A glove (Middle English from Old English glof) is a garment covering the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each finger are sometimes called gauntlets. Gloves which cover the entire hand or fist but do not have separate finger openings or sheaths are called mittens. Mittens are warmer than gloves made of the same material because fingers maintain their warmth better when they are in contact with each other. Reduced surface area reduces heat loss.
A hybrid of glove and mitten also exists, which contains open-ended sheaths for the four fingers (as in a fingerless glove, but not the thumb) and also an additional compartment encapsulating the four fingers as a mitten would. This compartment can be lifted off the fingers and folded back to allow the individual fingers ease of movement and access while the hand remains covered. The usual design is for the mitten cavity to be stitched onto the back of the fingerless glove only, allowing it to be flipped over (normally held back by Velcro or a button) to transform the garment from a mitten to a glove. These hybrids are called convertible mittens or glittens, a combination of "glove" and "mittens".
Gloves protect and comfort hands against cold or heat, damage by friction, abrasion or chemicals, and disease; or in turn to provide a guard for what a bare hand should not touch. Latex, nitrile rubber or vinyl disposable gloves are often worn by health care professionals as hygiene and contamination protection measures. Police officers often wear them to work in crime scenes to prevent destroying evidence in the scene. Many criminals wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, which makes the crime investigation more difficult. However, not all gloves prevent fingerprints from being left on the crime scene, depending on the material from which the glove is made.
Fingerless gloves are useful where dexterity is required that gloves would restrict. Cigarette smokers and church organists use fingerless gloves. Some gloves include a gauntlet that extends partway up the arm. Cycling gloves for road racing or touring are usually fingerless, as are sailing gloves.
Gloves are made of materials including cloth, knitted or felted wool, leather, rubber, latex, neoprene, and metal (as in mail). Gloves of kevlar protect the wearer from cuts. Gloves and gauntlets are integral components of pressure suits and spacesuits such as the Apollo/Skylab A7L which went to the moon. Spacesuit gloves combine toughness and environmental protection with a degree of sensitivity and flexibility.
Expensive women's fashion gloves are made in France, Canada and other countries. For cheaper male gloves New York State, especially Gloversville, New York is a center of glove manufacturing. More and more glove manufacturing is being done in East Asia, however.
Contents |
Gloves appear to be of great antiquity. According to some translations of Homer's The Odyssey, Laërtes is described as wearing gloves while walking in his garden so as to avoid the brambles.[1] (Other translations, however, insist that Laertes pulled his long sleeves over his hands.) Herodotus, in The History of Herodotus (440 BC), tells how Leotychides was incriminated by a glove (gauntlet) full of silver that he received as a bribe.[2] Among the Romans also there are occasional references to the use of gloves. According to Pliny the Younger (ca. 100), his uncle's shorthand writer wore gloves during the winter so as not to impede the elder Pliny's work.[3]
During the 13th century, gloves began to be worn by ladies as a fashion ornament.[1] They were made of linen and silk, and sometimes reached to the elbow.[1] Such worldly accoutrements were not for holy women, according to the early thirteenth-century Ancrene Wisse, written for their guidance.[4] Sumptuary laws were promulgated to restrain this vanity: against samite gloves in Bologna, 1294, against perfumed gloves in Rome, 1560.[5]
A Paris corporation or guild of glovers (gantiers) existed from the thirteenth century. They made them in skin or in fur.[6]
It was not until the 16th century that they reached their greatest elaboration, however, when Queen Elizabeth I set the fashion for wearing them richly embroidered and jewelled,[1] and for putting them on and taking them off during audiences, to draw attention to her beautiful hands.[7] In Paris, the gantiers became gantiers parfumeurs, for the scented oils, musk, ambergris and civet, that perfumed leather gloves, but their trade, which was an introduction at the court of Catherine de Medici,[8] was not specifically recognised until 1656, in a royal brevet. Makers of knitted gloves, which did not retain perfume and had less social cachet, were organised in a separate guild, of bonnetiers[9] who might knit silk as well as wool. Such workers were already organised in the fourteenth century. Knitted gloves were a refined handiwork that required five years of apprenticeship; defective work was subject to confiscation and burning.[10] In the 17th century, gloves made of soft chicken skin became fashionable. The craze for gloves called "limericks" also took hold. This particular glove-fad was the product of a manufacturer in Limerick, Ireland who fashioned the gloves from the skin of unborn calves.[11]
