I love that old quote that everyone
always talks about the weather, but no one does anything
about it.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
And we definitely have a few people on this list
who did something about it, including my first fact, which
is about ear muffs. So I don't know if I
knew this before and forgot it or I just never
heard this, but the inventor of the ear muffs was
a fifteen year old boy from May named Chester Greenwood,
and Chester had this horrible allergy to wool.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So before you could keep the story going, well when
are we talking about here?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I think it was like the late eighteen hundreds, so yeah,
might not say eighteen seventy three, And of course it's
surprising that a kid invented them, but you know, basically,
Chester wanted to go skating with his friends at the pond,
which of course sounds so wholesome and so American, but
you know, he couldn't wear a hat because of this
wool allergy he had, and his ears got so cold
(03:38):
that he had to turn around and go home immediately.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And apparently this was a pretty common occurrence.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
For little Chester, but this time he was totally fed up,
and when he got home he asked his grandmam to
help him assemble this thing he'd been thinking about. It
was like little shields for his ears, and once he
described what he wanted, his Grandmam got out her sewing
materials and she whipped up the world's first pair of
ear muffs and the device Chester later called it the
(04:03):
Greenwood Champion Ear Protectors.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh, I like that name. We should call him that down.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I feel like it's a much better name than ear muffs.
But the original muffs were made from beaver fur on
the outside and velvet on the ear side, and it
had a band of wire connecting it too. And over
the years, Chester improved on the design and he patented
it and by the time he was twenty five, he'd
actually become the owner of an ear muff factory that
cranked out fifty thousand pairs every year.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Wow, that's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it gave come me the
weirdest thing about this. Apparently, like Chester's legend, or the
legend of his ears and their sensitivity grew over the
years into like something of a myth, and even like
the Wall Street Journal report on it, and this is
what they said, quote Chester Greenwood's ears were so sensitive
that they turned chalky white, then beat red, and deep
(04:51):
blue in that order when the mercury dead.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Wow blue.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I know it feels like a gobstopper or something, but
you know it's total nonsense. According to his grandkids' ears
were just cold, just big and cold.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, that's much less dramatic. Oh well, here's a quick
fact that I liked. Did you know that the first
makeshift snow vehicles that were used in the northern US
and Canada were actually just pimped out model ts. Apparently
this started as far back as the nineteen tens, when
people would remove the cars undercarriage and then what they
would do is they would mount a pair of skis
to the front and a set of tracks to the rear.
(05:27):
So these converted cars were referred to as snowflyers, and
they were a god send to these rural residents, especially
when it came to mail delivery.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Oh that's really interesting. I like that people were almost
like hacking forwards, like it's ikea furniture or something. Pretty
soon after they were.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Made, right, Yeah, I mean I think it was just
a year or two after the first model te came
out that people thought to put them on skis. But anyway,
while I'm talking about snow vehicles, I'm actually gonna throw
out another fact. The first snowmobile was invented by a
fifteen year old, So I'm gonna match your fifteen year
old fact with one of my own.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I feel like inventing a snowmobile is like a little
bit more impressive than getting your grandmam to sew some
ear musk.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Well, the story's pretty fascinating. So apparently in nineteen twenty
two there was this kid from Quebec named Joseph Armand Bombardier,
and he built and tested the first full scale snowmobile.
So Joe Armand had been interested in playing with mechanical
things since he was a kid, and had been making
his own since he was thirteen. He built these toy
tractors and boats for his younger siblings. He had made
(06:29):
a steam powered spinning wheel for his aunt, and even
a miniature train that he built with his old clock part.
So yeah, the guy was pretty resourceful. But none of
those prior works could prepare Bombardier's family for what he
sprang on them.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
On New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So, taking a queue from the locals, he had started
with the model T engine, but rather than use the
rest of the car, this young inventor instead mounted the
engine to two wooden sleds that he hitched together. And
if that doesn't sound dangerous enough, he also added a
handmade wouldn't propel her to the back of the engine
to help propel the rig through the snow. I mean
this guy, this is I love this story anyway. Actually,
(07:08):
it was that last part that ultimately led his dad
to order the contraption be dismantled. Although Bombardier's younger brother
was able to pilot the prototype snowmobile for more than
half a mile, watching his son's speed across the snow.
