Modern motorcycle helmets are full of innovation – constructed from weird and wonderful materials including carbon fibre and Kevlar composites… you can even find helmets with air conditioning, air bags or a heads-up display – quite the contrast when you rewind the clock some 100 years. In fact when the first motorcyclists took to the roads, the idea of donning a helmet would have seemed almost absurd.
The first motorcycle powered by internal combustion is said to be the Daimler Reitwagen – created by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1885. In that time, health and safety wasn’t too much of a priority, and it took another 29 years until the helmet really started to take shape.
The very first helmets were really just aviator-style leather caps borrowed from pilots of the time. They were good at keeping the head warm, but did little to offer protection from flying debris or an impact. At the time, motorcycle speeds were quite modest – often under 40mph – the roads were rough and slow and so few riders considered the risk of serious injury to the “swede”.
That was until the mechanical revolution really set in where machines became faster, and motorcycle racing began to highlight the dangers with many a fatal crash. Something needed to be done, and this movement was pushed by British physicist Dr. Eric Gardner who had started to witness a frequent amount of head trauma from motorcyclists at the Brooklands race track, near to his place of work. The sight of a rider tumbling down the banked circuit was enough to give him inspiration to bring about change, and as such he took it into his own hands to develop some form of protection. Dr. Gardner sought the expertise of a Mr. Moss of Bethnal Green to produce “canvas and shellac helmets stiff enough to stand a heavy blow and smooth enough to glance off any projections it encountered”.
Mr. Moss went to work, and Dr. Gardner presented the subsequent prototype to the Auto-Cycle Union, in his attempt to revolutionise motorcycle safety. The Union were sceptical and this was compounded by the resistance from riders who enjoyed the comfort of freedom, over and above an uncomfortable egg-shaped device strapped to their head… even though it may one day save their life.
The Union soon came around to the idea and in 1914, it became compulsory for entrants in the Isle of Man TT to wear helmets. In fact, that year, Dr. Gardner took a total of 94 helmets to the TT with him, and one rider donning one of his helmets collided with a gate with a glancing blow to the head. The helmet more than likely saved him and proved a point.
The success was instantly recognised, and after the races had closed for the year, Dr. Gardner received a letter from the Isle of Man medical officer to report that they had used to dealing with “interesting concussion cases” in the TT races over the years, but in 1914 there were all but none. This was a huge milestone and accolade to Dr. Gardner’s time and determination, and the use of the helmet became written into the TT. The use of the helmet however did not become popular outside of the races, nor was its use obligatory in other countries.
The next milestone was the unfortunate byproduct of the death of Lawrence of Arabia. In 1935, Thomas Edward Lawrence was fatally injured in an accident on his Brough Superior SS100 on a narrow road near his cottage in Dorset. The accident is said to have occurred because a dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on bicycles, and swerving to avoid them, Lawrence lost control and was thrown over the handlebars. Lawrence was devoid of a helmet, and suffered significant head injuries which left him in a coma; he died after six days in the hospital. The death motivated a neurosurgeon involved in the care of Lawrence – Hugh Cairns – to initiate a study into the protective helmet which highlighted the positive correlation in brain lesions in accidents where no protective helmet was worn.
In 1941, 6 years after the death of Lawrence, Cairns was ready with his first report, which was published in the British Medical Journal under the name ‘Head Injuries in Motorcyclists – the Importance of the Crash Helmet’. Cairns faced a lot of obstacles – one being that he could not find enough riders who would voluntarily wear the helmet to demonstrate their importance and capability.
In 1941 however, things progressed when the British Army, having lost two riders within a week in accidents, issued an order for all despatch riders to wear helmets with either a cork shelled or a rubber lid. This was off the back of Cairns work. The undertaking was a catalyst in the improvement of motorcycle safety, leading to the increased use of crash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists which eventually became obligatory in many countries around the world.
In the early 1950s the world saw the next giant leap forward – the introduction of the fibreglass helmet. In 1953 the Bell Helmet Company introduced the Bell 500, a helmet with a hard fibreglass shell and padded interior. It was durable, lightweight and offered real impact resistance for the first time.
As the 1960s dawned, motorcycle racing continued to drive innovation, but increase risk to riders with speeds often exceeding 100mph+. Bell responded with the first full-face helmet (the Star) which offered added protection for the chin and jaw. It took a while to cotton on, as most things do when it comes to change, but by the 1970s the full face helmet had become the standard for racing and high-speed road use.
The first country to take the giant step forward in public road safety was Australia, who made helmet use obligatory in 1961 spurring other countries to follow suit. In the UK, it was not until 1973 when helmets became compulsory under the Motor Cycles (Wearing of Helmets) Regulations. The move was not universally popular as many felt the it to be an infringement on their freedom, but it was a turning point in road safety and within a few years, fatalities in the motorcycle world had fallen dramatically.
The helmet has evolved with time, and technology has always used the race-track as its testing ground – with this in mind, we owe a lot to the brave men and women in the early days of motorcycling who used and tested evolving designs; and also to people like Dr. Gardner and Hugh Cairns who had a passion for saving life, and brought change to road and track safety.
an article by The Girder Club
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