Monday, July 28, 2008

Know more on gloves

GLOVE:
A glove (Middle English from Old English glof) is a type of garment which covers 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 separate finger openings or sheaths are called "mittens".
Gloves can serve to protect and comfort the hands of the wearer against cold or heat, physical 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 healthcare professionals as hygiene and contamination protection measures. Police officers often wear them to work in crimes scenes to prevent destroying evidence in the scene. Many criminals also wear these gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, which makes the crime investigation more difficult.
Fingerless gloves are useful for cold environments where dexterity is required that gloves would restrict. Cigarette smokers and church organists often use fingerless gloves. Some gloves include a gauntlet that extends partway up the arm. Cycling gloves for road racing or touring are usually fingerless.
What gloves are made of:
Gloves have been made of many materials including cloth, knitted or felted wool, leather, rubber, latex neoprene and metal. Modern gloves made Kevlar protect the wearer from cuts. Gloves and gauntlets are also integral components of pressure suits and spacesuits such as the Apollo/Skylab A7L which went to the moon. Spacesuit gloves must combine extreme toughness and environmental protection with a degree of sensitivity and flexibility if the astronaut is to do any manual work.
Today gloves are made around the world. Most expensive women's fashion gloves are still made in France, with some made in Canada. For cheaper male gloves New York State especially Gloversville, New York is still a world centre of glove manufacturing. More and more glove manufacturing is being done in East Asia, however.
HISTORY:
Gloves appear to be of great antiquity. According to some translations of homer's the odyssey, Laertes is described as wearing gloves while walking in his garden so as to avoid brambles.(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. Among the Romans also there are occasional references to the use of gloves. According to Pliny the younger, his uncle's shorthand writer wore gloves during the winter so as not impede the elder Pliny's work.
Gloves are also used for fashion, ceremonial, and religious purposes. British and European ladies in the 13th century began to wear gloves as fashion ornaments. They were made of linen and silk and sometimes reached to the elbow. 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 jeweled.
Embroidered and jeweled gloves also formed part of the insignia of emperors and kings. Thus Mathew 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. 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.
Pontificial gloves are liturgical ornaments used primarily by the pope, the cardinals, and the bishops. They may be worn only at the celebration of mass. 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 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. From the Frankish kingdom of custom spread to Rome, where liturgical gloves are first heard of in the earlier half of 11th century.
Latex gloves, ubiquitous in surgery and forensics, were developed by the Australian Ansell company.
TYPES OF GLOVE:
Commercial and industrial:
· Barbed wire handler's gloves
· Chainsaw gloves
· Firemen's gauntlets
· Medical gloves
· Welder's gloves
Sports and recreational:
· Archer's glove
· Baseball glove or catcher's mitt: in baseball, the players in the field wear gloves to help them to catch the ball and prevent injury to their hands.
· Billiards glove
· Boxing glove: a specialized padded mitten
· Cricket gloves:
The wicket keeper wears large webbed gloves, similar to those used in baseball.
The batsmen wear gloves with heavy paddind on the back, to protect the fingers from being struck with the ball.
· Cycling gloves
· Driving gloves- often leather to improve grip on the steering wheel.
· Eating glove
· Falconer's glove
· Football- goalkeeper's glove
· Fencing glove
· Gardening glove
· Ice hockey mitt
· Riding glove
· Motorcycling gloves
· Scuba diving gloves:
Cotton gloves; good abrasion but no thermal protection
Wet gloves; made of neoprene and allowing water entry
Dry gloves; made of rubber with a latex wrist seal to prevent water entry.
· Yatching
· Oven gloves- or oven mitts, are used when cooking.
· Wired glove
· Washing glove: a tool for washing the body
· Wheelchair gloves- for users of manual wheelchair
· Powerglove: an alternate controller for use with Nintendo entertailment system
Fashion gloves:
· Wedding and cotillion gloves
· Evening gloves
The wearing of gloves as a woman's fashion accessory fell out of favour in the latter decades of 20th century, except that girls still wear as part of 'dressy' outfits, such as church on easter Sunday. Ladies gloves for formal and semi formal wear come in three legths for women; wrist, elbow, and opera or full length( over the elbpw, reaching to biceps)
The most expensive are the full length gloves custom made of kid leather, satin, and stretch satin materials are extremely popular and there are mass produced varieties well within the average budget.
Gentlemen only wear fashion gloves on the most formal occasions. This is somewhat subjective, as men also may wear 'fashion' gloves outside of white tie occasions. Some find it to be in personal style, to protect their hands from allergens and germs, or to remove themselves from physical contact.
Winter gloves:
· Acrylic
· Woolen
· leather

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