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SYSK Selects: How Igloos Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, it's Chuck here. It's Saturday, and you
0:04
Speaker 1: know what that means. It's time for Stuff you Should Know.
0:06
Speaker 1: Select episode curated by me. This one's about igloos. How
0:10
Speaker 1: much fun? Right from March two eleven, and this one
0:14
Speaker 1: should be landing here in the winter as well, so
0:17
Speaker 1: you can go out and build an igloo yourself, That's
0:19
Speaker 1: what I say, but be safe while you're doing it.
0:22
Speaker 1: There's a fun episode. I remember enjoying this one quite
0:24
Speaker 1: quite a lot, so I hope you guys like it.
0:30
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works
0:34
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
0:42
Speaker 1: Clark with me as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Hello, sir,
0:47
Speaker 1: it makes this stuff you should know. All right, it's right,
0:49
Speaker 1: unless I'm in the wrong place. You're a little under
0:51
Speaker 1: the weather still, Aren't you just as sick as I
0:54
Speaker 1: was when we recorded Fainting Goats? Yes? Not not ten
0:57
Speaker 1: minutes ago. Yes, So Chuck hasn't been sick all week.
1:01
Speaker 1: It'll probably just be a couple of days. So clear.
1:03
Speaker 1: If you have a robust um immune system for a
1:06
Speaker 1: man of your age, remember when you were actually sick
1:10
Speaker 1: for weeks and weeks like in year one. Yeah, and
1:14
Speaker 1: I think like eighteen podcasts were screwed up because I
1:17
Speaker 1: was just I could not get better. I thought, you,
1:19
Speaker 1: those are the unhealthy days. So you lead a much
1:21
Speaker 1: healthier lifestyle, much much healthier. You're not. We don't need
1:24
Speaker 1: to check you into the sanitarium like we had to
1:27
Speaker 1: back in the day. I'm okay, now I'm not. I've
1:29
Speaker 1: gotten over my consumption. Hopefully you will very soon. I
1:32
Speaker 1: have all faith that you will. Right, So, Chuck, while
1:37
Speaker 1: we're waiting for you to recuperate, I have I want
1:40
Speaker 1: to talk to you about technology specifically. Some of the
1:44
Speaker 1: oldest technology known to man clothes. Clothing is technology. Yeah
1:49
Speaker 1: so didn't think so, but it is, Chuck, Probably more
1:53
Speaker 1: than anything else. The thing that defines humanity is our
1:56
Speaker 1: desire and our ceaseless striving to become more than more
2:01
Speaker 1: than human, to take ourselves out of the rat race
2:06
Speaker 1: of evolution, the crapshoot of genetics, and to basically take
2:10
Speaker 1: hold of our biological destiny. Right. Yeah. We sort of
2:13
Speaker 1: did that with clothing many many, many years ago. Yeah,
2:16
Speaker 1: so that's that's what we do. We use technology to
2:19
Speaker 1: do that and clothing was one of the earliest ones.
2:21
Speaker 1: Because we are a subtropical species humans are. Yeah, we're
2:25
Speaker 1: not supposed to live in really cold places, right, but
2:28
Speaker 1: we do. We've managed to migrate from you know, somewhere
2:31
Speaker 1: near the equator where we can run around without clothes too. Yeah,
2:36
Speaker 1: because we're what they call the sexy epoch um to
2:40
Speaker 1: some colder climbs. Thanks to close Along the way, we
2:44
Speaker 1: um figured out that we could use hammers and or
2:48
Speaker 1: use stones for hammers and other tools. Um, and we
2:52
Speaker 1: figured out that we could build our our own shelters
2:55
Speaker 1: make things warm on the inside. Right. So eventually over
2:58
Speaker 1: the years we figure out enclosed heating systems. And then now,
3:02
Speaker 1: thanks to all this, we have swedes right Involvos. Involvos
3:06
Speaker 1: thanks to the sweds. So the technology of Volvos are
3:09
Speaker 1: a direct result of the technology of clothes. Wow, in
3:12
Speaker 1: a weird way, you're exactly right. But somewhere along the
3:15
Speaker 1: line there was a branch of that linear development of
3:21
Speaker 1: thought and talent of technology all the way to enclosed
3:25
Speaker 1: shelters that house swedes, where somebody figured out that you
3:29
Speaker 1: can make it enclosed shelter out of blocks of hard
3:32
Speaker 1: packed snow, and we know those today as ig loose. Yes,
3:37
Speaker 1: and do you know what the Inuit called the igloo igloos? Question?
