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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Fire escapes and fire stairwells remain a vital component of multi-story buildings. Even with all the advances in building materials, catastrophic fires can and do happen. And of course, in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries wood was one of the main components of most structures. Fires could quickly decimate an edifice. Often an entire block of buildings would catch fire.

The Fire Escape

The name most commonly associated with the early invention of the fire escape is a woman, Anna Connelly. But the invention of the fire escape is more complex than that. Because of the resistance of business owners, the fire escape had to be invented in stages. 

Connelly invented an important device that helped people get out of burning buildings, but it was not the exterior iron balcony and stairs that we think as the classic “fire escape.” Other inventions needed to come first.

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A Push For Fire Safety

In New York City in 1860, an all-consuming fire in a ground floor bakery heightened  interest in safety ordinances that required exterior escape paths. As in many commercial buildings, apartments and/or offices were above the bakery. This was a tenement building, with many heavily-populated apartments above. When the fire broke out, many families were at home.

Standard fire department rescue ladders in that day reached only to the fourth floor of most buildings. People on the street witnessed as families clustered at windows looking for a solution. A few jumped. Many on higher floors perished in the fire. The following year, New York lawmakers passed a law about fire safety that specifically described what we think of as the fire escape: “fireproof balconies on each story on the outside of the building, connected by fireproof stairs.”

Landlords Objected

Despite the law, landlords were not ready to start adding staircases to the outside of their buildings. It was expensive and many felt it was unattractive.

Two years later, the law was relaxed. The new law simply stated that provisions needed to  be made for how people would exit in case of fire.

This new law led to a spate of patents for all sorts of simpler devices—from ladders and basket-and-pulley systems. Ladders that ran along the exterior of a building or a ladder that could be lowered by a winding system controlled from below were among the ideas put forward.  Some landlords provided rope ladders that could be anchored and tossed out upper story windows. 

Many apartment dwellers were forced to go up in their building to escape fire. But what happened after that? As buildings became taller people could no longer jump to safety, even with firemen holding life sheets (safety nets) below. 

One inventor came up with a personal parachute that a person could attach to their head. When they jumped from the building, those wearing parachute headgear might hope for the possibility of a safer landing. 

Needless to say, people continued to die in fires.

New Laws Added

The laws for public buildings were changed again in the 1870s. This time, the law specified that all public buildings must develop a system. But their continued to be resistance. Hotels did not want to mar their exterior with fire escape devices, and hotel guests were squeamish about having personal devices in the rooms. One guest felt it was just a reminder of the fact that she could die in a fire. 

Anna Connelly’s Device

When Anna Connelly patented her invention in 1887, it was actually far more important than it might seem today. Her patent was for a light but sturdy railed bridge that could be installed on upper floors or on the rooftops between buildings. 

Since the more serious fires often began in the lower floors occupied by commercial tenants, Connelly’s devised a system that permitted upward escape. When people got to the roof of the burning building, the bridge permitted them to cross to what was hoped to be a fire-free building. That way people might exit by going down the stairs within the neighboring building that was not yet burning. Today we would talk about helicopter rescues but of course, no such possibility existed in that day.

In her patent application, she wrote: “My invention relates to improvements in fire-escapes; and it consists of a bridge surrounded by a railing and having openings in the ends of the floor thereof, as herein described, the said bridge being adapted to be placed on the roofs of adjoining or adjacent buildings, thereby permitting the ready and safe passage from one roof to the other.”

Hotels Weaseled Out of Regulations

The initial laws about fire escapes pertained to tenement apartment houses. Hotels persuaded inspectors not to consider them as multi-story dwellings. Hotel owners did not want to add unattractive exterior structures.

But the need was there. As fires continued to engulf major buildings, inventors were at work. Many of the applications for fire escapes were filed by women. Perhaps this was because they were more likely to be at home when a building caught fire. Between the years of 1877-1895 alone, women received 33 patents on various designs of fire escapes. 

Inventors and builders also worked on other types of fire escapes. At schools and hospitals, tubular chutes were tested in the 1930s. Other places experimented with evacuation slides like the ones used on planes today. 

Today newer buildings have interior fire stairs where people can usually make it to a safer floor during a fire.

Other Uses

Once added to buildings, the exterior fire escapes greatly improved an apartment occupant’s ability to escape a fire. But because they are not in constant use, city dwellers soon began creating alternate uses for them. 

At a time when there was no air conditioning, people often slept out on the fire escapes. The staircases also became handy for drying clothing and getting more sun for plants. Some fire escapes became so cluttered that they were harder to use for their intended purpose.

Though we don’t necessarily focus on the fire escape plans for public buildings or for those in a hotel where we might be staying, the news stories remind us often enough that knowing how to leave a burning building safely is still vitally important.

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The deadliest industral disaster in New York City was yet to come. Compliance with the safety laws continued to be lax. Read about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

For fire safety tips, click here for information from the National Fire Protection Association.

Weather. People throughout time have always cared about the weather. It affects crops, businesses, travel, and personal plans. Sometimes, all that one needs is the next day’s forecast. But often, farmers and businesspeople want to hear about what they might expect in the coming weeks.

