1970'S BELL BIKER CYCLING HELMET PAT.NO.3925821 SZ. 7 3/8-59 CM. 1ST POLYSTYRENE

Description

BELL CYCLING HELMET PATENT NO.3925821. SIZE 7 3/4 - 59 CENTIMETERS. ORIGINAL. HAS ORIGINAL INTERNAL VELCRO PADS. ALL ORIGINAL STICKERS. STRAP ETC. I HAVE PUT IN SOME ELBOW GREASE FOR FREE AND CLEANED IT UP. BEAUTIFUL HELMET THAT WAS REVOLUTIONARY. EXCELLENT FOR A DISPLAY. GREAT COLLECTIBLE.
Head injuries continued to prove problematic and in 1970 new safety standards were introduced in the US. None of the bicycle helmets on the market at the time could meet these new standards and so legislation started driving the innovation of the modern helmet as we know it. Bell Bicycles Inc. was one of the drivers of helmet technology and produced the Bell Biker™, the first expanded polystyrene (EPS) based cycling helmet. Their US patent no. 3,925,821 issued in 1975 for an air cooled helmet comprising a hard shell with a shock resistant liner made from EPS. However, the roots of the technology underpinning the Bell Biker™ can be traced back two decades to the automotive racing helmet described in US patent no 2,763,005 issued to Bell Auto Parts Inc. in 1956.
When it debuted in 1975 the Biker cost (approximately £130 in today’s money) weighed 468g and was revolutionary. Not only did Bell use the latest materials – an EPS liner inside a Lexan shell (a type of plastic used in US policemen’s body armour), but the company set the scene for today’s helmet safety regulations, developing its own crash tests to determine the level of safety the Biker could provide. An independent Consumer Product report that came with the Biker’s packaging read: ‘Bell has devised an intricate testing system to simulate and record a crash situation. In tests we witnessed, the Bell Helmet at one metre and six foot drops recorded 90G and 150G respectively. Experts in the field agree it takes… 400Gs [to] cause serious head damage.’
In other words, the Biker offered unrivalled levels of protection compared with the leather ‘hairnets’ and plastic or fibreglass shelled helmets of the day. And its secret was the EPS. ‘Expanded polystyrene is amazing in its ability to absorb energy, and for how light it is,’ says Muller. ‘It’s made from little polystyrene beads that get injected into a cavity and are then subjected to pressure, steam and heat to expand and bond the beads. While the way we process EPS for today’s helmets has evolved, the material itself hasn’t changed much since the original Biker. It’s almost unbeatable, and that’s why helmet manufacturers still use it today.’ In Bell’s own words, the 1970s was
the time to ‘Protect your thinker’, and the
industry has followed suit ever since.
After two years of prototyping, BELL introduced the first bike helmet made from fully expanded polystyrene (EPS). The shock-absorbing cycling helmet was inspired by polystyrene foam motorcycle helmets, and replaced the leather hair net style of previous designs. Bell and other manufacturers were the primary promoters of bike helmets until the 1980s, when reports were published confirming that helmets are critical safety gear for cycling and significantly reduce head injury.
Bike helmets protect the head by acting as a shock absorber, the reports from the 1980s finally made clear. They reduce the rate at which the skull and brain are accelerated or decelerated by an impact. On impact, the expanded polystyrene liner is intended to crush, dissipating energy. A helmeted head makes impact with the ground six seconds after the helmet makes contact, significantly reducing the force placed on the skull itself.
Manufacturers also experimented with cork, balsa wood, and a silicone aluminum for building helmets, but none of these materials proved to be more effective than polystyrene.
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