Hacker News Reader

Comment by avg_dev | Hacker News Reader

> And in Turing’s case, it was further complicated by the fact that he always wore a gas mask as he rode, to prevent triggering his allergies. But the alarm clock he was known to wear around his waist might have helped.

What? Is that for real?

Edit: It is!

> He loved to ride his bicycle through the countryside. To time himself, he would simply tie an alarm clock around his waist. During the war, according to I.J. Good, a Cambridge mathematician, Turing suffered horribly from hay fever during the first week of June every year. So to keep the pollen off while riding, he wore a military gas mask.

- https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/1999/06/09/alan-turin...

View on HN

I wonder which part of this (admittedly odd fashion statement) seemed surprising to you? Gas masks were of course ubiquitous during the war, so this was probably only about as eccentric as wearing an N95 mask would seem now. And the alarm clock seems like a fairly practical if whimsical hack in an age when chronometers would have been mechanical, and therefore quite expensive.

I didn't know about the gas masks being ubiquitous during the war; that makes that part a little less surprising. History can be sad.

I bought one at a swap meet in Amsterdam a few years ago. They were piled up high and cheap. It made a fun gift for a friend back home, but we got really odd looks on the train when wearing it :).

Try Wear a N96 or FFP or surgical mask now in the train in NL and people will look at you in the same fashion haha

Ah, careful: https://www.nationalasbestos.co.uk/news/wwii-gas-masks-a-lif...

They were common, but you wouldn't have seen folks wearing them around the countryside, certainly not on a bike!

I feel like the average person absolutely was not wearing a gas mask at all times. Having myself used an N95 in my neverending war on pollen I totally understand though.

No, of course people didn't routinely wear them. But every citizen was issued one. Children took them to school every day, and were drilled in their use.

It's still an eccentric thing to do, of course. But, like the alarm clock tied around his waist, it was an instance of solving a problem by grabbing something close to hand.

Wasn't he a long distance runner. I wonder if he wore it then too.

For years before Covid, I would wear a N95 mask while doing yard work, construction, biking, and even night walks.

I got some stares.

For awhile, I felt some of my neighbors thought I was trying to conceal my identity; but it was just for allergies.

The last thing I wore it for was germs.

I've tried wearing an N95 for allergies, but my eyes still itch like mad so it's only moderately helpful.

I thought about commenting you could wear goggles, but that's just reinventing the gas mask. Turing was a genius!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com