A big fan of fans

It is that time of the year again to cool off. Here are some elegant ways of doing just that. A handheld fan, or simply hand fan, may be any broad, flat surface that is waved back-and-forth to create an airflow. Generally, purpose-made handheld fans are folding fans, which are shaped like a sector of a circle and made of a thin material (such as paper or feathers) mounted on slats which revolve around a pivot so that it can be closed when not in use. On human skin, the airflow from handfans increases evaporation which has a cooling effect due to the latent heat of evaporation of water. It also increases heat convection by displacing the warmer air produced by body heat that surrounds the skin, which has an additional cooling effect, provided that the ambient air temperature is lower than the skin temperature – which is typically about 33 °C (91 °F). Fans are convenient to carry around, especially folding fans. Next to the folding fan, the rigid hand screen fan was also a highly decorative and desired object among the higher classes. Its purpose is different since they are more cumbersome to carry around. They were mostly used to shield a lady's face against the glare of the sun or the fire.

Museum of the city fan collection in New York.

The Fan Museum in London

Found some beauties on Pinterest

Arthur Challess joined the Suffolk Regiment in 1924 and saw service with the 1st and 2nd Battalions in Malta, Gibraltar and India. He became an instructor at Sandhurst in 1939 returning to the Depot in 1941. He went to the Far East with the 4th Battalion in 1941, was wounded and captured at Singapore in February 1942 and spent the rest of the war as a Japanese Prisoner of War. He left the Army in 1949 but took up an appointment as an Instructor with the Army Cadet Force. While he was a Prisoner of War Challess kept a record of his movements, with comments, on the leaves of a fan.

Make your own summer fan

I bought Mason and I one of these do-it-yourself fan kits.