Embroidered and jewelled gloves also formed part of the insignia of emperors and kings. Thus Matthew of Paris, in recording the burial of Henry II of England in 1189, mentions that he was buried in his coronation robes with a golden crown on his head and gloves on his hands.[1] Gloves were also found on the hands of King John when his tomb was opened in 1797 and on those of King Edward I when his tomb was opened in 1774.[1]
Pontifical gloves are liturgical ornaments used primarily by the pope, the cardinals, and bishops.[1] They may be worn only at the celebration of mass.[1] The liturgical use of gloves has not been traced beyond the beginning of the 10th century, and their introduction may have been due to a simple desire to keep the hands clean for the holy mysteries, but others suggest that they were adopted as part of the increasing pomp with which the Carolingian bishops were surrounding themselves.[1] From the Frankish kingdom the custom spread to Rome, where liturgical gloves are first heard of in the earlier half of the 11th century.[1]
Early Formula One racing cars used steering wheels taken directly from road cars. They were normally made from wood necessitating the use of driving gloves.[12]
Latex gloves, ubiquitous in surgery and forensics, were developed by the Australian company Ansell.[13] Ansell also launched the ActivArmr line, which is dedicated to producing protective gloves for construction, plumbing, HVAC and military applications. [14]
Western lady's gloves for formal and semi-formal wear come in three lengths: wrist ("matinee"), elbow, and opera or full-length (over the elbow, reaching to the biceps). Satin and stretch satin are popular and mass-produced. Some women wear gloves as part of "dressy" outfits, such as for church and weddings. Long white gloves are common accessories for teenage girls attending formal events such as prom, cotillion, or formal ceremonies at church such as confirmation.
Fingerless gloves or "glovelettes" are garments worn on the hands which resemble regular gloves in most ways, except that the finger columns are half-length and opened, allowing the top-half of the wearer's fingers to be shown.
Fingerless gloves are often padded in the palm area, to provide protection to the hand, and the exposed fingers do not interfere with sensation or gripping. In contrast to traditional gloves, often worn for warmth, fingerless gloves will often have a ventilated back to allow the hands to cool; this is commonly seen in weightlifting gloves.
Fingerless gloves are also worn by bikers as a means to better grip the handlebars, as well as by skateboarders and rollerbladers, to protect the palms of the hands and add grip in the event of a fall. Some anglers, particularly fly fishermen, favour fingerless gloves to allow manipulation of line and tackle in cooler conditions.
A woolen variety became popular in the early 1980s, largely due to the example of English pop star Nik Kershaw.
Gloves which cover the entire hand but do not have separate finger openings or sheaths are called mittens. Generally, mittens still separate the thumb from the other four fingers. They have different colours and designs. Mittens have a higher thermal efficiency than gloves as they have a small surface area exposed to the cold.[19]
The earliest mittens known to archeologists date to around 1000AD[20] in Latvia. Mittens continue to be part of Latvian national costume today.[21] Wool biodegrades quickly, so it is likely that earlier mittens, possibly in other countries, may have existed but were not preserved. An exception is the specimen found during the excavations of the Early Medieval trading town of Dorestad in the Netherlands. In the harbour area a mitten of wool was discovered dating from the 8th or early 9th century.[22] Many people around the Arctic Circle have used mittens, including other Baltic peoples, Native Americans[23] and Vikings.[24] Mittens are a common sight on Ski slopes, as they not only provide extra warmth but extra protection from injury.
Idiot mittens describes two mittens connected by a length of yarn, string or lace, threaded through the sleeves of a coat. This arrangement is typically provided for small children to prevent the mittens becoming discarded and lost; when removed, the mittens simply dangle from the cuffs.[25][26]
Scratch mitts refers to mittens which do not separate the thumb, and are designed to prevent babies who do not yet have fine motor control from scratching their faces.[27][28]
Gunner's Mittens In the 1930s special fingerless mittens were introduced where a flap was located in the palm of the mitten so a hunter or soldier could have his finger free to fire his weapon. Developed for hunters first in the frigid zones of the US and Canada, eventually most military organizations copied them. [29]
There are a number of different European standards that relate to gloves. These include:
These exist to fulfill the PPE requirements.
PPE places gloves into three categories:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||