3:43
Speaker 1: That's a good that's a great. That was a good
3:45
Speaker 1: question though, because, yeah, it's an Innuit word for what,
3:48
Speaker 1: believe it means snow house. So the Inuits are just
3:51
Speaker 1: among the most pragmatic speakers on the planet. You're very
3:56
Speaker 1: cut and dry. Yeah, they call their snow houses igloos, right,
3:59
Speaker 1: that just makes other sense. Yeah, we're talking about the
4:02
Speaker 1: Canadian tundra, Josh, and they uh, you know, tps and
4:06
Speaker 1: castles and other things that were being built were all
4:09
Speaker 1: well and good if you're in in Europe, or if
4:11
Speaker 1: you are in a warmer climate, let's say, like the
4:13
Speaker 1: Florida Painhandle, you don't have to take throught of ice
4:16
Speaker 1: to quarry stone exactly. But if you're in the Canadian tundra,
4:20
Speaker 1: those aren't really good options. So, uh, snow, hard packed
4:24
Speaker 1: snow became the masonry, if you will, for the Inuits. Right,
4:29
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get to this Eskimo thing. Yeah, yeah, um,
4:33
Speaker 1: Eskimo and Inuit are one and the same. There are
4:36
Speaker 1: two different terms for the same group of people. These
4:38
Speaker 1: people who Um inhabit areas spanning from Siberia to Alaska,
4:45
Speaker 1: Canada Greenland UM thirty five hundred mile range, right, yeah,
4:50
Speaker 1: which makes them the most widely spread Aboriginal group on
4:53
Speaker 1: the planet. Yeah. An Aboriginal, for those of you don't know,
4:57
Speaker 1: doesn't just refer to the Aborigines in Australia. It's any um,
5:02
Speaker 1: any any any indigenous indigenous, the first people in that region. Yes,
5:07
Speaker 1: or it would be Aboriginal, yes, okay, that was the
5:09
Speaker 1: ones you get pushed around by the Europeans Aboriginal um
5:14
Speaker 1: And if you want to insult in Inuit, you just
5:17
Speaker 1: go ahead and call them an Eskimo. Yeah. Apparently it's
5:19
Speaker 1: a derogatory term because it was a term that the
5:23
Speaker 1: white man gave. I think it was another tribe, was it, Yeah,
5:27
Speaker 1: but it was an outside group. I was just figure
5:29
Speaker 1: it's the white man. Yeah, So it was another group
5:32
Speaker 1: named them Eskimos, which um it was thought to mean
5:36
Speaker 1: eaters of raw meat or raw blubbers what I've heard
5:38
Speaker 1: as well, blubber. But then they later thought that eskimoment
5:41
Speaker 1: to netch snowshoes, to build snowshoes, and linguists can't prove it,
5:46
Speaker 1: although that's kind of what they think. But in the
5:50
Speaker 1: glory that is language, things can go from their original
5:54
Speaker 1: meaning to a popular meaning, and it's old meaning is meaningless. Yeah,
5:59
Speaker 1: it's only what people think or use, right, right, which
6:03
Speaker 1: is how l o l is a word, that's right.
6:06
Speaker 1: So we're going to refer to them, refer to them
6:09
Speaker 1: as Inuit, because that's the that's the way to do it.
6:12
Speaker 1: We don't want to alienate anybody, no, especially the Inuit,
6:15
Speaker 1: because they are tough people and they have survived for many, many,
6:19
Speaker 1: many years in conditions that don't seem to be survivable,
6:24
Speaker 1: especially way back in the day. But they made it through, right,
6:28
Speaker 1: and they're thriving actually too. We'll get to that in
6:30
Speaker 1: a second. Yeah, I was surprised to see that. But
6:32
Speaker 1: um chuck. A couple of other facts about these, uh,
6:34
Speaker 1: the Inuit, which means the people, right, So they call
6:38
Speaker 1: their snowhouses, they glues, they call themselves the people. It's
6:42
Speaker 1: just it's very spare. I could have been a good Innuit,
6:45
Speaker 1: I think. I think so too. Keep things simple, fall down, goat, Yeah,
6:52
Speaker 1: so they don't. They they have never really established a
6:56
Speaker 1: formal system of government. It's the family is generally the
7:00
Speaker 1: the center of the community. Yeah. Um, the class system.