In this country, we need only look back to the Founding Fathers to find people who were intently interested in documenting weather. Benjamin Franklin ran kite experiments during lightning storms to learn more. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson took detailed notes in their journals. Benjamin Banneker, a free Black and a contemporary of these men, kept detailed records and published annual almanacs that contained his findings. 

And as Lewis and Clark traveled to explore the Northwest Territory, they were expected to take careful records of the weather. By documenting the topography, the flora and fauna, and the weather, it was hoped that future generations would be able to make sense of the new land.

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Military and Volunteer Networks

Because weather was important, two different avenues for collecting data in this country developed independently: the military and the new Smithsonian Institution.

As early as 1814, U.S. Army Surgeon General Dr. James Tilton ordered field surgeons to keep weather diaries. Some believed that there was a correlation between diseases and weather. No one expected a physician to predict the weather, but administrators felt there was value in records being kept and sent on to the office of the Surgeon General.

Some field surgeons were diligent about their weather diaries. Others were neglectful. However, at least there was a rudimentary system in place before the Civil War changed everything. 

Telegraph Was Vital Development

But even as meteorological information was gathered, there was a continuing problem with sharing the news in a timely fashion. Before the development of the telegraph (1835), a messenger was needed to ride horseback to a neighboring town with any sort of weather information. The news inevitably arrived too late to be much help.

The telegraph was valuable from the beginning. The challenge with it was that wires could not be strung fast enough!

Telegraph lines were strung along the railroad tracks. Because trees were cut away for the tracks, men were able to erect poles and string wires more easily. This also made the railway station a logical place for telegraph offices.  It still took time to connect towns.

By the late 1840s, scientists began to realize another benefit of the telegraph. In addition to sending out news about possible storms, they could also gather weather information from multiple sources. This sometime improved the accuracy of any predictions.

Smithsonian Collected, Too

The Smithsonian was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1846 with funds from James Smithson, a British scientist. Smithson wanted to establish an institution in America for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” He would have highly approved of the idea of gathering data about weather.

The first secretary of the new Smithsonian was a physicist named Joseph Henry (1797-1878). He created the first network of weather observers.

The Institution asked for volunteers in different parts of the country. The Smithsonian sent them a box of instruments with instructions on record-keeping and reporting. The weather collection boxes contained all the latest instruments available, including a barometer, a thermometer, hygrometer (measures humidity), anemometer (measures wind speed and wind pressure), a wind vane, a rain gauge, and a clock.

By 1860, Henry had 500 weather stations manned by volunteers who reported regularly. (Today the Smithsonian refers to this group as their first crowd-sourcing project.) 

Civil War

The Civil War brought any type of project like weather-gathering to a halt.

Generals on both sides of the War recognized how important weather news was. However, they were fully occupied recruiting men, locating weaponry, and figuring out uniforms and how to feed so many soldiers. There wasn’t any time for “extras.”

They knew a terrible rainstorm would slow troops down, might cause river overflows, and could knock out the few bridges that might have existed. Cold and snow slowed everything to a stop, and frostbite was debilitating. As a result, many men faced amputations because of toes that couldn’t be saved.

Even hot weather was no blessing. Heat wore out the men and animals. A soldier carrying a heavy pack on a hot day was very likely to leave behind jackets, sleeping bags, and many things that would have been helpful when the weather changed. 

Weather Issues During the War

War records indicate that in addition to brutal fighting, lack of equipment, and difficulty procuring food, weather, too, was a major obstacle. One soldier recorded in his journal what it was like for Union soldiers after Chancellorsville: The area was hit with a torrential storm that included fog that prevented the men from seeing each other.  They marched side by side but … “We took to shouting to our comrades that we were enabled to keep our places in the ranks.”

Weather also resulted in direct casualties. Ships sank; horses and men were killed by lightning; frost-bitten feet could become too painful to walk on.  The war experiences pointed to what many already knew—the country needed to develop a weather department.

Who Should Run a Weather Bureau?

After the war, there were several opinions about how to set up a weather bureau. Albert Myer had been among the surgeons who kept track of the weather in his area. He was now a colonel and saw that the military’s Signal Corps was in the best position to run a bureau. They had access to the telegraph wires and knew how to send out signals.  Myer felt the weather expertise could come from volunteers.

Others Fought For a Government Agency

But in the Great Lakes region, different views were held. There was little that was predictable about the weather in that part of the country, and catastrophes could happen. In 1869, a four-day gale raged through the area. Ninety-seven ships and countless lives were lost on the lakes alone.

Professor Increase Lapham (1811-1875) of Milwaukee observed this, and he urged for an independent separate weather bureau. He sent related news clippings to his Congressman about the issue, noting in one: Is it not “the duty of the Government to see whether anything can be done [in the future] to prevent, at least, some portion of this sad loss?”

Congress Decides

Lapham’s representative, Congressman Halbert E. Paine, introduced legislation that offered the option of creating a civilian agency. After studying the issue, Congress determined that if the military could make use of the Smithsonian volunteers, then the suggestion of letting the Signal Corps run the service would be less expensive and perfectly workable. They vetoed the idea of a civilian service.

With the department assigned to the Signal Corps, the weather service was part of the War Department.  Surgeon Albert Myer, now a Brevet Brigadier General, was put in charge. He gave the department its first name: “The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce.”

