Mae West Life Preserver: Countless Owe Lives to It

Life preservers are something we take for granted. We know they are important for boating and swimming, and we’ve all sat through airplane evacuation preparations, so we know that a life preserver will be there if we need it.

The color photo shows an older yellow vest complete with connections to the carbon dioside fluid and the straps that would hold the vest in place.
Photo of an early Mae West life preserver

These safety devices became well-known during World War II when they made the difference between life and death for thousands of sailors and airmen.

During that era, they acquired the name “Mae West jackets.” When a person puts one on and inflates it, he or she look like a buxom woman. In the 1940s, this reminded men of Mae West.

Here’s how the life preserver came to be.

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Sporting Good Store Owner Developed Idea

When these life preservers were first designed, the inventor never imagined they would become such an important part of our lives. Peter Markus (1875-1973) was trying to create a life vest to save boaters and fly fishermen who bought supplies at his sporting goods store.

Markus lived in Minnesota and ran a healthy business selling supplies to boaters and fishermen. Weekend visitors and full-time residents stopped by the store for equipment. Markus always urged them to buy and wear a life vest. He read the local headlines. He knew how many people drowned when they got knocked overboard on a boat or swept along by a strong current when fly fishing.

But he understood the resistance. He was a fisherman himself. At that time, the buoyancy of safety vests came from cork filling. The cork vests would help keep a person afloat, but they were bulky and awkward to wear.

THis is a black-and-white photo of the life preserver from the era when it was used. It looks as if it's been worn many times.

Markus knew that if a fisherman was casting a line, the cork vest was very likely to be in in his way. He agreed. These vests were bothersome.

How To Make a Better Vest

Markus began experimenting with how to create a life vest that would be more comfortable to wear. Using a man’s vest as his basic pattern, he worked with different types of material that could be inflated. He finally selected a rubberized cloth, styling the vest with air pockets in the front. The vest itself slipped over a person’s head and straps wrapped around the wearer to keep the vest securely in place.

When it was deflated it weighed under two pounds and was comfortable to wear. 

Markus knew he needed a way for the user to inflate the vest quickly. He came up with a system that used two small cartridges of fluid carbon dioxide. Each was connected to a cord on either side of the vest. When the wearer needed to inflate the vest, he or she pulled the cords. This triggered the fluid and caused carbon dioxide gas to fill up the vest’s air pockets.

Markus developed his invention in the 1920s and received a patent on it in 1928. In 1930 and 1931, he patented additional minor changes to the vest.

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The Royal Air Force also used a similar vest during World War II.

Manufacturing the Vest

As a store owner, Peter Markus had no interest in running a factory to create these vests. Instead, he contacted a rubber company with which he did business to see if they would make the vests. He showed them what he had in mind. They agreed to a partnership. They would manufacture the life preservers, and Markus would be paid royalties for the design of the preserver and for marketing the vests at sporting goods conventions.

Markus began traveling the country to visit trade shows. He rented booths so that he could demonstrate the life vest to convention attendees, most of whom were sportsmen themselves. They understood the value of what Markus created and sales were good.

In the 1930s, a Navy captain saw Peter Markus demonstrating the life vest. For the captain, this was a “light bulb” moment. He realized the value the preserver could have for the military. 

Markus was invited to come to Washington to demonstrate the life preserver.

Military Recognizes the Value

Like the sportsmen whom Markus knew, the military primarily used life vests filled with cork or balsa wood. The military and the fishermen were in agreement—those vests were bulky and hard to wear.

When the military purchasing agents saw Markus demonstrate his inflatable vest, they were delighted. They asked for only one change—that of color. The military pointed out that if an airman or a sailor went into the water, a bright orange color would make them easier for rescuers to see. After that adjustment, the government was ready to buy.

The vests soon made headlines.  In 1935, the dirigible, the USS Macon, went down in the Pacific. There were one hundred crewmen on board. An astonishing 98 of the craft’s crew were saved because they were wearing vests. The two who died were also wearing vests but they became entangled in the crash debris and there was no way to free the men in time. 

Shortly after the newspaper articles, Markus began receiving letters from appreciative airmen.

an old color photo of a used life preserver

Congress Rules on “Excess Profits”

During the war, Congress passed an “Excess Profits” tax on company earnings from sales made to the military during wartime.

In support of the government, Markus cancelled his patent rights for war time and the future. From that date forward, the vests were available to the government royalty-free. According to the inventor’s son, Alvin A. Markus, his father “was happy his ingenuity helped save lives.”

Mae West Name Chosen By Military Men

Because the front air pockets filled quite completely, the wearer then had the look of a buxom woman. The World War II men who wore these began to call them the Mae West.

Though the vests were quite reliable, military men with idle time sometimes caused the devices to fail. Author Laura Hillenbrand explains what sometimes happened in Unbroken, the story of Pacific airman Louis Zamperini (1917-2013) during World War II. Zamperini told her that valuable as the vests were, the men sometimes tampered with them. If they removed the carbon dioxide cartridges, they could carbonate their drinks.

 Any soldier will say that wars are terrifying—and boring. Clearly, this is one of the things they did during the boring parts, unfortunately.

Still Saving Lives

The kids are on a mountain lake in a boat that they are rowing together. Both have on life vests.
Modern photo of two kids happily boating in their life vests.

Today the military still uses a form of this life vest, and the life preserver provided for commercial airline travelers is based on this “Mae West” model.

Like all inventions, other people come along and make improvements, but thus far, the Mae West life preserver remains very similar to the one Peter Markus thought of a century ago.

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