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The History of Motorcycle Helmets: From the Death of Lawrence of Arabia to Augmented Reality
The History of Motorcycle Helmets: From the Death of Lawrence of Arabia to Augmented Reality

Video: The History of Motorcycle Helmets: From the Death of Lawrence of Arabia to Augmented Reality

Video: The History of Motorcycle Helmets: From the Death of Lawrence of Arabia to Augmented Reality
Video: University Lecture: John Lawrence 2024, March
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It has cost us, but at this point in the 21st century we have already adopted the motorcycle helmets as a key piece when it comes to getting behind a handlebar. Its use, in addition to being mandatory, is common sense, but it was not always like that.

The history of motorcycle helmets you have to travel back in time until the end of the 19th century, so since then we are going to do a temporary review of the birth of this very important protection element and its evolution over the years hand in hand with technical progress.

The origin of motorcycle helmets was not born with the first motorcycles

Silvester H Roper Moto Vapor
Silvester H Roper Moto Vapor

To find the origin of motorcycle helmets, you have to go as far back as the birth of motorcycles. Or well, almost. It was in 1867 Sylvester howard roper created the first motorcycle in history by attaching a small steam engine to a wooden structure with two wheels. Years later, in 1885 Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach They made the first motorcycle with a gasoline engine.

The late 19th century was an exciting time when it came to industrial inventions, devices and creations. The cars had just been released as a solution to animal traction transport and the option of finding a more affordable, lighter and above all variant performance starting with bicycles it spread like wildfire.

Gottlieb Daimler Willheim Maybach
Gottlieb Daimler Willheim Maybach

With the first bikes, protection did not matter, only speed mattered and going faster and faster.

Without caring too much (or rather nothing) about the safety of the riders, motorcycles did not stop being rudimentary spawns ever faster only for the brave. Without suspensions, without really effective brakes, without protections … Simply at the time, nobody thought that it could be necessary, much less obligatory, to use protection elements.

In those first motorcycles, comfort was sought more than protection, so the first helmets made were nothing more than just leather hoods to protect from the cold which were complemented with aviation goggles to prevent dirt from entering the eyes.

Gottlieb Daimler Willheim Maybach Motorcycle
Gottlieb Daimler Willheim Maybach Motorcycle

The first voices to advocate for the use of helmets that offered effective protection were not long in coming. In 1914 doctor Eric gardner He suggested that motorcycle riders (at least those who participated in sporting events) should wear helmets. Surprisingly, they listened to him, premiering these protective elements at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, although the pilots did not agree with their use.

Thomas Edward Lawrence changed the future of protections in motorcycling. The name may not sound familiar to you, but the protagonist who triggered this story was also known as Lawrence of Arabia. The former British Army officer, explorer and writer died in 1935 from injuries sustained when returning from a letter from the Clouds Hill Post Office in his Brough Superior SS100.

Hugh Cairns and Charles Lombard, the fathers of motorcycle helmets

Motorcycle Helmet Lawrence Of Arabia
Motorcycle Helmet Lawrence Of Arabia

Lawrence passed away on May 19, 1935 after six days in a coma. The doctor Hugh cairns It was the neurologist who tried to save the life of the charismatic Briton. He was unable to do so, but was so shocked by what happened that he began to wonder how he could have prevented Lawrence's death.

Cairns began to study the use of helmets scientifically and through the use of empirical simulations of the time, until he managed to get the British army to pay attention to him and collaborated so that the doctor published in 1941 a real, true and forceful study in which he showed for the first time the need to use a motorcycle helmet.

Motorbike helmet
Motorbike helmet

The death of Lawrence of Arabia in 1935 forced the shift to a society concerned with protecting the head when riding a motorcycle.

His experiments produced irrefutable arguments. Head impact injuries were of necessity no longer life threatening to much less serious injuries. The British Army did not ignore Cairns and succeeded in the motorized military of World War II used the helmet on their motorcycles mandatory. Every life counts, and in the Great War even more.

