Mel Grindol wrote:[many snips] > In the catalog they have what looks like your typical North Face, Marmot, > etc hiking shell. But the catch is that instead of being made of Gore-Tex > this jacket is made of Diaplex (and has the $400 list price to match, > although it's marked down to $200). > Then, as the day warms or activity raises your body temperature, > Micro-Brownian Motion causes its molecules to rearrange themselves, > opening millions of molecular windows to maximize heat and moisture transfer. > > Regardless of the outside temperature, our Diaplex jackets and pants > will work constantly to achieve an internal temperature of 32 F. ----- > They also have a cute little graph of Diaplex versus "conventional A". > Below 0 F it is basically unpermeable, above 20 F it is above the flat > line of the conventional A, but virtually flat itself. > Any thoughts from the chemists in the audience? Has anyone actually used > this stuff? I'm not saying that I want to run out and buy the jacket, > it just piqued my curiosity. Most of it sounds like advertising hype, but I am unfamiliar with the material. Micro Brownian motion is probably just a fancy word for molecular motion, caused by a rise in temperature. To get the change in molecular structure described to occur sharply at a given temperature, the material must undergo the equivalent of a phase change (akin to melting), much like the liquid crystals in the segments of an LCD numeral in your digital watch. In principle, one could design and manufacture a material which would do what is described. Have they done that? I don't know. Who owns one of these jackets? FWIW, Diaplex is a copyrighted name for a vitamin complex marketed in health food stores (Altavista search). -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Mar 17 1999 - 00:43:37 PST
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