1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,279 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,520 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 1: show that cruises the highways of history every day of 4 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: the week. I'm Gay, Blues Yay, and in this episode, 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 1: we're looking at the story behind the modern seat belt, 6 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 1: one of the most significant contributions to vehicle safety ever 7 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: made and one of the most taken for granted two 8 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: the day was July tenth, nineteen sixty two, Swedish engineer 9 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: Nils Bolan patented the V shaped three point safety belt. 10 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: The US patent was issued to Sweden's Volvo Car Corporation, 11 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:52,239 Speaker 1: with Bolan credited as the inventor. The first cars to 12 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: have the new seat belt installed were the Volvo Amazon 13 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: and the Volvo PV five forty four. Those were also 14 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: the first cars in the world to have seat belts 15 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,600 Speaker 1: installed as a standard feature rather than an optional add on. 16 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,040 Speaker 1: But even still, Volvo only installed the three point belts 17 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,240 Speaker 1: in the front seats of its cars and wouldn't add 18 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 1: them to the back seats until nineteen sixty seven. It's 19 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 1: hard to imagine, but for the first eighty years or 20 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,319 Speaker 1: so that cars were on the road, the vast majority 21 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: of them didn't have seat belts. This omission was a 22 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: little easier to justify when the average car topped out 23 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: at about twenty miles per hour, but by the nineteen thirties, 24 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: a car's top speed had increased to between fifty and 25 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:42,319 Speaker 1: sixty miles per hour, yet a lack of safety belts 26 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: remained the norm. To be clear, the front seats of 27 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 1: some cars were equipped with two point seat belts, the 28 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:53,760 Speaker 1: kind that fasten across a person's lap, but they were 29 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 1: mostly used by race car drivers who routinely drove at 30 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: high speeds. It wasn't until the mid nineteen teen forties 31 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: that American car makers like Ford and Nash began to 32 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: offer an optional two point safety belt, but because there 33 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: wasn't much of a call for the belts from the public, 34 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:16,360 Speaker 1: manufacturers stopped short of making them standard. The reluctance to 35 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: use a seat belt was largely due to the shortcoming 36 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,079 Speaker 1: of the early designs. Lap belts, for instance, were known 37 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,800 Speaker 1: to cause serious internal injuries in the event of a 38 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,600 Speaker 1: high speed collision, and they did nothing at all to 39 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: protect the upper body. In most cases, the belts were 40 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,080 Speaker 1: still better than nothing, but there was the chance they 41 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 1: could cause even greater harm when that was enough to 42 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 1: turn off most people to the idea of using one. 43 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: As a result, safety features were still an afterthought for 44 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: most automakers in the nineteen fifties, but when Volvo's president 45 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:53,880 Speaker 1: at the time, Gunner and Golau, experienced a personal tragedy, 46 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 1: he decided it was time the industry got serious about safety. 47 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: One of his relatives had recently died in a car crash, 48 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: partly because of the design flaws in the traditional two 49 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: point seat belt. This pushed him to find a better solution, 50 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,840 Speaker 1: and though he was an engineer himself, he knew he 51 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:15,239 Speaker 1: couldn't do it alone. At the time. In the late 52 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, one of Volvo's top competitors was SOB, a 53 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: Swedish aerospace and defence company that had branched out into 54 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: carmaking about a decade earlier. Nils Bolan was an accomplished 55 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,799 Speaker 1: aviation engineer at SOB, where he had worked on ejector 56 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:35,880 Speaker 1: seats and safety belts for pilots. In nineteen fifty eight, 57 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: he was poached from SAB by Volvo's president and put 58 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: in charge of building a better safer safety belt for automobiles. 59 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: At first, glance, it may seem strange that the inventor 60 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: of an ejector seat, a device that launches occupants from 61 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: moving vehicles, should be tasked with designing a device to 62 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: keep them inside, But Bolan's work in the aerospace industry 63 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: gave him expert knowledge of the effects of extreme forces 64 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:04,880 Speaker 1: on the human body, as well as the limitations of 65 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: various restraint devices. For instance, he had intimate knowledge of 66 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 1: the four point safety belts worn by pilots, consisting of 67 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:17,240 Speaker 1: two shoulder straps and two lap belts that buckled together 68 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 1: at the center of the waist. The belts were highly 69 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,680 Speaker 1: effective for stabilizing the torso and preventing the wearer from 70 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:27,400 Speaker 1: being thrown forward in a crash. This gave the four 71 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,719 Speaker 1: point system a clear safety advantage over the two point 72 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,000 Speaker 1: belts used in cars, but Bolan knew that wouldn't be 73 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: enough to convince the average driver