7:04
Speaker 1: Males are the figure heads. Yeah. No, class system is
7:06
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Um. And basically, if you're a boy, you're
7:10
Speaker 1: a hunter. If you're a girl, you marry a hunter
7:13
Speaker 1: and hopefully produce more boy hunters because the everyone's equally
7:18
Speaker 1: responsible for coming up with food and I imagine every family,
7:22
Speaker 1: um is that's what that means. Every family is equally
7:25
Speaker 1: responsible for contributing to the food in the community. Yeah. Yeah,
7:29
Speaker 1: So the more boy hunters, the better. So um, fascinating group.
7:34
Speaker 1: And they have never lived in it loses permanent shelters, huh. Well. Yeah,
7:38
Speaker 1: And it's important that you mentioned hunting because clearly, if
7:41
Speaker 1: you are living on the Arctic tundra, there's one thing
7:44
Speaker 1: that you're probably not going to have, and that is
7:46
Speaker 1: a vegetable garden. So they are very carnivorous as a
7:50
Speaker 1: as a people. They do a lot of hunting. They
7:53
Speaker 1: did a lot of hunting of seals, which is probably
7:56
Speaker 1: they were called blubberry marketing blood reads and we're there
8:00
Speaker 1: are seals, is gonna be a lot of ice sea ice? Yeah,
8:04
Speaker 1: which leads to another peculiar trait of the Inuit. Peculiar
8:10
Speaker 1: meaning unique specific um kayak angst. Remember we talked about
8:15
Speaker 1: that on the webcast like a long time ago, remember that,
8:18
Speaker 1: and everything was cut off in the middle of it,
8:20
Speaker 1: and like it was Guy Kawasaki day. And I wrote
8:24
Speaker 1: a blog post on it saying like as I was
8:25
Speaker 1: saying before I was cut off, and kayak angst is this, um,
8:29
Speaker 1: it's a it's a condition specific only to the Inuit,
8:33
Speaker 1: where an Inuit males too, where you become afraid of
8:39
Speaker 1: going out to hunt seals in a kayak, usually following
8:44
Speaker 1: an episode where you've been up for several days. The
8:46
Speaker 1: sun very rarely sets because at summertime, which is the
8:50
Speaker 1: only time you're when when you can hunt seal really um,
8:54
Speaker 1: So you have a loss of sense of time. You're
8:57
Speaker 1: completely without any lamb mark, a reference point. It's all
9:01
Speaker 1: just horizon and sea ice. So you're without no bearings,
9:05
Speaker 1: no sense of time, and you doze off and wake up,
9:08
Speaker 1: and you have no idea how long you've been asleep,
9:11
Speaker 1: how far you've drifted, and you may be out there
9:14
Speaker 1: drifting for the rest of your life. And you finally
9:16
Speaker 1: do find land again, you make your way back to
9:18
Speaker 1: your community and you become terrified at the thought of
9:23
Speaker 1: getting back in a kayak again. Kayak angst Yeah, specific
9:27
Speaker 1: only to the Innuit. I don't remember that at all.
9:28
Speaker 1: That's so weird. Well you should read my blog posts.
9:31
Speaker 1: I usually have an inkling, but that that one doesn't
9:33
Speaker 1: ring true for me. So the Inuit did not live
9:38
Speaker 1: in iglas, Josh as you said, that is not true.
9:40
Speaker 1: People might think that um Inuit tribes just had igloos
9:44
Speaker 1: all over the place and that was their house. They
9:46
Speaker 1: were really hunting shelters. Yeah, it's like a hunting camp
9:49
Speaker 1: like um Robin Williams uh, fishing camping, insomnia, Yeah, except
9:55
Speaker 1: nutty because of no sleep and too much sun. Yeah.
9:58
Speaker 1: Well al Pacino was yeah right, that was Christopher Nolan,
10:02
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, he's just amazing. Although you had inception problems, right,
10:08
Speaker 1: it was really just Ellen Page. Get her out of
10:10
Speaker 1: the movie. You're okay. It wasn't even her necessarily, although
10:13
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of hers. Um. I think
10:15
Speaker 1: she's a she's a good actress and everything, but you know,
10:18
Speaker 1: I'll never forgere it for Juno. But um, it was
10:21
Speaker 1: more her character, Like clearly her character was put in
10:26
Speaker 1: afterward because the producers were like, or the studio execs
10:31
Speaker 1: were like, wait, what is going on? So they wrote
10:33
Speaker 1: in Ellen Page's character to explain everything to everybody at
10:36
Speaker 1: each step so that you can keep up with this
10:39
Speaker 1: really dense movie. You love getting me wound up about
10:43
Speaker 1: that inception around John All right, where were we the Innuits?
