Why do some drivers carry a leaky army bowler hat with them

Some drivers carry a very strange object in the luggage compartment of their car - an army bowler hat with holes made in it. You can’t cook fish soup in this, you can’t boil tea, you can’t steam porridge, but at the same time it will easily save your life and help you wait for help. The AvtoVzglyad portal found out how and with what an item of soldier's use, and even not in its working condition, can help out drivers.

Winter is a difficult time of the year for motorists. Its unpredictability can cause problems on a global scale. Freezing rains, black ice and, of course, snowstorms can create a real collapse on the roads. Suffice it to recall cases when federal highways were covered with snow along with cars and their owners. Without food, water and fuel, in anticipation of help from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, people held out for days as best they could. And still, not everyone managed to survive the deadly cold. Meanwhile, in regions where the risk of such snowstorms is high, and the thermometer drops to -30 and below, drivers have long figured out how, once trapped in snow, wait for help and not freeze, even if the car runs out of fuel.

For example, some Ural drivers carry an army bowler hat with holes drilled in it in the area of ​​​​the bottom and lid. A similar one can be found in any market or gas station that sells military items supposedly from army warehouses. But why spoil a good thing?

The reason, as usual, is banal. A leaky kettle is nothing more than a quite serious source of heat. But if this is a heating pad, then how to heat it? You can’t find firewood under the snow, you can’t take it with you, and it’s dangerous to kindle a fire inside a car. Ural drivers have foreseen this as well.

If you remove the lid from the pot, then inside you can find several paraffin candles and boxes of matches. Now it is not at all difficult to guess that in order to keep warm, you need to light a candle, put it in a pot and close it with a lid.

The holes on the bottom and lid of the pot, firstly, provide fresh air inside, which is necessary to maintain the candle burning process. And secondly, thanks to them, an ordinary pot turns into a convector. From below, cold air enters it, which, passing through the pot, heats up and exits from the upper holes to the outside. No soot, no smell, no smoke. The kettle heats up itself and heats up the air. And matchboxes are needed so that you can put this whole structure on them.

However, one impromptu convector-type heater will not be enough for the interior to warm up well. The heat will quickly dissipate if the glass is not covered. To do this, you can use both blankets or car covers, as well as animal skins - they are usually laid out for the winter on car seats so that it is not cold to sit on them in the morning. By the way, to make it warmer, it is recommended to fence off one row, and heat only it. Of course, do not forget to ventilate the room sometimes, so as not to burn.

However, it is best to try not to get into such situations. If there is no way out, and you need to go, then check that the phone is fully charged, and the car has a wire for recharging - in an emergency, all this will help you call rescuers. If you make long trips to deserted places, take with you warm clothes and shoes, a winter sleeping bag, an ax, a gas burner, dry rations, a flashlight, a lighter or matches and other things that can help you survive in such extreme conditions.