That close to an open propeller, he said, made his
stomach turn.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
That is incredible. And of course, like as a dad
watching your kid like wander on this like rickety contraption.
What's also amazing to me is like the fact that
uh Bombardier got his hands on an engine, like a
fifteen year old kid, just like ending up with an
engine and two sleds and taking this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Especially at that time, you wouldn't think that it would
be that easy. But anyway, later on, when his dad
wasn't hovering over him, he perfected the invention, adding caterpillar
treads to the design.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So here's what I didn't know. It's that Eddie Bauer
invented the first puffy down jacket in nineteen thirty six,
and he actually he has a pattern on it. The
jacket was originally called the blizzard Proof Jacket and later
was rebranded as the Skyliner. I guess. But Bower's coat
was unusual because it used goose down to maximize warmth
and breathed the ability. But the thing that's most interesting
(08:14):
about this whole story is that the coat was actually
created out of necessity. It was after Bauer had nearly
died of hypothermia while on a winter fishing trip, so
you can imagine not only was Bauer the owner of
this sporting good store that was kind of famous, but
he also loved the outdoors. So this was January of
nineteen thirty six. His friend asked him to go fishing,
and he decided to jump at the chance, and the
(08:35):
day went super well. They caught about one hundred pounds
of steel head in a matter of hours, which is
I guess impressive. But as Bauer was hiking back to
his car, he was soaked from the sweat and also
just tired from this bag of fish he was hauling,
and he started to fall asleep on his feet. Apparently
the moisture in the wool clothes had actually frozen in
(08:55):
the cold, and hypothermia was setting in. But Bauer was
an outdoorsman and he was quick thinking. He actually had
a gun on him, so he shot it twice in
the air to signal to his friend, and his friend
came running and saved him. But apparently after he almost
died from hypothermia, he realized that people really needed a
lightweight jacket that could be worn comfortably. Especially in cold weather,
(09:15):
while they were doing things that were like strenuous or
working or whatever. And the very next year he invented
the down jacket.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I actually didn't realize that Eddie Bauer himself had invented
so many of these things. But yeah, well here's a
quick one, since we're talking about staying warm. I was
actually looking up facts about mittens, so I actually.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Looked up facts about mittens too, But the only thing
I found that was even remotely interesting was there's something
called a beer mitten.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, even though I was about to share my fact,
I have to ask what is a beer mitten.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I guess it's like a mitten and a beer koozy
in one, so like you can keep her hands warm
and your beer cold.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's this Icelandic convention and there are all these knitting
patterns from them online. But the weird thing is that
it's super single purpose, so you can't really do anything
other than drink and hold a beverage in your hand
if you're wearing a beer midden.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
But I did cut you off. So you said you
were looking up middens.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well, I'm glad you found something, because I didn't find
anything great. But you know, one thing I did find
was that mittens are surprisingly old, like they've been around
since prehistoric times. What's interesting is, according to a publication
called Fashion Time, is that the earliest gloves were found
in King tuts Too, and since he died around thirteen
twenty three BCE, that actually makes the oldest known pair
(10:29):
of gloves well over thirty three hundred years old.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's weird to think that gloves are like three thousand
years old and ear muffs are only like one hundred
and fifty years old. But speaking of muffs, which is
not a transition, I normally about to say, do you
know what hand muffs are?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I don't what are hand muffs?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
They are like those furry cylindrical things that rich people wear.
Sometimes you see him in like old Hollywood movies or
in ski towns, and you know, people just stuff their
hands into them. But apparently hand muffs have been a
staff to symbols since the fourteen hundreds, and they've actually
been called different things in different places. In France they're
called man sean. In England they were called snuffkins, which
(11:09):
I like. But the name we know it by came
from the Flemish word mouf or muff, and according to
the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, this trend grew in
popularity after the colonies started sending furs to Europe. So
women in England and France would actually warm their hands
with the furs of sables or martins, and sometimes they
jazz up their muffs with stylish accessories, so listen to this.