11:11
Speaker 1: They were hunting camps, like we said, and uh, they're
11:15
Speaker 1: still around today and they're booming. Um not igloos. Actually
11:19
Speaker 1: they're they're not quite as common, but they did a
11:22
Speaker 1: study who is just the human rights program in Canada
11:26
Speaker 1: in Canada Department of Canadian Heritage said that there could
11:29
Speaker 1: be as many as sixty eight thousand, four hundred Inuit
11:32
Speaker 1: in Canada only in Change. So um, yeah, they're they're
11:40
Speaker 1: booming as a people. Pretty cool. So they're thriving. Igloos
11:44
Speaker 1: are were never um, permanent shelters or structures for them,
11:48
Speaker 1: And um they had kayak angst One other thing too,
11:52
Speaker 1: eskimo kisses. Yeah, what's the deal there? So you know
11:54
Speaker 1: it's like rubbing the tip of your nose. Yeah, it's cute,
11:57
Speaker 1: it is. It's not entirely accurate though, I'm sure, but
12:01
Speaker 1: they did kiss with their noses. Yeah, but it was um,
12:04
Speaker 1: you would put your no, your nostrils to the face,
12:07
Speaker 1: usually around like the cheeks, right below the eyes. Um.
12:11
Speaker 1: The you would put your nose to a loved one's
12:14
Speaker 1: face like that and inhale deeply, and that was that's
12:17
Speaker 1: the real Escobote kiss. Who are Inuit kiss? Interesting, isn't it? Yeah?
12:20
Speaker 1: They had it wrong, though, you know how it right?
12:24
Speaker 1: The French. Yeah, they figured it out and everyone was like, oh, yeah,
12:29
Speaker 1: this is the way to kiss. Forget that no stuff,
12:31
Speaker 1: all right, So let's talk about igloos for a second.
12:34
Speaker 1: They were built out of blocks of ice. They are
12:37
Speaker 1: not built out of the kind of snow that you
12:40
Speaker 1: probably have in your front yard in Ohio in the wintertime.
12:45
Speaker 1: It depends on how what it was. Although my cousin
12:50
Speaker 1: in law, Alex Schreiber, Ohio State University student, built an
12:55
Speaker 1: igloo last winter. He and his buddies. Check this thing out, dude, nice, wow,
13:04
Speaker 1: I should post this. I'm gonna get to post this.
13:07
Speaker 1: But it's like seven ft tall at least. It's huge,
13:10
Speaker 1: and it's it's like really well constructed. He's sitting on
13:13
Speaker 1: top of it and it's not caving in. If I
13:15
Speaker 1: built an igloo that you know, it wouldn't last very long.
13:17
Speaker 1: Pretty cool though. That is a backyard in Ohio too.
13:20
Speaker 1: Yeah it's gray day, leafless trees everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, he
13:24
Speaker 1: and his buddies you know, clearly had enough boredhom in
13:27
Speaker 1: time to build this cool. So Alex Driver huh yeah, awesome.
13:31
Speaker 1: Is he listening right now? I hope? So yeah he listens,
13:34
Speaker 1: And I told I get my heads up. Yeah, well
13:36
Speaker 1: you have to post that he's gonna right back and say,
13:38
Speaker 1: don't mention the iglu don't they always huh yeah, so chuck.
13:43
Speaker 1: Even though like, um say, a hunting expedition went out
13:47
Speaker 1: or even a single hunter went out and built an iglu,
13:50
Speaker 1: um that that it wasn't just the single igloo every
13:55
Speaker 1: single time. Sometimes they lived in him for longer periods.
13:58
Speaker 1: Sometimes more people lived in a group, and they would
14:01
Speaker 1: actually um create compounds out of igloos by you know,
14:05
Speaker 1: melding them together, creating walkways, breeze waste. Pretty cool. And
14:08
Speaker 1: there were some that um basically igloo cities that came
14:12
Speaker 1: about where you I think they would have like halls
14:16
Speaker 1: for banquets and beasts and like balls and stuff like
14:20
Speaker 1: like Inuit balls held in. Um. Uh, well, an igloo,
14:26
Speaker 1: a big, large igloo. Pretty cool. Though I didn't know this.
14:28
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I always pictured just the single
14:30
Speaker 1: and I also thought they lived in them. So this
14:32
Speaker 1: was this one. I was because we're like the totem poles,
14:36
Speaker 1: we should probably also while we're just like busting things
14:38
Speaker 1: left and right. Um Chili Willie, helpful little penguin from
14:43
Speaker 1: the He was so cute. I went and watched when
14:45
Speaker 1: to refresh my memory. He was very cute. He wasn't
14:49
Speaker 1: I I thought he would be mischievous or I remembered
14:52
Speaker 1: him being mischievous like Woody Woodpecker, who was a jerk. Um. No,
14:56
Speaker 1: Chili Willie was a very helpful, cute, sweet little baby penguin.
