Eskimo snow house or snow igloo
Harsh natural conditions forced the inhabitants of the north to build shelters for themselves. The building material that allowed the Eskimos to build a home was snow. Possessing amazing properties, it protected people from wind and low temperatures. And if you have a candle with you and light it inside, you can easily warm yourself up in such a home. In addition, snow can transmit light and water vapor. What is surprising is that when a candle or lamp burns, the walls of such a dwelling melt, but do not melt. An Eskimo house may also consist of separate ice huts connected by passages.
There are basic rules that you need to know in order to make an igloo out of snow :
- you can dig with a knife, saw, bowl and shovel;
- do not make the shelter large (the smaller, the warmer);
- the cracks are covered with snow;
- try not to sweat (remove excess clothing);
- When constructing an igloo from snow, it is necessary to use a bedding made of waterproof material.
If you try and find a huge snowdrift, you can build an entire Eskimo house in it. It looks like a cave. The entrance can be dug into the wall lower and a small corridor can be added to strengthen the structure. The diameter at the base can be 3 or 4 meters. The low construction of the entrance to the igloo is due to the fact that the warm air rising to the top does not evaporate. The heavier carbon dioxide sinks down and comes out. Lighting shines directly through the walls. You can make a window using ice instead of glass. Inside, make flooring from skins on the floor and on the walls too. Now the real Eskimo house is ready. You can light a candle or fat lamp inside.
Ice igloo technologies: - 40° outside and + 20° inside
Looking at small houses created from cubes of ice or snow, most of us wonder: “How can you live in such a strange house in harsh conditions?” But the northern peoples know that there is nothing more reliable than ice igloos, and if they are built correctly, then at a temperature of - 40° outside, it will be + 20° indoors! Our further story will tell you what needs to be done to live in comfortable conditions in an extreme climate zone.
An igloo is a traditional winter home for the Eskimos. | Photo: ru.depositphotos.com/politeka.net.
Looking at small hemispheres created from snow or ice, it is difficult for an ordinary person living in temperate or subtropical zones to even imagine how a person can exist in such conditions. But not everything is as incomprehensible as it seems at first glance; it is enough to understand construction technology and know some laws of physics, and it will immediately become clear why an igloo is considered the most reliable winter shelter among all northern peoples.
Recently, igloo hotels have become very popular. | Photo: funon.cc.
Information from the editors of Novate.Ru: An igloo is a dome-shaped structure created from ice blocks, compacted snow, or cut from a snowdrift of suitable density and size. Such a structure is a traditional place of residence for indigenous peoples living on the polar coast of North America from Greenland to Nunavut and in the northeastern part of Chukotka. These people belong to the Arctic race; the more common name for the nationality is Eskimos.
The smaller the igloo, the warmer and more comfortable it will be inside. | Photo: vesti.ru.
Since ancient times, people have known that the smaller the room, the warmer it will be inside. It is this knowledge that the Eskimos make full use of when creating ice or snow houses, which is why no one makes huge domes. The most optimal sizes for building an igloo for one person to live in are hemispheres with a diameter of 2.7 m. But for a family of 3 people, a building diameter of 3.4 m will be sufficient. As a rule, the height of any of these buildings does not exceed 2 m.
The fastest way to get a home is to make an igloo in a large snowdrift. | Photo: nepropadu.ru/ drive2.ru.
Considering that it is very difficult to cut squares of the desired shape from ice, wind-compacted or well-packed snow is most often used, which, after construction is completed, is watered from the outside with water in order to strengthen and “insulate” the structure as much as possible. But the simplest way to build housing is considered to be when excess snow is removed from a deep snowdrift, the walls are compacted and the exit is strengthened. Moreover, the entrance hole (it cannot be called a traditional entrance!) is always made below floor level.
This strange arrangement is explained by physical laws that help maintain a comfortable temperature in a snow house and ensure proper air ventilation. In the case when the snowdrift does not have sufficient depth, they break through the wall at the lowest point and, separately, with the help of snow bricks, make a kind of sleeve-corridor through which you can... crawl into your house.
