Tent


A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs. First used as portable homes by nomads, tents are now more often used for recreational camping and as temporary shelters.
Tents range in size from "bivouac" structures, just big enough for one person to sleep in, up to huge circus tents capable of seating thousands of people. Tents for recreational camping fall into two categories. Tents intended to be carried by backpackers are the smallest and lightest type. Small tents may be sufficiently light that they can be carried for long distances on a touring bicycle, a boat, or when backpacking. The second type are larger, heavier tents which are usually carried in a car or other vehicle. Depending on tent size and the experience of the person or people involved, such tents can usually be assembled in between 5 and 25 minutes; disassembly takes a similar length of time. Some very specialised tents have spring-loaded poles and can be pitched in seconds, but take somewhat longer to strike.
Over the past decade, tents have also been increasingly linked with homelessness crises in the United States, Canada, and other regions. Places of multiple homeless people living in tents closely pitched or plotted near each other are often referred to as tent cities.

History

A form of tent called a teepee or tipi, noted for its cone shape and peak smoke hole, was also used by Native American tribes and Aboriginal Canadians of the Plains Indians since ancient times, variously estimated from 10,000 to 4,000 years BC.
Tents were used at least as far back as the early Iron Age. They are mentioned in the Bible; for example, in Genesis 4:20 Jabal is described as "the first to live in tents and raise sheep and goats". The Roman Army used leather tents, copies of which have been used successfully by modern re-enactors. Various styles developed over time, some derived from traditional nomadic tents, such as the yurt.
Most military tents throughout history were of a simple ridge design. The major technological advance was the use of linen or hemp canvas for the canopy versus leather for the Romans. The primary use of tents was still to provide portable shelter for a small number of men in the field.
By World War I larger designs were being deployed in rear areas to provide shelter for support activities and supplies.
Four types of tents which can be characterized by their unique shapes are A-Frame tents, Pyramid tents, Hoop tents, and Dome tents. Tents tend not to be very spacious, given their ground surface area.

Use

Tents are used as habitation by nomads, recreational campers, soldiers, and disaster victims. Pole marquees, a type of large tent are typically used as overhead shelter for festivals, weddings, backyard parties, corporate events, excavation covers, and industrial shelters.

Traditional

Tents have traditionally been used by nomadic people all over the world, such as Native Americans, Mongolian, Turkic and Tibetan Nomads, and the Bedouin.

Military

all over the world have long used tents as part of their working life. Tents are preferred by the military for their relatively quick setup and take down times, compared to more traditional shelters. One of the world's largest users of tents is the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. DoD has strict rules on tent quality and tent specifications. The most common tent uses for the military are temporary sleeping quarters ; dining facilities ; field headquarters; morale, welfare, and recreation facilities; and security checkpoints. One of the most popular military designs currently fielded is the TEMPER Tent, an acronym for Tent Expandable Modular PERsonnel. The United States Army is beginning to use a more modern tent called the deployable rapid assembly shelter or DRASH, a collapsible tent with provisions for air conditioning and heating.

Recreational

is a popular form of recreation which often involves the use of tents. A tent is economical and practical because of its portability and low environmental impact. These qualities are necessary when used in the wilderness or backcountry.

Emergency

Tents are often used in humanitarian emergencies, such as war, earthquakes and fire. The primary choice of tents in humanitarian emergencies are canvas tents, because a cotton canvas tent allows functional breathability while serving the purpose of temporary shelter. Tents distributed by organisations such as UNHCR are made by various manufacturers, depending on the region where the tents are deployed, as well as depending on the purpose.
At times, however, these temporary shelters become a permanent or semi-permanent home, especially for displaced people living in refugee camps or shanty towns who can not return to their former home and for whom no replacement homes are made available.

Homelessness

Tents have been increasingly used as shelter for homeless people in the U.S., especially California, Oregon, and Washington. Encampments spiked in the mid-to-late 2010s. These tent cities housing many homeless and travelers/vagabonds are also commonly found in major cities in the South, including Austin, Texas, which had passed a restriction on homeless encampments in May 2021.