15:00
Speaker 1: Um and his little igloo, the typical igloo that you
15:02
Speaker 1: think of a dome with like a rounded entryway, pretty
15:06
Speaker 1: much dead on. Yeah, but it looks like your your cousin,
15:09
Speaker 1: They don't, uh cousin, cousin in law. It looks like
15:13
Speaker 1: he he knows, he knows what he's doing. Alex, not Matthew, No,
15:17
Speaker 1: I said, nephew, Oh sorry, Uh yeah, there's no penguins
15:21
Speaker 1: in Alaska either, So that's the other problem as well.
15:23
Speaker 1: Chili will he was not accurate but cute. Nonetheless, No,
15:26
Speaker 1: but the igloo he built was accurate. That's right. And Josh,
15:30
Speaker 1: since we're talking igloes. Um, here's here's what a a
15:34
Speaker 1: naive person might say. Why in the world, if you're
15:37
Speaker 1: freezing cold out in Alaska, would you build a room
15:40
Speaker 1: out of ice and snow to sit in? How warm
15:44
Speaker 1: could that be? It would take somebody pretty naive to
15:47
Speaker 1: say something like that, though, you know how warm it
15:49
Speaker 1: could be up to forty degrees warmer than it is
15:51
Speaker 1: outside of the iglue buddy, Yes, And why chuck, where
15:54
Speaker 1: these furnaces coming from? Well, your body, for one human body,
15:59
Speaker 1: is a pretty good furnace, yep. And um, when you
16:02
Speaker 1: cut down the wind chill, you're gonna take a big
16:04
Speaker 1: bite out of the cold. And you put a couple
16:06
Speaker 1: of warm Inuit bodies in there, and imagine these are
16:09
Speaker 1: big tough dudes. Anyway, they're probably just like exuding warmth
16:12
Speaker 1: that'll it'll you know, radiate out and insulate. The igloo
16:16
Speaker 1: will insulate that heat in it trips the heat. Yeah.
16:20
Speaker 1: So I mean, if you're talking negative forty degrees, that's
16:24
Speaker 1: really cold. But if you could bring that up to zero.
16:27
Speaker 1: That's still cold, but it ain't like negative forty, which
16:30
Speaker 1: is the same in Celsius san fahrenheigh. Oh yeah, yeah,
16:35
Speaker 1: good point. So, Uh, the snow is an insulator, right, Yeah,
16:40
Speaker 1: it cuts down on the on the wind um of
16:43
Speaker 1: the melting. That's the other thing too. Yeah. When when
16:46
Speaker 1: you build an igloo, and don't worry, we're about to
16:49
Speaker 1: give you step by step instructions on how to build
16:51
Speaker 1: an igloo, we should get alex on the orange. Um.
16:54
Speaker 1: At the very least you can verify it, right, that's right. Um,
16:58
Speaker 1: when you build an igloo, you uh, the sun when
17:02
Speaker 1: it does come out or if it's out the whole time,
17:05
Speaker 1: especially during the day. Uh, it'll heat up enough possibly
17:08
Speaker 1: to melt some refreeze at night, which is what you want,
17:11
Speaker 1: melt refreeze and um you you your body heat also
17:16
Speaker 1: may melt it from the inside out something. And then
17:18
Speaker 1: when you go out to hunt, it'll refreeze every time
17:21
Speaker 1: more likely, it's probably the more likely scenario. So this
17:24
Speaker 1: um thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing basically turns
17:28
Speaker 1: the igloo into this really um strong and insulated structure
17:34
Speaker 1: and about a boom, bought a being. You got yourself
17:38
Speaker 1: an insulated place to fish, or at least to bunk
17:41
Speaker 1: down while you're fishing. Yeah, so, Josh, are we at
18:02
Speaker 1: the point where we tell people how to build eglue?
18:05
Speaker 1: I don't think we can delay it any longer. Oh
18:07
Speaker 1: we can. Okay. You mentioned that igloo igloos are kind
18:11
Speaker 1: of out of fashion with the Inuit these days. Yeah,
18:14
Speaker 1: not as common, but they are becoming increasingly common at
18:18
Speaker 1: a ski resorts apparently. Yeah, if you're such a ski
18:22
Speaker 1: junkie and that you want to just basically wake up,
18:26
Speaker 1: roll out of bed, put on your skis and start
18:28
Speaker 1: skiing immediately, they have igloos, usually on the slopes. Um
18:33
Speaker 1: that you can rent igloo villages, that you can run
18:36
Speaker 1: an igloo overnight or for as long as you stay there.
