Who invented UQs?

**angrysparrow** · 05-01-2012, 22:43

Originally Posted by BillyBob58

Not sure how long after that before it was available to the public for purchase.

Trail Days is in May. So about 4 months.

**titanium_hiker** · 05-01-2012, 23:31

a peapod definitely wouldn't work with an un modified Hennessy, so the Jacks stepped into the void there. Quilts were taking off for Ultralight hikers, so you can see how the idea kind of morphed across. (Also tarps)

Looking back, you can see how the big thing in suspension was to go from HH stock suspension (and that tricky figure 8 knot) to webbing straps- funny how we're back at 'ropes and huggers' with whoopies.

I remember the "tie the tarp to the tree not the hammock" innovation.

The other thing to note is people saying "so, HH or Speer?" - it's amazing all the vendors we have now- and BRIDGE hammocks. (I think this was the Jacks also.)

Here's the first post on WhiteBlaze (I put that as WB then realised that is now commonly "warbonnet") about Hammock Forums:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...mockforums-net

Re staying warm, I think the garlington taco could make a resurgence of suggestions for people saying "sleeping on a pad is hard, but an UQ is too expensive". People were also doing things like threading their sleeping bags over their hammocks- which messes with the diagonal lay some.

TH

PS and oh goodness it's hard to read adolescent me as 'adult' me now. :/

**Troy64** · 05-02-2012, 04:50

Looks like the earliest patented attempt was US Patent 3,675,256 (filed in 1970). This one shows a hammock enclosed by a sleeping bag.

US Patent 3,964,113 (filed in 1975), shows a similar idea. Sleeping bag insulating panels are placed over a hammock.

US Patent 5,913,772 (filed in 1998) shows a hammock with integrated bottom pockets that trap dead air or can be used for insulation.

The last one shows a Hennessy (filed in 2009) with a double layer.

See attached files for copies of documents.

**Peter_pan** · 05-02-2012, 06:09

Originally Posted by titanium_hiker

I've been reading up on hammocks since about late 2003/early 2004 and I have the recollection that the nest was first, followed later by the No Sniveler top quilt.

Then the KAQ was introduced later as an alternative for people either allergic or not a fan (or $$ sensitive) of down.

Speer may have been first with the pea pod. Hennessy kind of was the first 'lightweight camping hammock' but it was Ed Speer who really kicked off the community, with the hammock email list and yahoo group, as well as the first community hangs.

Here's an interesting piece of history: Risk's (or Flyfisher's) cold weather tests from '02. See also his tests from '03/04. http://www.imrisk.com/hammock/ultrahammock1.htm

The garlington taco+ insulator is perhaps a precursor to the UQ?

I would place the nest at about 03/04. I got mine before I finished high school (or close on) in 2005.

Also: the top quilts borrow a lot from Ray Jardine's ultralight ethos- I believe he was one of the first to really start 'evangelizing' quilts.

TH

EDIT:
some more hammocking history
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hammockcamping/messages/1
http://www.jacksrbetter.com/Our%20Story.htm
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/foru...line&order=asc
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...ock-underquilt

prehistory:
http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/hammock.htm

TH has it right...

I would add KAQ did not start until 2005 or 6.

Speer produced the first differential cut in Youngblood's Snugfit. It was followed closely by the JRB Mt Washinton 4...as flat quilts easily handled to freezing so the increased efficiency of design was targeted to colder weather.

The Mt Washingtons were the first UQ with radial baffles which multiply the benefits of the differential.

I think it is fairest to think of the Garlington Taco as circa the vintage of the Speer Pea Pod... Also, it is fairest to view it as an uninsulated Pea Pod, given that it fully enclosed a hammock... The precursor of "Socks"...It took the wind protection and dead air approach.

The Nest was first sold in Mar/April prior to Trail Days 04. It predated the HH Weather Shield. FWIW the original HHWS prototype, also brought to TD04, was a full enclosure more like a Pea Pod, it was quilcky split into two halves... Sgt Rock slept in the origanal at TD 04 and made the recommendation to split it, among others, because of condensation issues, esp in the rain and high ambient humidity that year.

Pan

**titanium_hiker** · 05-02-2012, 06:28

Edit: thanks for the kind words Pan!

About the patents:

that hanging sleeping bag is one is interesting (I think the second PDF?)
it tells us what we have known for a long time- that if you crush your insulation it loses it's insulating value. It was designed as a solution to ground sleeping because good pads that were packable weren't available.

My Dad can remember not taking pads to sleep on when hiking (very cold!) as a young man, (in Australia and the UK) and my nearly 97 year old great aunt is convinced that when we go hiking/camping we should be taking straw mattresses to sleep on.

Imagine how different the hiking/camping world would be if CCF and the like weren't invented!

Maybe the hammock revolution would have come sooner.

TH

**Cali** · 05-02-2012, 06:42

This is very interesting stuff to a fairly new hammock hanger. Thanks Billy Bob for starting this thread, and thanks to you all for your very informative input.

**Cannibal** · 05-02-2012, 08:59

I took possession of the first synthetic Yeti back in late October of 2007. The SnugFit had been around for a while at the time, but not too long.

**Ramblinrev** · 05-02-2012, 10:32

I don't know about quilts... but I know the differential cut in full sleeping bags predates the time periods you are talking about. So it would only be natural that an existing technology would migrate into a new design fairly early.

**warbonnetguy** · 05-02-2012, 12:31

AS, i had my torso length differential cut uq at td's in 07' (was just a prototype then though, wasn't selling them but i showed it to jeff and others). i was thinking that (td07') was also when the snug fit was introduced, but looks like it was out a few months earlier if you are correct about the late 06'/early 07' date. i was thinking the mt wash didn't come out till late 07', maybe pan knows the date.

there was also a very early underquilt design on the thru-hiker website in the diy section,was made specifically for an hh. not sure the date of that though but it was pretty early too i believe. (edit: this design is still on the thru-hiker site, it says "Dennis Klinsky, Feburary 2003" at the bottom, so it looks like that pre-dates everything except possibly the pea-pod which BB found a peapod reference to jan 03'.