Protest movements

Tents are also often used as sites and symbols of protest over time. In 1968 Resurrection City saw hundreds of tents set up by anti-poverty campaigners in Washington D.C. In the 1970s and 1980s anti-nuclear peace camps spread across Europe and North America, with the largest women's-only camp to date set up outside the RAF Greenham Common United States airbase in Newbury, England to protest the deployment there of cruise missiles during the Cold War. The 1990s saw environmental protest camps as part of the campaign for the Clayoquot Sound in Canada and the roads protests in the UK. The first No Border Network camp was held in Strasbourg in 2002, becoming the first in a series of international camps that continue to be organised today. Other international camps of the 2000s include summit counter-mobilisations like Horizone at the Gleneagles G8 gathering in 2005 and the start of Camp for Climate Action in 2006. Since September 2011, the tent has been used as a symbol of the Occupy movement, an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. Occupy protesters use tents to create camps in public places wherein they can form communities of open discussion and democratic action.

General considerations

Generally, the interior of an enclosed tent is about 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the outside environment, due to the retention of body heat and radiation.
Tent fabric may be made of many materials including cotton, nylon, felt and polyester. Cotton absorbs water, so it can become very heavy when wet, but the associated swelling tends to block any minute holes so that wet cotton is more waterproof than dry cotton. Cotton tents were often treated with paraffin to enhance water resistance. Nylon and polyester are much lighter than cotton and do not absorb much water; with suitable coatings they can be very waterproof, but they tend to deteriorate over time due to a slow chemical breakdown caused by ultraviolet light. The most common treatments to make fabric waterproof are silicone impregnation or polyurethane coating. Since stitching makes tiny holes in a fabric seams are often sealed or taped to block these holes and maintain waterproofness, though in practice a carefully sewn seam can be waterproof.
Rain resistance is measured and expressed as hydrostatic head in millimetres. This indicates the pressure of water needed to penetrate a fabric. Heavy or wind-driven rain has a higher pressure than light rain. Standing on a groundsheet increases the pressure on any water underneath. Fabric with a hydrostatic head rating of 1000 mm or less is best regarded as shower resistant, with 1500 mm being usually suitable for summer camping. Tents for year-round use generally have at least 2000 mm; expedition tents intended for extreme conditions are often rated at 3000 mm. Where quoted, groundsheets may be rated for 5000 mm or more.
Many tent manufacturers indicate capacity by such phrases as "3 berth" or "2 person". These numbers indicate how many people the manufacturer thinks can use the tent, though these numbers do not always allow for any personal belongings, such as luggage, inflatable mattresses, camp beds, cots, etc., nor do they always allow for people who are of above average height. Checking the quoted sizes of sleeping areas reveals that several manufacturers consider that a width of is enough for three people; snug is the operative word. Experience indicates that camping may be more comfortable if the actual number of occupants is one or even two less than the manufacturer's suggestion, though different manufacturers have different standards for space requirement and there is no accepted standard.
Tent used in areas with biting insects often have their vent and door openings covered with fine-mesh netting.
Tents can be improvised using waterproof fabric, string, and sticks.

List of traditional types

  • Bell tent, a conical tent design originating around 600AD.
  • Berliner, an emergency Alpine bivouac
  • Chum, a Siberian conical tent similar to North American tipi and the Nordic goahte and lavvu
  • Fly
  • Gazebo, a soft shelter with a roof but typically without walls
  • Geteld, a conical tent used by the Anglo-Saxon in the 9th-13th centuries
  • Gotthard, a Swiss tent used at high altitudes
  • Goahti and Lavvu, two related kinds of Sámi tents using a conical design
  • Kohte, an early 20th century German Scout conical tent design based on the tents of the Sámi people
  • Loue
  • Pandal
  • Ridge tent or wall tent, blanket terms for the inverted V-frame design dating from prehistory to the present day
  • Sarrasani, a large gathering tent reminiscent of the Sarrasani
  • Sibley, a conical tent patented in 1856 and used by the US military before and during the American Civil War.
  • Tarp tent
  • Tipi, a conical design used by some indigenous peoples of North America
  • Tupiq, a conical design used by the Inuit
  • Wigwam and wikiup, an often bowed conical and dome tent of North America
  • Whymper, a ridge tent used for mountaineering
  • Yurt, a larger cousin of conical designs, with vertical walls and smaller pitch