Automatic Ankle Ventilation

Whilst reading the true & real history of my complete and utter hero, Sir Harry Paget Flashman, I came across an interesting method of torture allegedly used by the Chinese. It was brilliant in its simplicity; they just tied the victim up with rope.

However, being Chinese and therefore extremely fiendish, they used wet rope so that as it dried out and shrank, the bonds became tighter and tighter, eventually cutting off all blood flow to the extremities which, after prolonged treatment in this manner, rotted and fell off. Not very nice at all (although to my mind, cutting the ropes off every now and again in order to give the victim regular attacks of pins & needles would have been just as bad).

Coming on to the idea at last, ixnaum’s anno (quoted above) on 8th of 7’s ‘Degrees of Separation Warning’ idea, made me realise that this system could be used to rather more benign* effect in the area of trouser technology. Simply put, the idea is to tie one end of a load of wet strings to your trouser belt and then connect the other end to the hem of your trouser leg (perhaps with crocodile clips, which are always fun to play with). Should the weather become uncomfortably warm then the strings will dry out and shrink causing the hem of your trouser leg to be raised and your ankles to become ventilated. If only Hitler had had this method available to him he would have been a lot less short tempered I suspect. Ta da!

*Depending on your views about ankle exposure.