The plan involved recruiting some meteorologists to be part of the Signal Corps but to also rely on the Smithsonian network of volunteers. To increase the possibility of better forecasting, the country was divided into eight different districts.

The first synchronized weather reports came into the Washington office from 24 stations at 7:35 a.m. on November 1, 1870.

Forecasting

In the 1870s, the Smithsonian established a daily routine that they carefully observed:

One man received and digested all incoming telegrams. He then assigned them to the staff people in charge of different divisions of the country. They then did their best to interpret what was likely to happen in their region.  

The goal of the process was to create a daily weather map within a 2-hour window.

Printing plates were prepared so that the latest data could be added to the new maps.  Then these were sent out over the telegraph lines to weather stations and railroad offices.

Sometimes The Process Worked…

As we all know, weather is tricky to predict. Even today, the forecasters will give us several options of what we might expect. In those days, the equipment was less reliable and made predictions even more difficult. However, sometimes the weather forecasters did get it right.

In one particular case, data revealed that there would be a frost in Wisconsin that could affect the crops. This information was sent from Washington to Madison 36 hours in advance of the cold weather. If farmers had received the news in time, it might have been very helpful. Unfortunately, the telegraph officer either missed the incoming telegram or forgot about it. He never sent on the weather alert.

Many telegraph offices were not 24-hour operations, and this, too, led to problems. The weather information might have been received in a timely manner, but there was no one at the office to send it out.

People Wanted to Know

People of the past were just as curious about upcoming weather forecasts as we are today.  In 1873, rural post offices were the hub of every community, so the forecasts were sent to hundreds of local post offices.

The service instituted a flag system that they recommended to post offices. (The Signal Corps had its roots in signaling by flag.) Flags of different colors were designated to signal different types of weather. Townspeople did not need to walk into the post office or even be literate to understand the weather that was expected to come.

Some post offices even created a “Farmer’s Bulletin” with weather information that was posted on the community bulletin board.

Weather predictions were also sent to rail stations and to any news media of the day.

Other Challenges

Rain, sleet, snow, and hail were the types of weather that were generally the focus of weather reports. But unfortunately, there were plenty of other weather events that forecasters had little hope of pinning down. 

Tornadoes seemed to appear on the skyline out of “nowhere.” Though townspeople might see the swirling winds as they grew in force, there was little time to do much to protect one’s home or livestock.  Hurricanes were also difficult to predict. Would this be a heavy tropical rain, or would it develop into a full-blown hurricane, and how far on land would it travel?

Flooding is also a development of weather, but the scientists were challenged as to when heavy rain would mean riverbanks would overflow. These weather occurrences could be catastrophic, but the weather experts lacked ways to do much about them.

As state governments began to invest in weather services, the predictive powers of many types of weather improved. Even today, the more local the prediction, the better chance the chance the forecast will be right.

Inaccuracy Always A Problem

Just as today, people were quite annoyed when the weather predictions were wrong.

In 1904, one New Mexico newspaper came up with a way they felt increased their chances of being correct. Each day they printed the official weather forecast issued by the government.

But they also sent a reporter out to check with Oliver P. Wiggins, a Civil War veteran and a protégé of Kit Carson. Wiggins had been injured during the war, and his leg still “acted up” before bad weather.  The newspaper saved space right next to the official weather report. There, they would print an update on how Wiggins was feeling and what he thought that meant for the local weather.

The scientists at the weather bureau saw this as “disrespectful” of the science. A meeting was held between the newspaper editor and a representative of the weather bureau. The bureau representative made it very clear that Oliver Wiggins’s predictions needed to be a thing of the past.

Department of Agriculture

As the country grew and the network of telegraph lines exploded across the country, farmers and businesspeople became the primary audience for weather news. The time had come to switch the weather service away from the military.

In 1890, at the request of President Benjamin Harrison, Congress passed an act transferring meteorological responsibility from the Signal Corps to the Department of Agriculture. It was retitled the “Weather Bureau.”

Weather Kiosks

The United States observed that in the early 1900s, Germany added kiosks on busy streets in their major cities. Pedestrians could walk by and learn almost anything they wanted about the weather.

The U.S. government began sending out the materials for weather kiosks in 1908. By 1910, kiosks were built in 29 cities.

Buffalo’s newspaper headlined the news by pointing out that this would reduce phone calls to the beleaguered local weather person: “It Will Save You Calling Up Davy Cuthbertson [local forecaster] to Ask About the Weather.” 

The Buffalo newspaper ran a great article on the excitement surrounding the kiosk. It was described as a “highly ornamental iron booth, four feet square by ten feet high, with plate glass windows on the sides. The reporter continues: “Three of the windows will feature weather maps and other documents.  In the fourth window will be placed a maximum and minimum thermometer, a mercurial thermometer, a thermograph to record the temperature for 2 weeks back, a hygrometer to give the relative humidity, and a self-recording rain gauge.”

Those who strolled by would be able to find out everything except wind velocity, which was too changeable to report on reliably.

But there were misunderstandings about the purpose of these governmental structures. In Pittsburgh in September of 1909, an article explained that the kiosks were NOT mailboxes. They were just kiosks so those who were leaving letters and post cards on top if the kiosk were going to be sorely disappointed.

Communication Methods Changed

Some of us may actually remember when there was a phone number to call for the correct time, weather information, and road reports during the winter.

