[IP encyclopedia] ‘Life jacket made to save peoples lives how was it made?

Life jacket [Photo provided : Wikipedia]

Patent Application : Life jacket (US1694714A)

Year : 1927

Country : U.S.A

Region : Kansas City Missouri

Name : Markus Peter





Before the plane takes off you essentially hear the explanation about this. We always wear this when we enjoy fishing or water leisure. What is this? This is a Life jacket. If you suddenly fall into the water because of fear it is difficult for a person to float over water unless you are professional swimmer who had higlhy trained. Todays IP Encyclopedia examines the history of the invention and related patents of the life jacket an intellectual property that saves lives of people in an emergency situation in water.

Life jackets are called Life Jacket or Life Vest in English. As the English word suggests it is a equipment having live of people by preventing people from drowning through floating function above water.

Of course such emergencies can occur not only when riding a transportation but also when spending ones leisure time. It is always necessary to enjoy in deep water such as water in a valley swimming pool or water leisure.

In general life jackets have the most important function of floating on water. There are two types : The inflatable type which is inflated by blowing air and gas and the buoyancy type which is used to insert buoyancy which is power floating on water into the vest.

First of all inflatable types are usually folded small to reduce volume and air or gas are putted in when it is needed to float on the water so they are used when space saving is needed or room until the buoyancy is made. Of course traditional vests that are blown through the mouth are common but recently self-inflating vests that expand automatically when it is put in water and manually inflating vests that expand when pulling the string are also available.

On the other hand buoyancy material types are basically occupying a large volume so it is used for constant use purpose. It is always located in ships marine leisure companies offices marine rescue teams and other places where drowning is at risk. Then who invented the life jacket for the first time?

According to the records fishermen used it for emergency evacuation in Norway a country adjacent to the sea. At that time it was made of wood pieces or cork not in the shape of vests as it is now. The first used of the vest which is forming the current type was the Cork type Life Jacket designed by Captain Ward in 1854 who was inspector of Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

It was designed to focus largely on weather resistance and buoyancy and research has been continued. In 1861 lifeboat association members jumped into the sea wearing life jackets to see if they could float even if a persons weight was added to the life jackets and how much the resistance were to the water. Fortunately the result was a great success. Most of the association members were floating on the water.

Through these experimental results RNLI was able to produce a standardized life jacket. In the early days lifeboat association members not ordinary sailors was to wore those and after that the number of applicants for the lifeboat association increased rapidly allowing them to row without fear of drowning.

Of course the limitations of cork material were obvious. Since then research on the materials for life jackets was carried out actively to improve buoyancy. In 1904 the buoyancy of malva verticillata and kapok tree living in tropical regions of Africa or the America continent was certified therefore the Kapok life jacket was developed.

The outbreak of World War II contributed greatly to the spread of life jackets in the military. The inflatable life jacket B-4 invented by entrepreneur and inventor Peter Markus who lived in a fishing village in the U.S. at that time was supplied to the Allied countries including the U.S.

At that time soldiers nicknamed this life jackets as Mae West which were the names of the most popular actresses of the time. It was khaki-colored about 70cm high 32cm wide 3cm thick and contained a rubber air bag. It was quite buoyant and loved as much as the nickname they called it on the battlefield.

In 1960 as Synthetic foam was developed it formed like a life jacket that we know very well. It is called Beaufort life jacket in English and is mainly deployed on large passenger ships such as Ferry. Then for the first time the life jacket was painted bright orange so that it could be seen clearly on the water during rescue.

Since then life jackets are usually referred to as PFD for Personal Flotation Device. It is a term that collectively refers to all forms of life jackets that make an individual float on the water and was coined as an international standard.

When drowning it is impossible to guess the depth below so it can lead to Water phobia. The characteristic is that it could come to anyone suddenly withouth notice. The more fear you have in the water the more dangerous it is. It is because the more you struggle you drown more to the water. Therefore life jackets in the case of emergency are important.

The life jacket an intellectual property designed for humans who are vulnerable to water cannot be emphasized too much when playing games related to water. You have to bear in mind that danger is approaching you anytime anywhere.

Inflating life jackets [Photo provided : International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC]

Cork type Life jacket [Photo provided : Royal National Lifeboat Institution homepage]

Mae West [Photo provided : Wikipedia]

Beaufort life jacket [Photo provided : RNLI homepage]

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