Seat Belts
There is no doubt that seat belts have been one of the most important inventions of modern history, and are becoming increasingly important each and every year. As the highways become increasingly busier and cars become increasingly faster, the idea of driving without a seat belt seems more ludicrous than ever. But its thanks to one man, George Cayley, that hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide have been saved because of this simple device. Cayley is widelt considered to be the inventor of the seat belt in the late 19th century.
Despite acknowledgement that Cayley was the true inventor, it was a man named Edward J. Claghorn that first patented a seat belt in 1885. Their first appearance was actually in aircraft, with the famous pilot Adolphe Pegoud using one when becoming one of the first men to fly upside-down. They did not however become particularly widely used in planes until the 1930s. It was not until the 1920s that American physicians encouraged their use in in automobiles, with some even fitting their own cars with the belts. One of the most prominent of these physicians, C.J. Strickland, even established the 'Automobile Safety League of America' however the American public showed little interest in the organisation.
Engineer Hugh De Haven created the inertia wheel and developed the concept of 'wearing' the car and 'packaging' passengers. Safety belts were later tested by Col John P. Stapp who used himself as a guinea pig in a rocket sled! His studies found that most people injured or killed in plane crashes did not sustain damage when the plane hit the ground, but instead when the person hit the inside of the plane. The idea of seat belts in planes was not fully adopted until World War II, when Seth H. Stoner worked with a team of engineers to create a seatbelt that would reduce fatalaties at take off and landing. It was not until the late 1950s that seat belts began to appear in cars.
Edward J. Hock invented the safety belt first used by the Ford Motor Company as standard equipment, he had developed the belt out of old parachute strapping whilst serving in the military as a flight instructor. The Naval Authorities rewarded Hock with $20.50, a letter of recognition, a picture with military 'brass' and a newspaper article. He never received another penny for his invention. In 1951, the first three point seat belt was patented by the Americans Roger Griswold and Hugh De Haven. Saab became the first car manufacture to introduce seat belts to its whole range of cars as standard, and it was after the launch of the Saab GT 750 in 1958 - complete with belts - that the practice became common throughout the industry.
In 1959 Swedish inventor Nils Bohlin invented a particular kind of three point seat belt for Volvo and was granted a US patent, Volvo subsequently introduced the belt as standard in all of its cars in the same year. Lap belts were offered for the first time in 1955 by Ford. By 1964 most US automobiles were sold with front seat belts and by 1968 rear seat belts also became standard. In 1970 the state of Victoria in Australia became the first place worldwide to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory at all times.