This “information by phone” started very casually. In the days when telephone operators worked switchboards plugging in calls, chances were good that they knew most people in town. If you knew that “Mabel” was already at work, you might well decide to call her and ask if you needed to wear a jacket or if the kids should wear boots.

If the operators thought weather was changing, it was certainly easy enough to connect a caller with the local weather man in town. He would be able to give his friends and neighbors an up-to-the-minute report.

As late as the 1930s-‘40s, weather offices often received up to one hundred calls a day. Some time after that, phone systems automated weather reports and traffic reports. There was often a specific line where you cold call for the correct time.

Improving Weather Study

Those analyzing the weather knew that the ability to measure the upper atmosphere was very helpful. But how to gather that data was more problematic. Weather kites were a failure, so in 1909, when the U.S. began trying weather balloons, there was great excitement. By the 1920s, the balloons could be equipped with radio transmitters.  This permitted real-time observation of the stratosphere so that forecasters understood the width of a weather system and also its height.

Using radar for weather information was a result of the Second World War. During the war, radar operators observed patterns of interference on their screens that aligned with bad weather.

After the war, radar meteorology became a major field of study.

Weather Prediction

Today weather predicting is a major industry, drawing the public to the internet, and radio and television. Many businesses specifically sign up to receive regular weather reports. For example, power companies predict usage based on weather; the travel and leisure industries are heavily invested in weather happenings, and agriculture and construction may alter schedules based on what is to come.

Today’s Organization

Today the Weather Service is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where it is united with the other government agencies that were originally dedicated to studying the physical sciences–the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (formed in 1807) and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, which dates to 1871, just one year after the Weather Bureau became a government agency.

Then and now, these agencies all have in common the application of science for the public welfare.

*** To read about a terrible snowstorm that blew into the Great Plains with little warning, read about “The Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888.”

Car seat belts are a safety measure that most people take for granted. While compliance is at an all-time high—90 percent of front seat passengers use their seatbelts—car crashes are still the leading cause of death for people under age 54. And statistics show that more than half the people killed in car crashes were not restrained at the time of the crash.

In other words, many of these deaths could easily be prevented.

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Habits Change Slowly

As recently as the late 1950s and early ’60s, auto manufacturers were comfortable with letting people feel that cars were a safe form of transportation. Few cars had seat belts, and the sentiment was that people wouldn’t use them anyway. The government was reluctant to step in to regulate the industry.

As more people bought and drove cars, the death toll from traffic accidents mounted. It took public pressure, Congressional hearings, the cooperation of car manufacturers, and public education campaigns to reach the current state of seat belt usage compliance.

Early Innovators/Early Crusaders

The first safety harnesses were actually used by pilots experimenting with flying machines. The very first harness we know of was used in a glider created by a British gentleman, Sir George Cayley (1773-1857) in 1849. (Cayley’s machine has been overshadowed by the many stores about the Wright brothers.)

Sir Cayley was a member of the British upper class. Because he had the money and time to investigate different things, he wrote about a diverse range of subjects, rail safety among them, but his primary interest was in aerodynamics. Could man fly?

As a younger man, he built contraptions and tested them himself by jumping from upper porches of his home. He continued to experiment well into his seventies, but his wife finally took a strong stand: He could no longer test these machines himself. He was too old.

Glider Success

In 1849, he completed work on a glider that he felt would fly. Because his wife’s words echoed in his brain, he asked his coachman to test the machine. Coachman John Appleby was strapped into a safety harness, and he navigated a short but impressive flight across a 900-foot valley (Brompton Dale) in Yorkshire.

Despite the successful flight, the only way to conclude the experience was to crash land. Thanks to the safety harness, Appleby walked away from the crash, but he was not happy. He tendered his resignation, saying his job was as a driver, not a flier.

As more planes were built, safety harnesses became standard equipment. Everyone acknowledged that early flying was dangerous. It only made sense to add lap belts or safety harnesses to protect the pilots whose experimental flights often did not end well.

First Seat Belt Patent

The first American to patent a seat belt of any kind was Edward J. Claghorn of New York, N.Y. He was issued a patent in 1885 for a “safety-belt for tourists, painters, or firemen who are being raised or lowered.”

Early Automobiles

Early cars were open air, and a prevailing myth was that drivers and passengers were safer if they were thrown out of a car before a crash. Automobiles were prone to catch fire in an accident. If the people were thrown out, the reasoning was that they would be safer. 

That said, race car drivers knew their line of work was dangerous. Many flouted the danger, but esteemed driver Barney Oldfield (1878-1946) lost a good friend to a race car crash. This made him highly aware of safety. In 1917, he and a friend created a car with a rollbar and safety “cage” to protect the driver in the event of a crash.  Five years later–in 1922–he ordered a safety harness from a parachute company for use in one of his cars.

More Automobiles Meant More Accidents

In 1935, DeWitt Wallace (1889-1981), publisher of Reader’s Digest, commissioned writer Joseph C. Furnas (1905-2001) to prepare an article about auto accidents. Furnas’ article, “—And Sudden Death!”, was the most reprinted article in Digest history and brought to light the topic of car safety.

As it happened, Furnas relied on experts who agreed that in case of a crash, the interiors of cars were dangerous. Several of them espoused that passengers were actually safer being thrown out of the car rather than restrained.