18:39
Speaker 1: Pretty sweet, huh. Or if you're, you know, feeling squirrely,
18:42
Speaker 1: you can build one yourself. True down, is that a segue?
18:46
Speaker 1: It is if you're if you've done it before, like
18:49
Speaker 1: your cousin in law, it could take as little as
18:52
Speaker 1: an hour. If you don't know what you're doing, it
18:55
Speaker 1: could take six or more. Yeah, I want to ask Alex, actually,
18:58
Speaker 1: how long it took because the first pick yours are
19:00
Speaker 1: or at night, so it clearly took them longer than
19:04
Speaker 1: a few hours. Like when I saw that someone could
19:06
Speaker 1: build one an hour, I don't know about that. I
19:08
Speaker 1: don't believe that. Well, I'm pretty sure if you were
19:10
Speaker 1: raised as an intuit, and you were I don't know,
19:14
Speaker 1: in your twenties, I'll bet you could build an iglue
19:16
Speaker 1: in an hour. Yea. Yeah, And it looks like Alex
19:19
Speaker 1: and his buddies used a tub, like a shallow plastic
19:23
Speaker 1: tub to pack the snow down, and that's smart inform
19:25
Speaker 1: the blocks. Yeah, so the way we're going to teach
19:28
Speaker 1: you how to do it requires a snow shovel, which
19:30
Speaker 1: looks an awful lot like a dry wall or not
19:33
Speaker 1: a snow shovel. It does require a snow shovel, but
19:36
Speaker 1: a snow saw, which looks an awful lot like a
19:38
Speaker 1: dry wall saw. Indeed. Um, and basically you want to
19:41
Speaker 1: go find some ice like you were saying you normally
19:44
Speaker 1: wouldn't find ice or snow. Um that's just fallen. It's
19:49
Speaker 1: gonna work for an iglu. Yeah, you want to find
19:52
Speaker 1: um wettish, hard packed like that's more solid. The better, snow, Right,
19:58
Speaker 1: And what do you want to do with it, snow Chuck, Well,
20:01
Speaker 1: you want to use your little saw. You want to
20:02
Speaker 1: cut large blocks. Um, I guess you can vary the size,
20:05
Speaker 1: but they recommend in the Complete Wilderness Training guy, they
20:08
Speaker 1: recommend three ft long, fifteen inches high, eight inches deep.
20:13
Speaker 1: So once you get your blocks, you want to start building.
20:16
Speaker 1: Uh you know, put your foundation in a circle and
20:19
Speaker 1: start building up that foundation, working your way up as
20:22
Speaker 1: you go, decreasing in size as you go. And you
20:26
Speaker 1: also have to shape it at a at a slant obviously,
20:30
Speaker 1: or you're just gonna have a ice block tower and
20:34
Speaker 1: not a domed roof. Correct. Yeah, yeah you um, you
20:39
Speaker 1: want to shape it at a slant, like you said,
20:40
Speaker 1: but you also want to make the blocks decrease in
20:42
Speaker 1: sizes you get bigger decrease and and overlap. See you
20:46
Speaker 1: you did some some brickwork, and that's sort of the
20:49
Speaker 1: same principle there. I never built anything that was tall
20:53
Speaker 1: enough that I had to really build it back to
20:54
Speaker 1: stagger it. And when I did, it was like the
20:57
Speaker 1: pre made castle rock wall that's designed to set back right,
21:02
Speaker 1: so it didn't require any thought. But yes, if you
21:05
Speaker 1: if you kind of have something that's technically at a
21:08
Speaker 1: slight incline. It will provide structure if you can get
21:13
Speaker 1: it to connect as a dome like Buckminster Fuller's geodesic
21:17
Speaker 1: dome exactly, very super strong structure. So as you're building
21:21
Speaker 1: this and then you start to make the dome part,
21:23
Speaker 1: it should support itself if you've done it right, but
21:25
Speaker 1: you can always use sticks on the inside to support
21:28
Speaker 1: it temporarily until you get the dome complete and then
21:31
Speaker 1: it's all pressing against each other. Uh. And then how
21:34
Speaker 1: do you finish it off with with the top? Well,
21:37
Speaker 1: you want to take a chunk of ice. You're what
21:39
Speaker 1: you're gonna have is this perfect dome, some variation of
21:43
Speaker 1: a perfect dome. Um. And there's gonna be a central
21:47
Speaker 1: hole in the top, right, Yeah, like a little chimney, yes, um,
21:50
Speaker 1: but you actually want to plug this one. That's right.