Until then, mortality among British motorcyclists was a proportion that today would be completely out of all the metrics, with 200 deaths in motorcycle accidents a week! In 1946, after a second study by Dr. Cairns in which it was ensured that the injuries and deaths of motorcyclists who used the helmet were much lower than those who did not use it, he managed to normalize the use of this garment and that terrible figure was reduced up to 50 deaths per month.

Geoff Duke Motorcycle Helmet
Geoff Duke Motorcycle Helmet

To Cairns' efforts to provide us motorists with a reliable element of protection must be added the willingness to Charles F. Lombard. This North American Air Force researcher patented in 1953 the first helmet as we know it today, with a rigid structure on the outside and a padded interior, derived from the models used by aviation pilots.

The novelty of introducing these soft pieces inside was not to make a more comfortable helmet, but rather the use of a material with the ability to dissipate kinetic energy impact before it reaches the skull and can cause serious injury.

Mike Hailwood Motorcycle Helmet
Mike Hailwood Motorcycle Helmet

At this point, it should be remembered that a good part of fatal or severe head injuries and injuries to the cerebral cortex are not caused by the impact itself, but by the sudden deceleration the brain undergoes, which is floating in the cerebrospinal fluid (acts as a shock absorber avoiding injuries), collides with the internal walls of the skull.

It was in 1957 when motorcycle helmets began to spread massively, also forcing the appearance of the Snell Foundation and its own regulatory standards for the standardization of these innovative headgear. This Foundation was named in honor of William Snell, a South African pilot who sadly died in competition as a result of injuries sustained to the head in an accident.

Angel Nieto1
Angel Nieto1

However, the mandatory use of helmets did not reach the United Kingdom until 1973, 21 years after the death of Dr. Cairns, who could not see his work completed. The rest of the countries received this obligation gradually; in Spain its obligation on urban and interurban roads did not arrive until late 1992.

During the middle of the century, helmets became a popular element overcoming the supposed discomfort of wearing them or alluding to aesthetic reasons. Also on the circuits they came with force and in 1967 the living legend Giacomo Agostini he used the first full face helmet in the race as we use them today.

Giacomo Agostini Motorcycle Helmet
Giacomo Agostini Motorcycle Helmet

According to a study by H. H. Hurt, the 45.3% of impacts that receives a motorcyclist in the head in case of impact focus on the chin area, mouth, nose, cheekbones and eyes. The use of jet in favor of full-face helmets has become a constant, although open-type helmets are still used today, notably less safe and which we do not particularly recommend, not even in urban commutes.

During the last decades motorcycle helmets seemed a stagnant element on which advances were mainly focused on aerodynamic issues. With a mature technology capable of offering resistant and very light shells and interiors equipped with absorbent material, the digitization has begun to make its way.

The latest technologies, also in motorcycle helmets

Skully3
Skully3

In a world as analog as that of helmets, we are now witnessing the digital revolution, but it could bring as many drawbacks as benefits.

Now the big brands are using the added value of technology to create smart helmets, with communication systems, linked to motorcycles and smartphones. The augmented reality It is becoming the great incentive that brands are looking for, especially start-ups (Skully, Crosshelmet, Nolan's N-Com ARX, MonoHUD, NUVIZ.

Can receive notifications traffic, navigation alerts, seeing vehicle speed without taking your eyes off the road or even having a vision of what is happening behind us seems possible. As possible as receiving phone calls and with the same negative effect of receiving distractions, which is creating some debate around the suitability of including electronic devices in the helmet.

Crosshelmet 02
Crosshelmet 02

In addition, the adoption of new technologies in motorcycle helmets has additional drawbacks. From the outset, the weight increases in such a sensitive garment, transferring extra fatigue to the neck, but additional elements are also incorporated that can cause injuries due to detachment of elements in case of impact or by reducing the absorbent material. That is to say, the opposite because of what Drs Cairns and Lombard worked on.

In any case remember that You ALWAYS have to put on a helmet, a helmet that is vital to be your size and that always has to be well fastened. With it, the chances of a fatal motorcycle accident are reduced by 30%.

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