WET SUITS 



287 



fairly snugly fitting outer garment. Figure 104 shows aquanaut Bill Tolbert with the snag suit 

 partially on and with it completely on. A single front zipper and double back zippers allow the 

 diver to insert his arms into the snag suit with ease. Lemon yellow coated nylon and white 

 stretch fabric were chosen to enhance underwater visibility. 



The mitts are removable under water to permit maximum finger dexterity for fine work. 

 They are replaced before the hand becomes painfully cold. At about 52 °F, aquanauts found that 

 they could remove their mitts for about a half minute, replace them for one quarter minute and 

 repeat the cycle. Figure 110 shows QMC R. Barth practicing the procedure in a training tank. 



Fig. 110. Aquanaut Barth adjusts 

 the cabel -powered ac control on 

 the electrically heated wet suit 

 during a swimming-pool test 



Resistance-Wire Circuitry 



The following factors were considered in the design of the resistance-wire circuitry: 



1. Maximum allowable separation to prevent hot-spots 



2. Flexibility of the wire configuration for maximum mobility 



3. Power distribution required of different body areas 



4. Wire diameter and specific resistivity of the wire material. 



The best available information about hot-spotting indicated a maximum allowable wire sep- 

 aration of about 3/8 in. The requirement for flexibility suggested that a sinusoidal or modified 

 sawtooth pattern would be appropriate. The power distribution to the various body areas was 

 shown in Table 39. Wire diameters in the range of B&S gauges 30 to 33 (0.010 to 0.007 in.) 