21:53
Speaker 1: This is one chimney you want to plug. And you
21:55
Speaker 1: take you cut another block that's going to be bigger
21:57
Speaker 1: than the hole, and you want to shape it so
22:00
Speaker 1: that it basically fits this this hole that's left over, UM,
22:05
Speaker 1: which should be something like an octagon maybe roughly L shape. UM,
22:11
Speaker 1: And you want to fit it in there perfectly. You
22:14
Speaker 1: want to cut it, shape it, put it in there
22:16
Speaker 1: so it's in there perfectly, packed in there. Because this
22:19
Speaker 1: is your load bearing keystone. Basically, as long as that
22:23
Speaker 1: thing's intact, everything else should be fine. You'll lose that,
22:26
Speaker 1: you're in a lot of trouble. Um. And then after
22:29
Speaker 1: that you're ready to start insulating it, filling in the cracks.
22:33
Speaker 1: You want to shovel snow on top of everything, and
22:37
Speaker 1: the loose snow that is what you want. Now you
22:39
Speaker 1: want to work with it, and you're going to use
22:42
Speaker 1: some insulated gloves on your hands or else you're going
22:45
Speaker 1: to lose your hands to gangreen in a few days. Um.
22:49
Speaker 1: And you fill in the cracks with the snow, you
22:51
Speaker 1: just kind of smooth it over with your hands so
22:54
Speaker 1: that the snow packs into the cracks, and all of
22:55
Speaker 1: a sudden, this um separate block pattern is lost and
23:00
Speaker 1: you have a basically a smooth dome. Yes, is what
23:04
Speaker 1: you're going for, right. Yeah, And at the end, it's
23:06
Speaker 1: it's a lot harder to try and build a door
23:08
Speaker 1: into your thing. It's easier just to build a dome
23:10
Speaker 1: and then cut your door out after it's finished. There's
23:13
Speaker 1: a good point and um, a lot of people, Um,
23:15
Speaker 1: a true aficionado of the igloo would build a little
23:19
Speaker 1: L shaped entryway tunnel because that'll cut down on the
23:22
Speaker 1: wind coming in even more. Yeah, because the wind has
23:24
Speaker 1: to turn a corner, that's right. Um. So you cut
23:28
Speaker 1: that hole in whatever shape you want, whether a key
23:31
Speaker 1: shape um or a lot of people use like a
23:33
Speaker 1: tent shape and a frame. Yeah. Yeah. And you then
23:37
Speaker 1: you cover it with blocks you make like an entry
23:40
Speaker 1: way shelter basically, and then like you said, you you
23:42
Speaker 1: might want to put it as an L and then
23:44
Speaker 1: you dig a hole into the snow so that you
23:48
Speaker 1: can get into it. But basically you're kind of crawling
23:51
Speaker 1: into the entryway. It looked like yeah, right, um. And
23:56
Speaker 1: then after that you get inside. And there's a very
23:58
Speaker 1: vital step that you might not think of, and that
24:02
Speaker 1: is drilling air holes. Yes, because once you've packed it
24:05
Speaker 1: full of loose snow and it's um, it's basically mortared
24:09
Speaker 1: um and you uh, the thing melts and thaws and
24:14
Speaker 1: freezes and thaws and freezes and becomes even more of
24:17
Speaker 1: a solid structure. If you don't have air holes, you'll
24:19
Speaker 1: suffocate and die. Yes, especially if you do something like
24:23
Speaker 1: bring a camp stove or a Colman lantern or that
24:26
Speaker 1: kind of thing in there. Uh, we don't want to
24:30
Speaker 1: see that happen. No, And I don't even know that
24:32
Speaker 1: we should recommend bringing a stove at all. Yeah, which
24:35
Speaker 1: this article says you can, as long as you have
24:38
Speaker 1: enough air holes for ventilation. I just say, build it
24:41
Speaker 1: for fun and just keep the noxious fumes out of it.
24:44
Speaker 1: Yeah all together. Yeah, I I should say that this
24:46
Speaker 1: article also specifically says that it is in no way,
24:49
Speaker 1: shape or form a meant to be a comprehensive guide
24:52
Speaker 1: to building an iglue. It's just the basic. Yeah, there
24:56
Speaker 1: are some good how to photos, so if you want
24:57
Speaker 1: to check it out for some really good illustration, right huh,
25:01
Speaker 1: as how stuff works is lousy with That's right. So
25:04
Speaker 1: I guess that's it for igloos. They are everything we
25:07
Speaker 1: thought they were and more. Yeah. You know a lot
25:10
Speaker 1: of times you think, oh, I bet you, it's just
25:13
Speaker 1: our interpretation that you see in the movies all these things.
