It’s Time to Tune Up Your Palmer Furnace!©

 

 

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

Daylight saving time ended in the United States last weekend, and it’s time to tune up your Palmer Furnace!

 

What’s a “Palmer Furnace” you ask?  Well, it’s an innovative, and time tested technique for warming up when it is cold outside.  It was named after Dr. Arthur N. Palmer, a speleologist who taught at the State University of New York at Oneonta, by his students.  

 

“The Palmer Furnace, as perfected by Arthur N. Palmer.  When you are cold, you sit down.  Remove your carbide lamp from your hardhat.  Pull out your shirt from your body and hold the lamp at the bottom edge, so that the heated air rises through the “chimney” between your body and the stretched-out shirt.  After a few minutes, you will have a toasty, warm belly and a better attitude...” – From Caving Basics, 1982, page 39.

 

Besides a shirt or coat, you can use a poncho, a trash bag (with a slit for your face), a piece of plastic, a mylar survival wrap, or a blanket to block the wind and wet, and to channel the heat of a burning candle, a heat tab, a carbide lamp or even a pinch of C-4, around your core!

 

Don’t sit on the ground, it will suck the heat from you, sit on a closed cell, foam pad, a dry log, or a heap of evergreen boughs, dry leaves, or branches piled at least four fingers high when compressed.  If nothing is available to sit on, or time is a factor, crouch down with only the bottom of your feet on the ground.

 

Dig a small hole four inches wide by four inches deep (10 cm x 10 cm) in the ground between your feet, line it with a square of aluminum foil, to reflect the heat and light from your heat source.   Be careful to keep open flames away from any material.  A four inch (10 cm) high, one ounce survival candle will burn for 3-¼ hours if sheltered from the wind.  A ½ ounce (14 gram) tealight candle in its aluminum cup will also burn for between three and four hours.

 

Build A Palmer Furnace Kit

 

So, before you go out into the woods this fall, tune up your Palmer Furnace kit or build one, and ALWAYS remember to slip it into your pocket before you leave your house.

 

·       1      Five ounce (140 grams), contractor grade,  heavy-duty 55 Gallon, 3.0 Mil, 38"W x 58"H, trash bags.  Rip or cut a face hole about 5 inches (12.5 cm) below one of the bottom corners of the bag 5 to 10 inches (12.5 to 25 cm) long.

·       1      ¾ ounce (21 grams), BIC full size lighter.

·       4      ½ ounce (14 grams) tealight candles.

·       1      ⅛ ounce (4 grams) 12 inch (30 cm) square piece of aluminum foil.

 

The total weight of a Palmer Furnace kit is less than ½ a pound (224 grams) or about the weight of two 3.29 oz (92 gram) SNICKERS® Milk Chocolate Candy Bar Sharing Size, so there is no excuse for not carrying it with you when you adventure.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Pearl; “Pearl’s Cold Climate Survival Candle”, United States Army Aviation Digest, Volume 18, October 1972, page 40, https://books.google.com/books?id=fX_PMHbuxfQC&pg=RA8-PA40&dq=shelter+candle+heat&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhh-Cy28aJAxXohIkEHZPnFAI4ChDoAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=shelter%20candle%20heat&f=false, accessed November 9, 2024

 

U.S. Department of The Army; Guide For Platoon Sergeant, PAM 350-13, [Headquarters, Dept of the Army, August 1967], page 87, https://books.google.com/books?id=0h25AAAAIAAJ&pg=PP7&dq=pam+350-13&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9u9if5dCJAxUgpIkEHbwEJcUQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=pam%20350-13&f=false, accessed November 9, 2024