Next Crusaders, Medical Doctors

Plastic surgeon Claire Straith (1891-1958) disagreed. He was so upset by the types of injuries he saw on car crash victims arriving at his Michigan clinic that he began visiting sites where car accidents occurred. He took along a camera and photographed the crash in an effort to determine the cause of the injuries.

Straith’s observation was that car dashboards were a huge part of the problem. They had sharp edges, and control knobs stuck out from the dashboards so they could poke and injure a passenger who was thrown forward. The steering wheel shaft was also an issue and placed the driver at high risk of being impaled.

Based on these observations, Dr. Straith started an organization called the Automobile Safety League of America. Straith urged that dashboards be padded and that control knobs flush-mounted. He experimented with lap belts and also patented a dashboard crash pad. He and a group of friends tried to modify their own cars to some extent but there was a limit to what could  be done to retrofit a car.

For the first few years of Dr. Straith’s safety campaign, he did not get much attention. However, by 1935, he managed to arrange a meeting with Walter Chrysler. Mr. Chrysler took to heart some of Straith’s points, and he saw that his factories implemented certain changes. From 1937 forward, the Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, and Imperial cars featured recessed knobs, rubber buttons, padded seat tops, and gently curved door handles. This was the first time an auto manufacturer promoted designs for safety instead of styling.

Another Doctor Stands Up for Safety

In 1946, Dr. C. Hunter Shelden opened a neurological practice at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Like Straith, he became concerned about the car crash injuries he saw.

In November 1955, the Journal of the American Medical Association printed an article by Dr. Shelden suggesting retractable seat belts, recessed steering wheels, reinforced car roofs, roll bars, door locks, and elevated head rests to protect against whip lash. Shelden was also a very early proponent of the air bag.

Safety Didn’t Sell

Car manufacturers preferred to promote automobiles as a safe form of transportation. Car accidents were inevitable, but safety wasn’t a good selling point.

However, safety organizations were pressuring car manufacturers. During the 1950s, interstate highways were beginning to criss-cross the country. This led to increases in car speeds, and faster cars often led to more serious crashes.

The car industry began to feel some pressure to make improvements. As they stepped gingerly into the field, they decided safety features could be optional. In 1956, Ford offered to pad the dashboard and install seat belts in their cars for any consumer willing to pay an additional $27. Only 2 percent of Ford buyers spent extra for safety.

Congressional Hearings

In 1960, Congress agreed to hold hearings on car safety since the number of cars on the road were increasing monthly. Some of the items under discussion then were features we take for granted today: good brake systems, defrosting systems for front and back windows, and windshield wipers that work better than early wipers did.

Seat belts were also discussed. American Motors noted they were installing brackets in the 1960 car models and dealers could then use these brackets to attach belts for those car buyers who wanted them. Other manufacturers were making indentations in the floorboards with a similar plan in mind. However, Chrysler dealers claimed that less than 1 percent of customers asked for seat belts.

Ralph Nader’s Well-Deserved Claim to Fame

Ultimately, pressure on Congress and car manufacturers had to come from the public, and the public needed to be educated about the issue. Ralph Nader, a 32-year-old attorney and consumer advocate, worked tirelessly to heighten awareness. In 1959, while still a student at Harvard, he began writing on the topic of car safety.

The 1965 publication of Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, stirred interest throughout the country. The book became a bestseller and prompted the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. This led to the creation of the National Highway Safety Bureau. This marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety from the consumer to the government.

Despite the statistics that proved that riders wearing seat belts were more likely to survive a crash, many Americans did not like being told what to do.  There was still great resistance.

In 1974, car manufacturers experimented with a guaranteed method for assuring that seat belts were worn: Drivers couldn’t start their car engines without first buckling up.

The uproar from the public was overwhelming. As you know today, you do not have to buckle your seatbelt to start your car. Once again, Americans resisted what was deemed to be “good for them.”

Ultimately, consumer compliance improved when driving without fastening your seat belt became a ticket-able offense. New York was the first state to pass such a law in 1984. Other states soon followed.

Consumer Compliance

When it comes to auto safety, it’s the consumer that ultimately makes the difference. From the use of seat belts to resisting driving while distracted (or drunk) requires mature individuals behaving responsibly. 

And while seat belts save lives, more than 38,000 people still die every year in crashes on U.S. roadways. An additional 4.4 million are injured seriously enough to require medical attention. Obviously, consumer organizations would like to see 100 percent compliance on seat belt use.

Today most safety organizations are focusing on greater safety for those in the backseats of cars. Some backseat passengers have been killed when the front seat becomes unmoored and falls back, crushing the person in the backseat.

Some manufacturers have added side airbags to protect those in the back seat. Others are experimenting with seatbelts that inflate in a crash. Most modern cars have headrests that protect adults against whiplash.

History tells the story. We can do better when it comes to car safety.

For other safety-related articles, read School Safety Patrols; the invention of the rearview mirror for cars; or the invention of an early traffic light.

