A quick google on "wool wet calorie" revealed lots of sites that state 1
gram of wool releases 27 calories of heat when it becomes wet. However,
none of the sites I skimmed were anything like scientific--winter
preparedness, outdoors sites, and of course lots of fiber sites, but
nothing like a university site. ASI doesn't have much on wool, and
wool.com doesn't have much on wool characteristics.
My first hearing of this was in an Elizabeth Zimmerman book--I think the
almanac, but I'm not positive. She stated her husband waded into water
to retrieve a hunting dog, but his feet remained warm because of his
wool socks, which release heat when wet.
My own personal experience with such issues as filling the water troughs
for the sheep on winter days and getting my wool mittens wet doesn't
confirm the assertion. Cold water on mittens stays cold :) Maybe it's
because the wool's heat release is more than overbalanced by the
coldness of 40F water?
I did find one interesting site, full of conversions for yarn counts,
including (I kid you not!) asbestos!
<http://www.swicofil.com/companyinfo/manualyarnnumbering.html>
Another page of the same site has some great twist direction diagrams:
<http://www.swicofil.com/companyinfo/manualtwistdirection.html>
Well, as I page through the results of my search, I'm amazed at the
consistency of the information, but still none of the sites are
scientific. So it's impossible for me to say whether it's a myth or
reality.
Holly
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