Imagine you are driving your lovely car at a decent pace and
suddenly see an animal on road. You hit the brake hard and as Newton’s law of
inertia has it, you get a jerk forward, about to collide with the steering
wheel, while your beloved sitting next to you spills the coffee cup and is
about to hit the dashboard and the windshield. But you are not tensed in that
fraction of second, because you ‘belted up’. Yes, the seat belt comes to
rescue, saving the driver and passenger from colliding in to the car’s body.
Masterpiece! You can pull it all the way to the buckle while
you pull it slowly, but it senses the jerk and lock itself, so that people in
the car are safe. Let us talk a bit about this life saving engineering
masterpiece.
Seat belts were first invented in mid-19th century and the credit goes to an English engineer, George Cayley. However, the first patent for using belts as a ‘safety measure for humans using hooks or other equipment to secure the body with a fixed object’ was granted to another engineer from New York, Edward J. Claghorn, in 1885.
There are various types of seat belts, like a two-point
belt, that is attached to the vehicle at two points (remember the seat belts in
airplanes?), or a three-point belt, attached at three points (this is the
common one we find in our cars). These belts were introduced as optional safety
devices in few car models of ‘Nash’ and ‘Ford’
in late 40s and early 50s, but is
was the ‘Saab’ automobiles, which first
offered seat belts as a standard equipment in 1958, and others simply followed
the practice. Another engineer from Volvo,
Nils Bohlin further worked on the development of three-point seat belts to its
modern design and got it patented.
The first law to make the use of seat belt compulsory for driver and passengers was passed in Victoria, Australia in 1970.
Nerd Note 1: The easy pull and lock to jerk mechanism of
seat belt uses locking retractor, pretensioners and web clamps.
Nerd Note 2:
Studies have found that drivers wearing seat belts drive with more sense of
safety and responsibility and thus are less prone to meeting an accident in the
first place. Awesome, isn’t it?
WittyScribble encourages all its readers to wear seat belts
when in car, and use helmets when riding a two wheeler. Small measures like
these go a long way in ensuring safety of yourself and your loved ones.
And as always,
Thanks for reading.
Ayush!!!
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