Personal flotation device
PFDs are also kept on large vessels for passengers to wear in an emergency in order to help them stay afloat should they be forced to enter the water or accidentally fall overboard during an evacuation.
Other highly specialized forms of PFDs include buoyancy compensators used for scuba diving, and submarine escape devices.
The oldest examples of primitive life jackets can be traced back to inflated bladders, animal skins, or hollow sealed gourds for support when crossing deep streams and rivers.
[citation needed] In a letter to the Naval Chronicle, dated February 1802, Abraham Bosquet proposed issuing Royal Navy Ships with "strong canvas bags of dimensions, when filled with cork shavings, equal to about that of a bed bolster, coiled in manner like a collar, and sufficiently wide for the head and shoulders to pass through.
[2] In 1806, Francis Daniel, a physician working at Wapping, exhibited an inflatable life preserver, mounting a demonstration in which a number of suitably equipped men jumped into the Thames below Blackfriars Bridge, and variously played musical instruments, smoked pipes, discharged guns and drank wine, as the tide took them upstream.
Lucas of the 73rd Regiment of Foot wrote "Cornet Bond, 12th Lancers, was...the only person to have a lifejacket – a privately owned Macintosh Life Preserver and seems to have got ashore fairly easily.
"[4] It was not until lifesaving services were formed that the personal safety of lifeboat crews heading out in pulling boats in generally horrific sea conditions was addressed.
[5] They would be worn over the blue/grey waterproof oilskins In 1900, French electrical engineer, Gustave Trouvé, patented a battery-powered wearable lifejacket.
It incorporated small, rubber-insulated maritime electric batteries not only to inflate the jacket, but also to power a light to transmit and receive SOS messages and to launch a distress flare.
The University of Victoria pioneered research and development of the UVic Thermo Float PFD,[8] which provides superior protection from immersion hypothermia by incorporating a neoprene rubber "diaper" that seals the user's upper thigh and groin region from contact with otherwise cold, flushing and debilitating water.
[9] During World War II, research to improve the design of life jackets was also conducted in the UK by Edgar Pask, the first Professor of Anaesthesia at Newcastle University.
[13] The Mae West was a common nickname[14] for the first inflatable life preserver, which was invented in 1928 by Peter Markus (1885–1974) (US Patent 1694714), with his subsequent improvements in 1930 and 1931.
[citation needed] Air crew members whose lives were saved by use of the Mae West (and other personal flotation devices) were eligible for membership in the Goldfish Club.
British pilot Eric Brown noted in an interview that the Mae West device saved his life after he was forced into the ocean following the sinking of the aircraft carrier he was on, HMS Audacity, by a U-boat in WW2.
They are most commonly made of a tough synthetic fiber material encapsulating a source of buoyancy, such as foam or a chamber of air, and are often brightly colored yellow or orange to maximize visibility for rescuers.
Retroreflective "SOLAS" tape is often sewn to the fabric used to construct life jackets and PFDs to facilitate a person being spotted in darkness when a search light is shone towards the wearer.
In the US, federal regulations require all persons under the age of 13 to wear a life jacket (PFD) when in a watercraft under 12 meters long.
While a wetsuit of neoprene rubber or a diver's drysuit provides a degree of flotation, in most maritime countries they are not formally considered by regulatory agencies as approved lifesaving devices or as PFDs.
Some United States Navy submarines already have the system, with an ambitious installation and training schedule in place for the remainder of the fleet.
Because it is a full-body suit, the Mark 10 provides thermal protection once the wearer reaches the surface, and the Royal Navy has successfully tested it at 180 metres (600 ft) depths.
Specialized life jackets include shorter-profile vests commonly used for kayaking (especially playboating), and high-buoyant types for river outfitters and other whitewater professionals.
While the USCG does not certify personal flotation devices for animals, many manufacturers produce life jackets for dogs and cats.
Dogs and cats have been known to die from drowning, either because they do not know how to swim, or because they tire out from overexposure or old age, or have a medical complication such as a seizure, or become unconscious.
Automatic pet flotation devices are popular in the bulldog community, and also for water therapy where extra support may be needed under the head.
