Gloves

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". more...

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Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each fingers are sometimes called gauntlets. Gloves which cover the entire hand but do not have separate finger openings or sheaths are called mittens. Mittens are warmer than gloves made of the same material because the extra air inside creates added insulation, and because fingers maintain their warmth better when they are touching.

There is also a type of fingerless mitten available which allows all the fingers of a hand to reside within a single defined cavity to maximize the benefits of body heat, whilst also allowing the individual fingers to be quickly freed for ease of movement. The usual design is for the mitten cavity to be stitched on one side only to the back of the fingerless glove, allowing it to be flipped over to transform the garment from one type of glove to another.

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 crime 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.

Gloves have been made of many materials including cloth, knitted or felted wool, leather, rubber, latex, neoprene and metal (as in chain mail). Modern gloves made of 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.

Standards

There are a number of different European standards that relate to gloves. These include:

Read more at Wikipedia.org