In the 1930’s and 1940’s, sunscreen was being developed independently but simultaneously by at least four different chemists in various parts of the world:

The first-to-market was likely H.A. Milton in Australia. In the early 1930s, he discovered that a  wound-healing substance seemed to protect against the sun. Once he developed a cream that he thought could be manufactured, he turned to friends for funding. His first production run was for 500 tubes of “sunburn cream” under the name of Hamilton Sunscreen. (He took his first two initials and added it to “Milton” for “Hamilton.”)  The product sold well and was said to be distributed widely. It is not clear that it was available in other countries in those early years, but it is still sold today.

In 1936, French chemist Eugene Schueller founded L’Oreal to make hair coloring, and he soon developed a sunscreen. This sunscreen was also sold commercially but not much is known about it. L’Oreal, however, is now the parent company of Anthelios and Ombrelle, two well-regarded brands today.

In 1938, when Swiss student Franz Greiter returned home with a painful sunburn after hiking in the Alps, he set out to create a lotion or cream that would prevent burning. His first product was a barrier cream, sold as Gletscher Crème. It is unlikely that it was sold in the United States.

In America, the first chemist to successfully develop a sunscreen was Miami pharmacist Benjamin Green (1918-2004). Green served in the Pacific during World War II, and he saw that he and his fellow soldiers needed some way to protect against the sun. When he came home, he developed what we know as Coppertone.

Specifying a “First”

Terminology makes it very difficult to trace a “first” with this product. Today many of us shop for “sunblock,” looking for a product that will prevent ultraviolet rays from penetrating our skin. But in the early part of the 20^th century, people were wrestling with two pieces of information about sunlight:

1. Sunlight was important for providing Vitamin D—Vitamins were a relatively recent discovery.
2. Too much sun caused skin to redden and blister.

Obviously, a balance was necessary. One hundred years ago, people also dealt with the conflict we hear today: To tan or not to tan? Tan skin “looks so healthy…”  People with white skin are rarely described with words like a “healthy glow.”

Learning About Vitamin D

During the early 20^th century, chemists were just beginning to learn about vitamins. As scientists observed deficiencies in diet, they explored what made different foods more valuable to the human body. This led to the discovery of vitamins.

The first vitamin identified was vitamin A in 1913. Vitamin D was identified in 1920 when British scientists discovered that animals (and children) who were kept out of sunlight during cold winters, suffered from rickets. (Rickets is a disease that involves the softening of bones.) With this knowledge, they saw that bringing a measured amount of sunlight to animals and people during the winter helped prevent this illness.

But of course, many people had experience with too much sun. Soldiers, agricultural workers, travelers, and sportsmen all knew the pain of sunburns.

Chemists were looking for some way to balance the good with the bad.

Tracing History Through Press Coverage

The U.S. Patent Office did not have patents on sunscreens or sun cream until the 1950s, so I looked back at newspaper articles. In the 1920s, a search for “sunscreen” brought forward advertisements for parasols.

Then in the late 1930s, Helena Rubinstein advertised “sunproof cream” that sold for a dollar. Rubinstein brought her business to the United States in 1915, and her first product was a moisturizing cream. Based on what was known about sun and sun damage at that time, the moisturizing cream and the sun cream may have been one and the same. Like other companies, Rubinstein also used a confusing tag line by promising two things: “Keeps you Fair or Makes You Tan.” 

Newspaper Search Continues

When searching for news clippings about sunscreen or sunblock, I came upon an article from The Morning News, Wilmington, Delaware, from July 1943. The overall article offers summer health advice and was titled, “Good Dose of Summer Sun Prevents Winter Colds.” The first part of the article calls for “war workers and office girls” to get outside and get some sun. The reporter recommends wearing shorts or a bathing suit while doing yard work in order to maximize sun exposure.

But the reporter, Jacqueline Hunt, adds that readers needs to be careful. She reverses her advice and suggests early exposure should be limited to 20 minutes, with time in the sun increasing day by day.  She also writes: “There is a really fine protective lotion of the non-oily type containing a special form of tannic acid derivative. Because it doesn’t leave a shine, men as well as women like it, and it is used extensively by our soldiers and marines in the Tropics.” 

While tannic acid (found in oak and chestnut branches, and when condensed contained in tea and red wine) is sometimes used to calm skin that is inflamed, it is not a chemical that is well-regarded for blocking ultraviolet rays. While this article describes a product more advanced that what we think they had at time, it is not clear what the product was. Perhaps this was the sunscreen manufactured in Australia.

After World War II

During World War II, Benjamin Green, an airman and pharmacist, was stationed in the South Pacific. When he saw that he and the other men needed protection from the harsh sun, and he recommended that the men use a red petroleum product that was intended for use by veterinarians. “Red Pet Vet” was a barrier cream. While it worked, those who used it described it as heavy and unpleasant.   Despite that, one would speculate that the military were happy to have some way to protect their skin in the South Pacific.

Both Benjamin Green and Franz Greiter, the Swiss hiker, re-focused their attention on their respective products after the war. In 1946, Greiter developed a new version of his product. He called the lotion “Piz Buin,” named for the mountain he was climbing when he came up with the idea that sunscreen was needed. (A company that manufactures Piz Buin still exists. There are many sun-related products sold under this brand name.)

Benjamin Green and Coppertone

Benjamin Green returned to Miami, Florida. He worked at a pharmacy, Douglas Drug Company (the store was located on Douglas Street in Miami). He spent nights and weekends experimenting with better ways to formulate Red Pet Vet. Working out of his kitchen, he added various amounts of cocoa butter and coconut oil to the original formula. He was bald, so he tested the different formulas on his own head in the Florida sun. 

