How the inventor of the bouncy fort saved lives

On November 29, 1972, a hearth broke out within the high-rise Rault Middle, in downtown New Orleans. As firefighters struggled to succeed in the blaze and tv cameras rolled, 5 girls trapped in a magnificence salon on the fifteenth ground needed to make an inconceivable resolution: stay within the burning constructing, or leap.

One after the other, they jumped, aiming for the roof of a neighbouring six-storey constructing. 4 of the ladies died.

On the time, a 46-year-old engineer and fellow New Orleanian had been toying with an thought which may have saved them. The tragedy spurred John T Scurlock into motion.

He wished to engineer an inflatable cushion that would present a protected touchdown for folks plunging from nice heights. However to do it, he wanted the assistance of his sons.

First, he received them to push 45kg (100-pound) rolled-up items of vinyl off the highest of his workplace constructing and onto the cushion he had designed under. The vinyl was hooked up to an accelerometer, which helped John calculate the burden the cushion might soak up at completely different speeds.

As soon as he was assured it was protected, it was time for the subsequent step: having his sons soar off the roof.

“We have been like 10, 12, 14 years previous, and we have been leaping off a constructing into an enormous airbag. It was a variety of enjoyable,” remembers Jeff Scurlock, now 66.

‘House pillow’

The next yr, John patented the security air cushion, the massive, inflatable pad nonetheless used at this time by fireplace brigades from New York to Tokyo to rescue folks from fires and deaths by suicide.

Nevertheless it was not his first invention. The truth is, his life-saving inflatable was drawn from his earlier invention: the ever present honest attraction identified by many various names – the bouncy fort, moon bounce, bounce home or house stroll, relying on the place you might be bouncing.

Within the Scurlock house, it was often known as the “house pillow”.

A yr after John filed a patent for the core of what would develop into the house pillow, he began working at a NASA facility in New Orleans. It was 1961, and NASA had opened its doorways three years earlier in response to the Soviets pulling forward within the house race with the launch of the world’s first satellite tv for pc, Sputnik 1.

The US house company was abuzz with initiatives exploring the potential of spaceflight, and by 1960, it had developed an curiosity in designing a crewed, inflatable house station, thought by many to be a essential first step in reaching the moon.

Massive, inflexible house stations would require a number of rocket journeys to deliver up the components, however plastic inflatables have been thought-about gentle, sturdy and straightforward to move. An inflatable house station could possibly be launched into house with a single booster and unfurl as soon as in orbit. (A meteorite-resistant inflatable house module was despatched as much as the Worldwide House Station in 2016, and NASA engineers are hoping to construct a semi-permanent moon habitat out of inflatables.)

John discovered himself in the course of this innovation, which continued even in his spare time, when he would sketch designs for and sew his proto-space pillow, utilizing a industrial stitching machine he arrange in a pit within the floor of his storage so he might haul the heavy vinyl materials in the direction of him as he stitched.

When he assembled an early, selfmade house pillow for his younger sons to play with within the yard, it quickly turned a large hit with the native kids.

“We have been very fashionable children then, as a result of we had one completely in our yard,” says Jeff. “The entire neighbourhood would come and soar on it.”

Jeff says it was his mom, Francis, who recognised how a lot kids cherished the inflatable and received the thought to promote it. Finally, John left his job to pay attention full-time on the “house pillow”.

Inflatable options

In 1968, they began promoting the invention to gala’s across the nation. However the security dangers have been severe. “It was a nightmare, safety-wise,” says John’s grandson, Mials, 35. “It had no assist, no netting, no method to maintain you on it.”

When a carnival employee broke his neck and died, the corporate was “sued out of existence”, Mials says.

Not a small yard enterprise, the design wanted protecting options.

John set to work designing enhancements: the house pillow grew columns, cushioning partitions, netting across the sides and a roof, making it far safer. In 1972, the final yr man walked on the moon, the household launched a brand new firm, referred to as House Stroll Inflatables, to fabricate and lease inflatables within the Louisiana metropolis of Kenner.

As we speak, the worldwide bounce home market is value $4bn, pushed by the recognition of leases.

However as his invention ballooned in recognition, John additionally turned his consideration to fixing issues with heavy-duty inflatables.

Inflatable engineering is deceptively complicated and requires answering mathematical questions to show a 2D material right into a 3D form, says Dr Benjamin Gorissen, a professor of inflatable mechanics at KE Leuven in Belgium.

John cherished numbers, remembers Mials, and was “a man who might do the maths”. He filed patents on a number of buildings, together with one meant for underwater pipe welding for offshore oil platforms, which resembles a human coronary heart with somebody working inside.

“No matter information article would occur, he’d be in his workplace, sketching out an answer,” says Mials.

Jeff remembers his father studying about sunken submarines within the newspaper, after which engaged on an invention that would assist to resurface them.

Up till John’s loss of life in 2008, “he by no means actually stopped working”, says Jeff. His final creation in his 80s was an enormous inflatable palm tree, a sort of air sculpture meant to supply shade over a 2.8 sq. metre (30sq ft) space.

John didn’t got down to construct a enterprise empire, Jeff and Mials, who now run the enterprise, word. Although bouncy castles stay the core of their enterprise, the Scurlocks proceed to provide security air cushions, which have a extra complicated construction. Their most heavy-duty product is licensed for 20 storeys, or 200 toes (60m).

Because it was invented, the security air cushion has saved hundreds of lives all over the world, but it surely all started with an early, devoted pioneer urging his kids to leap off the roof.

This text is a part of ‘Peculiar objects, extraordinary tales’, a collection concerning the stunning tales behind well-known objects.