Reindeer skin, kapok fiber and wool sleeping bags: the history of warm sleeping bags

War, death, and exploration are some of the things associated with the world’s first sleeping bags. Adventurous people have long needed to sleep under the stars. Sleeping bags were invented and developed by those people, for those people. Whether they are reindeer fur, kapok fiber or wool sleeping bags, they have all been changed and refined over time.

It has been written that in 1000 AD Freydis Eiriksdottir was the first person to invent a sleeping bag, perhaps using a sail from a ship. She was the brutal daughter of Fredrick the Greenland Red, a fierce Viking. However, when reading The Saga of Erik the Red from the Icelandic saga database and reading Book II Icelandic Records, Chapter: Voyage of Freydis, Helgi and Finnbogi in the book entitled The Norse Discovery of America, I did not find nothing to support that Freydis invented or used a sail, reindeer fur, kapok fiber or wool sleeping bag.

However, it is unmistakable that the first insulators for sleeping bags were woven from camel skin, reindeer skin, ceiba fiber, and later duck and goose down. Kapok fiber comes from the Kapok tree. It is light, buoyant and the kapok fiber is waterproof. Ceiba fiber is often used in place of down. In the year 1823, a rubber patent was issued to Charles Macintosh. This patent made new types of bags possible. Francis Fox Tuckett tested a prototype of his alpine bag, which was made of blanket material and had a rubber bottom layer, in 1861.

Then in 1876, Pryce Jones made Euklisia Rugs, which were wool sleeping bags. They were made from brown army blankets originally made for the Russian army. According to a copy of the Brown Patent (http://a-day-in-the-life.powys.org.uk/eng/home/eo_euklisia.php) in the Powys County archives, wool sleeping bags They were to be 2 yards 11 inches long by 1 yard 31 inches wide. These wool sleeping bags, which were the first to be mass produced and distributed, used fasteners to keep them closed.

While the Pryce Jones rug, wool sleeping bags were mass produced, they were not commercially produced. The first commercially produced bag was filled with reindeer skin and ceiba fiber. It was developed in 1889 by Fridtjof Nansen and the Ajungilak company of Norway, for the first expedition to the North Pole. Currently Ajungilak is part of Mammut AG, where reindeer skins and ceiba fiber are not currently used.

Then, in 1912, Captain Lawrence Oates made a sleeping bag made of tapered legs and reindeer skin. On his way back from Antarctica with his companions, he suffered a severe frostbite and was holding everyone back. On March 17, 1912, leaving his reindeer skin bag behind, he sacrificed himself to give his friends a chance to survive. His reindeer skin sleeping bag is on display today at the Scott Polar Research Institute.

Finally, in 1942 American soldiers were issued sleeping bags. These early sleeping bags were heavy and bulky to carry, but important to the well-being of the troops. In the late 1940s, the military began using down bags to make packing easier. Today, the US military uses down, synthetic, and wool sleeping bags (though they are not typically reindeer hide or kapok fiber), depending on where they are deployed.

In today’s society, sleeping bags are more associated with survival and warmth. Today’s explorers reap the benefits that innovation and refinement have brought over the years. Reindeer skin, kapok fiber and wool sleeping bags are not very often known. Nowadays down or synthetic sleeping bags are mainly used, but if necessary, we know that we can still make ourselves a reindeer skin bag to keep ourselves warm.