At some point, he became the owner of Douglas Drug Company, and when he felt his product was ready to be manufactured, he did so under the name, Douglas Laboratories.”

As early as 1946, Green marketed the product as Coppertone. (There is a court case that documents this, as he successfully prevents another company from using the name, “Copper Tan.”) 

Coppertone is thought to be the first tanning lotion sold in the U.S., but there were still mixed messages about protecting from a burn.  One of the company tag lines was “Don’t be a Pale Face,” (not acceptable today). Another was “Tan, Don’t Burn.” While Coppertone advertised the product as a way to get a better tan, the cream also contained ingredients that helped to protect against burns. 

Coppertone Expands

At some point, Green received financial backing from two well-respected Miami businessmen who became part of the company. This added help gave Green the money and business staffing to grow from local distribution to nationwide sales in under ten years. Though Douglas Labs was still the manufacturer of the product, they took on the company name, Coppertone. Charles E. Clowe and Maurice Gusman were the two men who joined Green to run the company.

In the late 1940s, they also were using a young model named Norma Jean. She, of course, went on to be better known as Marilyn Monroe.

The company made news in 1955. The Miami News wrote that a fire gutted their plant, warehouse and offices on NW 23^rd Street. Because Coppertone had wide distribution and was a big seller, the next stories were press releases assuring the public that there was still warehouse supply—they should keep buying it.  The newspaper describes Coppertone as “the largest manufacturer of suntan oil in the United States,” so getting this reassurance out there would been critical.

By the mid-1950s the product was very well known for its marketing featuring the iconic little girl and the dog who reveals her tan line.

Coppertone Ads

The little girl in the bathing suit with the pigtails was introduced in 1956. She was drawn by illustrator Joyce Ballantyne, who modeled the little girl after her own 3-year-old daughter.

Coppertone and Douglas Labs remained independently owned until 2014 when Bayer purchased the company. In 2019, Coppertone was sold again to Beiersdorf, a company that sells Eucerin, Nivea, and La Prairie, among other brands.

Sunscreen Patents

Patents on sunscreen or sun lotion did not come along until the mid-1950s. At that time, the patent applications generally involved various chemicals to block or absorb the rays. The first “sunburn preventative” formula was filed by David X. Klein at Heyden Chemical Corp. His patent used n-salcoyl-p-aminophenol composite to absorb the rays. 

Within a year, a patent using benzopenones was applied for. This is a chemical that is still used today to protect against UV light. By the late 1950s and early ‘60s, there were several approved patents for different way to absorb ultraviolet light.

Blocking UVA and UVB

In Europe, scientists discovered that ultraviolet light came in two forms that affected the skin. Ultraviolet B was the one absorbed or blocked by the early creams. Ultraviolet A was found to be more damaging to skin, but the preventative formulas were harder to find. 

By the 1970s, Piz Buin, Franz Greiter’s company, introduced sunscreens that filtered out both ultraviolet A and B filters. They also developed the formula for sun protective formula ratings (SPF numbers) and are also thought to be the first company to create water-resistant formulas. 

The U.S. was slow to follow. Until 1988, most sunscreens sold in the U.S. filtered only UVB rays. Finally, in 1988, the FDA approved a sunscreen product that contained avobenzone, a UVA-only filter. However, for some reason, the FDA waited until 1997 for approval for sunscreen companies to market the fact that their lotions or creams contained UVA protection.

Today we still have those who like to look tan, sometimes accomplished by sitting out in the sun. Other times, by using a chemical tanner. But there are growing numbers of people who slather on the sunscreen, figuring it’s good for the skin in the long run.

Curb cuts—the slight slope from a sidewalk to a roadway—are preferred by most people: walkers, bikers, and parents pushing children in strollers—yet they came about only because of a hard-fought battle by disability rights activists.

Enjoy them, use them, just don’t ever take them for granted.

The Issue With Curbs

For most people, a curb cut provides an easier path on our walks through a town or a neighborhood. But consider the plight of a wheelchair user.  Before curb cuts, a person using a wheelchair would arrive at a corner and have to look down the street to find the closest driveway. They would then go to that driveway, cross the street in the middle of the block, and then have to find a driveway or alley on the other side of the street to return to a sidewalk.  This was a difficult, cumbersome, and dangerous way to cross a street. 

In a city like Manhattan where there are many blocks with no driveway entries to blocks, traveling by wheelchair was next to impossible.

Disability Activist Gary Karp fell from a tree when he was 18 years old and sustained serious and permanent injury to his spine. The year was 1973, and at that point, curb cuts were just beginning to be added to streets and roads. Karp notes that as a young man in a light wheelchair, he could sometimes pop his wheelchair up so that it jumped the curb. But obviously, this wasn’t a solution for many people.

The Need Was There

People with disabilities have always existed. Some people are born with some type of physical difference. Many men who served in war came home without limbs or returned with other types of disabilities. But before World War I, many businesses were small family operations. If the person was capable of some type of work, then accommodations could be made. 

By World War I, more people were living in cities and many were working in factories. This lifestyle and these types of jobs were next to impossible for anyone with physical differences. Mobility was  difficult. Wheelchairs were primitive, and it was not easy to get around.