The entrance to the igloo will always be below floor level. | Photo: expo-capital.rf.
Note: The location of the entrance “door” in the form of a hole of the required diameter below the floor level is mandatory when creating an igloo from any “building” material, so you can only get inside by crawling.
An ordinary person cannot build an igloo on his own; Eskimos learn this skill all their lives. | Photo: dead-v-life.ru/bolshoyvopros.ru.
Assembling an Eskimo house from “bricks” made from snow and ice is a more complex and time-consuming process. Thanks to the Canadian polar explorer, ethnographer and writer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the first non-Eskimo to build an igloo with his own hands in 1914, now we can learn all the secrets of the reliability of the Eskimos’ winter shelter.
To keep the igloo warm, you need to know all the technological subtleties of creation. | Photo: turpohod.org/pikabu.ru.
As it turned out, the traditional housing of the northern peoples owes its strength to the unique shape of the blocks from which it is created. It is this subtlety that allows the hut to be folded in a spiral (in the shape of a snail) with a gradual narrowing towards the top. It is also worth paying attention to the way the ice/snow blocks are installed. When laying each “brick” you should know that it must be in close contact with the previous row at three points simultaneously and with the same emphasis. In the upper part of the structure, when the completion of the masonry is nearing completion, a small gap is necessarily left, acting as a chimney. To further strengthen the rounded walls of the structure and the stability of the hut, the finished structure is watered from the outside in the same way as in the above-described method of creating an igloo.
Eskimo houses are illuminated using fat and a wick. | Photo: vamvigvam.ru.
Some settlements have windows in their homes to ensure more sunlight. Naturally, traditional glazing is not possible here, so ice blocks of the desired shape or cut up and cleaned seal stomachs are used as “windows”. If this is not done, then the main source of light becomes the snow itself or the translucency of the ice, as well as the chimney and the entrance hole to the igloo. During the onset of the polar winter, a tallow candle made of moss and deer fat is used for lighting, or a small bowl with fish/seal oil and a wick is installed.
Important! If the igloo was built correctly, then a completely comfortable temperature is maintained inside the ice/snow structure even without “heating”. It stays within + 16-20 degrees even if the thermometer outside drops below minus 40° Celsius.
Traditional interior of an Eskimo igloo. | Photo: travelask.ru.
The simple interior design of Eskimo housing is the same in all Arctic regions of the planet. To create at least some comfort, there are always skins on the floor of the igloo, and sometimes they are hung on the walls. To ensure a higher temperature when severe frosts set in, residents of ice houses begin to heat their houses using the same fat, only the bowl and wick will be larger. Food and hot drinks are also prepared over this fire.
Such “heating devices” not only help maintain a comfortable temperature in this energy-efficient housing, they contribute to additional strengthening of the structure only from the inside of the building. Due to the fact that the shell of the walls and the vaulted ceiling heat up, the snow begins to melt a little, although condensation and water will not drip onto the floor, because the upper layers will absorb it like a sponge. At the upper level, the water freezes in a matter of minutes. Thanks to this property, excess moisture evaporates, forming additional protection from wind and cold, while the inside of the igloo will always be dry and cozy.
Only a piece of ice serves as protection from the encroachments of polar bears. | Photo: gazeta.ru.
And another important issue related to the safety of housing, in order to retain more heat at night and prevent the appearance of unexpected guests in the form of a polar bear, the entrance inside the igloo is blocked with a large piece of ice. It is not known whether they make such a barrier in cases where all the houses of the settlement are connected to each other by additional tunnels under the snow, but the fact that such paths exist is a confirmed act.
Ice structures are valued not only by the Eskimos; in most of Russia, ice cellars have been very popular since ancient times. They were built in a special way to this day, ]]>these roofs without houses surprise modern residents of megacities,]]> but in distant villages, people cannot imagine their existence without them.
