Just how warm is a kilt?

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is along the lines of how well-suited the piper’s uniform is to cold weather. I happily remind people that the weather in Scotland is on the cool side (though certainly not as cold as it is here right now…. brr), and insist that it’s not as bad as they think. In fact I find the parts of my body most susceptible to the cold are my hands and fingers, because piping doesn’t go so well when wearing gloves. I’ve played several competitions and countless parades where I couldn’t feel my fingers, and while never a pleasant experience I’ve managed to survive with all of my digits intact and mercifully unbitten by frost.

The question of temperature provided by a kilt apparently was raised on the X Marks the Scot forums recently, and one of the members decided to investigate how much insulation was provided by several types of kilts on a cold night. The link includes the complete report of a nicely scientific experiment, and it makes for a fun read, even if it is a bit long.

I received an email with the link to the site from a friend, who had in turn received it from the company that manufactures and distributes the temperature probes used in the experiment. We use the probes, and others as well, in several of our science classes, though I must say the thought of borrowing these to use in an experiment like this never crossed my mind. A general description of the experiment and results follows.

The experimenter tested three different kilts: a regular wool 8 yard kilt, a wool 4 yard box-pleated kilt, and a poly-cotton blend fake kilt. He sewed two temperature probes onto a pair of boxer shorts (one in the front and one in the back) and mounted a third probe on a stick that was mounted horizontally on his hat to measure the ambient air temperature (a brisk 28° F). Each probe reported the temperature four times per minute for fifteen minutes, at which time the experimenter switched kilts and repeated. For the first ten minutes of data collection the experimenter was standing in an outdoor area sheltered from the wind, and he spent the final five minutes walking up and down his driveway.

The results? Surprising, actually. Once he started walking, all three kilts measured approximately the same temperature in the front sensor, but the heaviest kilt (the only real kilt if you ask me) was the one that suffered the greatest loss in temperature from the standing measurements. The conclusion was that this kilt provided the least amount of thermal insulation while walking, even though the temperature reached was similar to the other kilts.

I offer two suggestions for how the experiment could have been improved. The first is to control for the fact that after conducting the experiment with one kilt, he changed the kilt and immediately began another test. Seems there could be some skewed data in putting a warm kilt on an already cold experimenter, so I suggest conducting the entire experiment a total of six times, altering the order of the kilts each time. The second suggestion is to have a control trial to see just how much insulation any of kilts provides, so conduct a 15 minute data collection time wearing only the boxer shorts.

Am I making too much out of something that no one should really care about? I will leave the answers to those questions to the reader.

I’m not about to run outside myself to try this experiment, and it’s not because I only have one kilt (though that is part of it). The real reason is that right now I’m sitting inside, wearing a sweater and comfy slippers, and sipping a mug of hot chocolate. In other words, I’m warm and cozy, and I’m going to stay that way.