(11:30):
They'd actually add bejeweled animal skulls to hang.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
From the chain, which is so weird it is to me.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Also, fashionable women in the sixteenth century would tote their
tiny dogs in them, so they're kind of like the
tiny dog purses you see today. And weirdly, men also
got in on this muff craze, although of course they
wanted to wear more manly furs like otter and tiger,
and people who were cash strapped and just kind of
aspiring fashionistas they'd settle for lesser animals like squirrel.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Fur muffs knew they were so to history there.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I feel like we've learned enough about hand muffs for
a while, so why don't we take a quick break
and come back with two more facts. Welcome back to
Part time Genius. We're talking about winter inventions. All right, mego,
(12:25):
so what do you want to end with here?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
So, in honor of my cold, which doesn't seem to
go away, ever, how about we talk about Kleenex.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So how long have you been sick? Now? Is it
thirty eight years?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I think so. I feel like every time I start
to get better, my kids bring back like different germs
to invade my system. But back to Kleenexes. And so,
it is fairly obvious that handkerchiefs pre date disposable tissues
by several centuries, you know, but the disposable option is
actually older than you might guess. It turns out the
Japanese have been using disposable facial tissues since about the
(12:57):
seventeenth century, and they use a super far paper called Washy.
The Western world, though they were a little later of
the game, they didn't get into until the nineteen twenties.
And that's when Kimberly Clark Corporation, which I'm sure you've
heard of, they released Kleenex to the market in nineteen
twenty four. But this is the weird part. Kleenex actually
wasn't intended for blowing your nose at all. Instead, Kleenex
(13:18):
tissues were originally men as a way for women to
remove cold cream and clean their faces, which is where
the clean in the name comes from. So even the
early ads from the period have like Hollywood makeup departments
endorsing them, and they show movie stars like Helen Hayes
or Gene Harlow and how they supposedly used Kleenex to
wipe off the theater makeup. But the public sort of immediately
(13:40):
knew what to do with them, and within two years
Kimberly Clark was getting all these letters from customers praising
Kleenex as the perfect disposable handkerchief. Apparently sixty percent of
customers used Kleenex for blowing their noses, which totally outnumbered
the number who were using them to wipe off the
cold cream, and Kimberly Clark took the hint. By nineteen thirty,
the company he had completely changed course and changed their
(14:02):
marketing entirely, and Kleenex sales.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Had doubled as a result.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Wow, So, well, what fact do you want to end on? All? Right?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Well, since I started with the fact about artificial snow,
I kind of want to end with one on how
man made snow got invented in.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The first place.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But before we talk about the snow, actually, let's talk
about a special kind of ice that's called rime. So
when the water vapor in a cloud or fog collects
on the surface of an object, it can sometimes freeze
and form this white ice frost, which is rime. So
in the nineteen forties there was this low temperature lab
in Canada that was experimenting to see what kind of
(14:37):
effect rime had on the intakes of a jet engine.
So to recreate the icing effect in their lab, these
researchers sprayed water in front of the engine that they
had suspended in their wind tunnel. But instead of creating rime,
they accidentally started making snow, and I mean a lot
of snow. And according to the team's report, they had
to shut down the engine multiple times just to shovel
(14:59):
snow out of the wind tunnel. It's been so much.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Fun funny, and I mean it does feel like a
loud way to make snowed right, Like they must have
refined snowmakers over the years.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I guess so I those Canadian scientists were just the
first to accidentally make snow. I mean, now the process
is way quieter. So anyway, after all these facts, who
do you think deserves today's trophy?
Speaker 3 (15:21):
You know, I like the one about the ear muff
dude Chester, but I actually really love I feel like
the one that's gonna be most memorable to me is
the cornflake fact and the fact that people used to
paint all these cornflakes white to make snow in movies.
It's crazy. I think that's probably my favorite fact. So
I think you deserve the trophy today.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
All right, well, I will take it, and that's it
for today's part time genius. If you've got some fun
snow or ice or winter facts to share, we'd love
to hear those from you. We also love to just
hear topics from you, guys, if you ever have ideas
for episodes, but from Gab Tristan Mango. Actually I think
Tristan fell asleep in a slank at Mago. But anyway,
thanks so much for listening to
Speaker 3 (16:11):
The gl
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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