to wear one. The 74 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: belts needed to be comfortable and easy to use as well, 75 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:45,479 Speaker 1: and the four point system was neither. This led Bolan 76 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: to create his three point system, which consisted of two 77 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,480 Speaker 1: straps that joined at the driver's waist and fastened into 78 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: a single anchor point on the side of the seat. 79 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: This arrangement was far less restrictive than a four point belt, 80 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 1: could be pulled across the chest and waist with one 81 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,720 Speaker 1: hand in a swift, fluid motion. Bolan perfected the design 82 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: in less than a year, and Volvo introduced it as 83 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 1: a standard feature on its cars in nineteen fifty nine. 84 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,280 Speaker 1: All that said, it's worth noting that Nil's Bolan wasn't 85 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:21,599 Speaker 1: the first person to come up with a three point 86 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: safety belt that supported both the upper and lower body. 87 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,480 Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty one, when Bolan was still working at SOB, 88 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:34,280 Speaker 1: two engineers named Roger Griswold and Hugh de Haven filed 89 00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: a patent application for a quote combination shoulder and lap 90 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 1: safety belt. In their version, the straps formed a y shape, 91 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:45,599 Speaker 1: with two parts of the belt coming over the wearer's 92 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,640 Speaker 1: shoulders and meeting over the stomach rather than at the 93 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: side of the seat. Bolan used this concept as a 94 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: starting point because he recognized that a shoulder belt and 95 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:58,800 Speaker 1: a waist belt would help distribute crash forces over a 96 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:03,719 Speaker 1: wider area. However, he didn't think the y shaped arrangement 97 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:06,800 Speaker 1: was the best way to accomplish this, as it distributed 98 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: the force of the impact over the wearer's stomach, one 99 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,080 Speaker 1: of the least robust and squishiest parts of the body, 100 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:18,039 Speaker 1: so instead, Bolan charted a different, more stable course for 101 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: his belts to follow, a sort of sideways V pattern 102 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: that ran across the shoulder, chest, and pelvic bone, the 103 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:30,200 Speaker 1: same setup that car drivers are familiar with today. Volvo 104 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:33,640 Speaker 1: filed for a US patent in August of nineteen fifty nine, 105 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,839 Speaker 1: and it was granted three years later on July tenth, 106 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:41,320 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two. Remarkably, though, the company didn't hang on 107 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:44,520 Speaker 1: to the patent for very long. In a rare display 108 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: of corporate selflessness, Volvo released its new seat belt designed 109 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: to other car manufacturers. This enabled anyone worldwide to duplicate 110 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,839 Speaker 1: the belt without any license fees or claims. And yet, 111 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: even with free d the access, it took years for 112 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:04,920 Speaker 1: the rest of the auto industry and the public to 113 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: recognize the belts as the invaluable life savers that they are. 114 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: For example, seat belts didn't become a required feature in 115 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: American cars until the late nineteen sixties, and many other 116 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: countries were similarly slow to adopt them. In the decades 117 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:24,040 Speaker 1: since the use of safety belts has been enshrined in 118 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: law all over the world, and while new features have 119 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,160 Speaker 1: been added along the way, the vast majority of seat 120 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:34,640 Speaker 1: belts are still based on Bolan's original design. As for 121 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: the man himself, he went on to lead other safety 122 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:41,400 Speaker 1: projects at Volvo until the mid nineteen eighties, including the 123 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: design of the now famous side impact Protection System or SIPs. 124 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: Bolan's breakthroughs in engineering also earned him many awards, both 125 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,400 Speaker 1: in Europe and in the US. In nineteen ninety five, 126 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: he was given a gold medal by the Royal Swedish 127 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:02,320 Speaker 1: Academy of Engineering Science. In nineteen ninety nine he was 128 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame, and in two 129 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: thousand and two, just prior to his death, Nils Bolan 130 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:14,680 Speaker 1: was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame as well. 131 00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: The use of seat belts has been shown to reduce 132 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 1: the chance of serious injury or death from collisions by 133 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 1: roughly fifty percent, and at the time of Bolan's passing, 134 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: his invention was estimated to have saved well over a 135 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:35,920 Speaker 1: million lives and county. I'm gay, Blues gay, and hopefully 136 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:39,360 Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than 137 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with 138 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:45,040 Speaker 1: the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and 139 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have any 140 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send him my way 141 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:57,320 Speaker 1: by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks 142 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks thanks 143 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:02,480 Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again 144 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,560 Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in History class.