During this time, many people institutionalized family members. Families lacked a way to care for them. If the person did remain at home, they often lacked mobility. Morris Frank lost his vision when he was 26. His family was well off, so if a family member wasn’t available to help him, Frank hired a young boy to lead him where he needed to go. (Elsewhere on this site, read about how Morris Frank introduced the first seeing eye dog to this country.) What’s more, the public was often unkind. Staring and pointing occurred and made life difficult.

In his own quest to look “normal,” Franklin D. Roosevelt, who lost his ability to walk when he had polio as a young man, had a carpenter make a wheelchair for him out of a dining room chair. Those who saw him from the waist up (as he was almost always photographed) simply saw a man seated in a chair. Only those around him knew the chair was mounted on wheels, and that FDR was dependent on others for his mobility.

Problem Continued

Then by the 1940s, rubella and polio were affecting children and young people, and the need for coming up with a solution became more dire. Not only were buildings inaccessible, but so, too, were forms of transportation, bathrooms, and places to shop.

This difficulty is illustrated poignantly by disability activist Judith Heumann in her memoir. Heumann was born in 1947 and had polio when she was a toddler (1949). She has used a wheelchair since then. She gives us insight in her book, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.

Judith Heumann’s Early Story

Heumann grew up in Brooklyn, and she was grateful to have a couple of friends who lived on the same block as she did. She notes that this was very fortunate as the curb along the street was “like the Great Wall of China” to her.

She describes a typical summer day in 1953 when she was age six. Her mother rolled her wheelchair down the ramp from their front door. Then Heumann took it from there: “I would grip the rim of my wheelchair tires and inch myself along” to the house next door where her friend lived. There were three stone steps leading up to Arlene’s front door (and doorbell). Judith had to remain in her wheelchair, so she called loudly for her friend. She then waited until Arlene heard her or a family member alerted Arlene that Judith was outside.

Once the two friends were together, Arlene pushed Judith’s wheelchair down the block to pick up another playmate. This time, Arlene could hop up the porch steps and ring the doorbell. They generally played in that child’s backyard. Children from the other side of the street often joined them. If the group went across the street to another home, Judith was left out. Another child would not have been able to maneuver a wheelchair down a curb.

School Was No Better

When it came time for Judith to start school, Judith Heumann’s mother dressed them both nicely to walk to the school to enroll. There were stairs, so they waited while someone asked the principal to come out to meet with them. He told Mrs. Heumann that Judith would not be permitted to attend school; she would be a “fire hazard” in the hallways.

Mrs. Heumann wrangled with the school district for 3 years. The district sent someone to home-school Judith for 2-3 days each week, but Judith was a bright conversant child who needed social interaction.  The Heumann family knew that separate is never equal.

Finally, when Judith was age 9, she was assigned to attend a public school, but not the one in her neighborhood. The district designated a classroom at another school for those with disabilities. For a few years, Judith was bussed there.

With this beginning, Judith Heumann has dedicated her life to making the world accessible for all people. (She is among those featured in Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.)

Push For Rights in the 1960s

In the 1960s, the public push for better access began to grow just as other types of civil rights issues were being examined. The topic of accessibility was raised in 1962 when the National Society for Crippled Children and Adults (now Easterseals), joined the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, which was established in 1947. Together, the two organizations launched a campaign for revising architectural standards and building codes so that people using assistive devices such as canes or wheelchairs could have access to all buildings.

One of the aspects that added strength to this movement was the fact a cross-disability interest was growing. People with different types of disabilities (physical, mental, visual and hearing) began to work together on a common cause.

Finding a Way

Change takes time, and finally, a small step forward was made. In 1968, a federal law passed that decreed that any building that was even partially funded by federal funds had to be barrier-free.

This was a step forward but required a level of consideration that few had ever thought about. There could be no grand stairs on the exteriors of business unless there was gracious and convenient ramp access for those who needed it. Inside, buildings needed hallways that were wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs. Hallways that added 2-3 steps in between areas of a building were a no-go. Restrooms needed to be accessible for all. This meant wider doors as well as bigger stalls within the bathrooms themselves.

Finally, towns and cities began adding curb cuts. The first cuts were added as early as 1973, but progress was slow. Finally, in 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. This Act is to ensure equal treatment and equal access to employment and public accommodation. The law specifies that there is to be full inclusion, and integration of all people in all levels of society. With this, progress moved along a little faster. 

Curb Cuts Enjoyed by All

Whether you are in a city or a smaller town, take a few minutes to watch the activities that happen at any street corner. Those preferring curb cuts include parents with strollers, delivery people with hand trucks or carts, older people who may have canes and many walkers who prefer the sloped ramp instead of the harder impact of stepping off a curb.

But the work must continue. Curb cuts are one step forward, but most cities have yet to add adaptive devices to signal safe crossings for those with visual limitations.  For example, street crossings currently serve the visually sighted. Even young children recognize the “walking man” signal. But what if you are blind? Then access that is fair to you and others requires audible tones or speech messages or vibrating surfaces for those who might be deaf and blind.

Activist and speaker Gary Karp says in one of his speeches on YouTube: “When you design well for disability, you design well for everyone else… Universal design helps everyone.”

We still have a long way to go.