Home > Crash test dummy
:For the band, see Crash Test Dummies.Hybrid III is the de facto standard crash test dummy.
Crash test dummies are full-scale replicas of human beings, weighted and articulated to simulate the behavior of a human body in a vehicle mishap, and instrumented to record as much data as possible on variables such as speed of impact, crushing force, bending, folding, or torquing of the body, and deceleration rates during a collision. In modern times, they remain indispensable in the development of new makes and models of all types of vehicles, from family sedans to fighter aircraft. This article focuses on the role of crash test dummies in developing safer automobiles.
1 The need for testing
On August 17, 1896Events January 4 Utah is admitted as the 45th U. January 5 An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Rontgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. January 12 H. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. January 18 The X-ray machine is exhib, Bridget DriscollOn August 17, 1896, in London, Bridget Driscoll age 44, became the world's first person to be killed in an automobile accident. As she and her teenage daughter crossed the grounds of the Crystal Palace, an automobile belonging to the Anglo-French Motor Ca became the first victim of an automobile, when she was struck down and killed in front of LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri's Crystal PalaceA huge iron and glass building, The Crystal Palace was one of the wonders of, if not the world, Britain. A rebuilt and expanded version of the building that originally housed the Great Exhibition of 1851, it stood in Sydenham from 1854 until 1936, and att. Three years later, on September 13September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). There are 109 days remaining in the year. Events 533 Belisarius and the Roman Empire defeat Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimium. 1440 Gilles de Rais is taken into custody up, 1899Events January events January 1 End of Spanish rule in Cuba. January 1 Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City. January 3 The first known use of the word " automobile", in an editorial in the New York Times''. January 6 Lord Curzon becomes a vic, Henry BlissWhile Bridget Driscoll was the first person killed by an automobile in the world, Henry Bliss ( 1831? to September 13, 1899) is the first person killed by an automobile in the United States. He was disembarking from a streetcar at West 74th Street and Cen entered the history books as North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea's first motor vehicle fatality when he was hit stepping off a New York City trolley. Since that time, in excess of 20 million people worldwide have lost their lives to motor vehicle accidents.
The need for a means of analysing and mitigating the effects of motor vehicle accidents on human bodies was felt very soon after the commercial production of automobiles began in the late 1890s, and by the 1930s, with the automobile a common part of daily life, the number of motor vehicle deaths was becoming a serious issue. Death rates had surpassed 15.6 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles and were continuing to climb; vehicle designers saw this as a clear indication it was time to do some research on ways to make their products safer.
In 1930, the interior of a car was not a safe place even in a low-speed collision. Dashboards were made of rigid metal, steering columns were non-collapsible, and protruding knobs, buttons, and levers were ubiquitous. Seat belts were unheard-of, and in a frontal collision, passengers hurled through the windshield stood very little chance of avoiding serious injury or death. The vehicle body itself was rigid, and impact forces were transmitted directly to the vehicle occupants. As late as the 1950s, car manufacturers were on public record as saying vehicle accidents simply could not be made survivable; the forces in a crash were too great and the human body too frail.