How to make an igloo out of snow with your own hands
One block must be placed tightly against the other by tapping with a knife. In this case, snow plays the role of cement. First you need to sand the horizontal seam, and then the vertical seam. Seal the chips with snow and fill the cracks that form during the construction of the igloo with your own hands with snow crumbs. It is very difficult to cut an exit without damaging the structure. In order to make a snow igloo durable, it is important to carefully approach the details.
When the process of laying snow slabs begins, a hole will form at the top. To prevent the last top slab from sliding off from above, it is placed in the form of a wedge. Such a snow brick seems to jam the ceiling hole. It is made larger than the hole so that it does not slip through.
In winter, at sub-zero temperatures, a snow igloo can last from 3 to 5 months. Eskimo housing is capable of maintaining a more or less stable temperature inside. In such a room the temperature ranges from -6° to +2°. If you light a candle, you can heat the room to +16°. But the Eskimos heated the igloos with lamps containing deer or seal fat. The temperature in such a dwelling rose to +20°, despite the fact that there was a frost of -40° all around. It was hot to sit in clothes, and they undressed. A small corridor also emerged from the snow. To protect against attacks by polar bears, the igloo was covered with a large block of snow at night.
How to avoid freezing inside a snow house
After compacting the floor into the snow igloo, a layer of spruce branches or fragments of tree branches is placed on it. You need to put the skis on top, bindings down. A cellophane film, a piece of fabric or a blanket is laid out on them. The skis are laid out like a fan, wider at the head and narrower at the feet. All people should lie on one side and press tightly against each other. The weakest ones should be in the middle. In extreme cold, do not lie on your back. If you have empty plastic water bottles available, you can place them under yourself. It is necessary to slightly unscrew the plugs before lying down. They will bend a little under the weight and will save you from lying on the snowy floor.
It must be remembered that hypothermia of the thigh is no less dangerous than hypothermia of the chest. It is better to remove wet clothes so as not to increase the cooling. You need to take turns sleeping. During a snowstorm, do not come out of shelter. Each exit outside introduces cold air into the snowy house. A lit candle, 10 cm in size, can burn for 2 hours. It is necessary to insulate your head and legs as much as possible, and put on a hood. You cannot undress in a shelter unless your clothes are wet. If your partner is trembling, do not be afraid - this is a protective reaction of the body. But if a person does not react to frost, this is dangerous. You can stretch your limbs and warm up with physical exercise.
The Eskimos built igloos with their own hands not to spend the night there for one day, or to wait out a snowstorm, but for a long time. Therefore, sunbeds were built inside the dwelling, also made of snow, on which two sets of skins were laid. The structure was strengthened due to the fact that the lamps with fat melted the snow house a little, they were extinguished and the walls were subject to icing. Then the skins were nailed to the walls and ceiling like carpets. Wooden pegs were used instead of nails. The wind did not penetrate into such housing at all. Each Eskimo could build an igloo in 40 minutes.
Not only military personnel, pilots and skiers should have an idea of how to make an igloo with their own hands, but also every person interested in their own survival in adverse conditions. It is necessary to be prepared for the twisting turns of fate, not to waste time in vain and in a calm environment to practice survival skills so as not to let yourself and your comrades down at the right moment.
Why do you need a snow house?
Eskimos live in the harsh conditions of the Far North, where cold winds constantly blow, bringing with them heavy snowfalls. Residents of this region survive thanks to herds of reindeer, which are constantly on the move in search of food in the tundra. Eskimos cannot have a permanent, strong house, since they have to move behind the herd. When stopping for the night, people learned to build huts from deer skins, placed on tied long sticks or whale ribs.
And during the long polar night, the Eskimos came up with another way to quickly build a shelter that would be strong, durable and warm. Many will find it strange how it is possible to build a warm dwelling out of snow, sheltering people in severe frosts and winds. But in fact, the Eskimo home is very warm. Travellers, climbers and Arctic researchers have been convinced of this more than once. So knowledge of the rules for building an igloo can be useful to all travel lovers and adventure seekers.