25:16
Speaker 1: But they really do look just like that, and they're
25:18
Speaker 1: built just like that, and not a lot of surprises here,
25:21
Speaker 1: which is kind of reassuring. In a lot of words.
25:24
Speaker 1: It makes me feel good. Yeah, so I guess if
25:27
Speaker 1: you want to catch up on your Chili Willy, we
25:29
Speaker 1: won't blame you. I found plenty on YouTube. He's adorable,
25:32
Speaker 1: more better, more better, more syrup, more syrup. I don't
25:35
Speaker 1: remember that one. That's a good one. Um. No, that's
25:39
Speaker 1: a parque commercial. Now are you sure? Okay? Well, um,
25:44
Speaker 1: check out Chili Willy and be sure to um go
25:47
Speaker 1: onto how stuff works dot com and type in igloo
25:49
Speaker 1: I g l o O and is going to bring
25:52
Speaker 1: up a pretty cool um step by step illustrated guide
25:55
Speaker 1: to building your own igloo sans camp stove with holes.
26:00
Speaker 1: That's right? Um, I think did I say handy search bar?
26:04
Speaker 1: You just did? Okay, Well, then it's time for a
26:06
Speaker 1: listener mail. Yeah, this isn't so much a mail. This
26:10
Speaker 1: is something I want to mention a long time ago
26:11
Speaker 1: and kind of forgot. Remember the life straw podcast? Yes,
26:15
Speaker 1: you don't do a quick recap of what a LifeStraw is. Yeah,
26:17
Speaker 1: A life straw is a portable device for purifying water. Um,
26:23
Speaker 1: and it's cheap, it's easy to hang onto, it lasts
26:27
Speaker 1: for up to a year, and if you were in
26:29
Speaker 1: a place that's invested with guinea worm. You still need
26:31
Speaker 1: to drink water, but you don't want guiney worm. LifeStraw helps,
26:35
Speaker 1: and I think the rotarians are big into getting them
26:38
Speaker 1: all over the world. They are, and so is Steven Neeman.
26:42
Speaker 1: And Steven wrote on our Facebook while after the LifeStraw
26:45
Speaker 1: podcast that he was pretty blown away by this thing
26:49
Speaker 1: and he thoughts pretty cool inventioned and that he and
26:52
Speaker 1: his company the result of this podcast, their company is
26:55
Speaker 1: going to donate a minimum of six thousand lifestraws this
26:59
Speaker 1: year and nice six thousand not bad, huh. And I
27:03
Speaker 1: asked him if he minded us mentioning this. He said
27:06
Speaker 1: not at all. His company is Eleventh Hour Search in Alexandria, Virginia.
27:11
Speaker 1: It's a very small staffing firm, so it's not like
27:14
Speaker 1: even some huge company that's doing this. And he said
27:17
Speaker 1: his wife works in Haiti for the US, and that's
27:20
Speaker 1: where he is right now. I don't know if he
27:21
Speaker 1: still is. Is a little while ago, and they like
27:24
Speaker 1: the podcast on Haitian voodoo and so good an you
27:27
Speaker 1: brother donating six thousand lifestraws. That is awesome, So we
27:31
Speaker 1: just want to reckon more than awesome. I mean, that's
27:33
Speaker 1: very cool. That's gotta be worth a T shirt. I
27:36
Speaker 1: would say so Stephen shirt. I don't have his email,
27:39
Speaker 1: but if feels right in, yeah, right in. Send us
27:41
Speaker 1: your email, Stephen in your T shirt size. Sorry it
27:43
Speaker 1: took so long to mention this, it got lost in
27:45
Speaker 1: the shuffle. Well, good going, chuck Um. If you are
27:48
Speaker 1: saving the world, we want to know how, because we
27:51
Speaker 1: want to send you a T shirt. If you're saving
27:53
Speaker 1: the world in a verifiable and inspirational manner in a
27:58
Speaker 1: dramatic fashion. Yeah, you can go onto our Facebook page,
28:01
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should know, You can
28:04
Speaker 1: tweek to us s y s K podcast, and you
28:07
Speaker 1: can send us an email. Stuff podcast at how stuff
28:11
Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of
28:18
Speaker 1: other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Want
28:21
Speaker 1: more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the
28:24
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com home page.