Ontario native Frederick Banting is best known for discovering insulin, saving the lives of millions of diabetics. Here’s a story of another of Banting’s scientific pursuits.
THE AIR UP THERE
Prior to World War II, fighter pilots had to contend not only with the inherent dangers of dogfighting, but with the possibility of fainting in the cockpit. When they hit high-enough speeds—in a dive or while pulling out of a steep turn—high gravity force (G-force) could cause their blood to be drawn from the eyes and the brain. The centrifugal force was pushing blood into the legs and abdomens, with sometimes-lethal physiological repercussions. Blinded, they would crash.
(A quick primer on G-force: It’s measured in units called “Gs.” At sea level, our bodies are at one G. A roller coaster, depending on how extreme it is, delivers G forces between four and six. Without protection, pilots can withstand no more than about 6 Gs.)
As World War II began, Canadian physician Frederick Banting took an interest in the health problems surrounding flying, particularly the blackouts. Banting was well suited to military medicine—he was a decorated World War I soldier and in 1923 was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering insulin. Finding a solution would give Allied pilots a great advantage over the enemy. In 1939, the Royal Canadian Airforce established the Institute of Aviation Medicine on the site of the Eglinton Hunt Club in Toronto. Here Banting directed secret research on the physiological effects of combat flying.
OF MICE AND MEN
At the Institute, Banting constructed the first decompression chamber in North America. Completed in 1941, it allowed atmospheric pressure to be gradually raised or lowered. Banting explored the effects of high altitudes, where the atmospheric pressure is lower because the air is less dense.
Eager to understand the effects of high altitude on his the body, Banting would sometimes forge recklessly ahead to find answers, and experiment with his own body. Shortly after testing the effects of mustard gas on himself, Banting wanted to experience the effects of intense decompression. Fortunately, his team of fellow scientists kept him from taking such a risk.
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At the Institute, Banting also built an accelerator to test the effects of high speeds on the human body. A colleague working in cancer research, Wilbur Franks of Weston, Ontario, had observed that test tubes would break under high centrifugal force. To prevent their shattering, Franks figured out to insert them into bigger and stronger liquid-filled bottles before subjecting them to centrifugal force.
NOTHIN’ BUT A G THANG
Following on his success with the test tubes, Franks thought that water-filled suits might provide a similar type of protection for pilots. To test if water-filled suits might help counter the effects of the G force, Dr. Franks and fellow scientists fashioned tiny water-filled suits out of condoms and put them on lab mice. Franks placed the mice in a centrifuge and found that they could withstand at least 150 Gs. Even at that great force, the mice came out of the experiment with unharmed hearts and all bodily functions intact. Without the glove, the water-filled condom suit, the little rodents would have been crushed.
Encouraged by the results, Franks and Banting had a tailor make an anti-G suit for humans, constructed of cotton and rubber with sewn-in water bladders. In May 1940, Franks himself slipped on the newly created suit, which was filled with water to the level of the heart. Wearing the prototype, the doctor boarded an aircraft at Camp Borden near Barrie, Ontario, and remained conscious at about 7 Gs while pulling out of a steep dive. The pressure from the water in the suit pushed against the legs and abdomen and kept his blood where he needed it—in the heart and head.
The suit was a success but needed some tweaks. Franks had tailored the suit to fit him standing up. Sitting down it put more pressure on him than he had suspected. “The suit had been cut to fit me perfectly, standing up…In the airplane I was sitting down, and when the pressure hit I thought it was going to cut me in two. The idea became practical only when we realized that great areas of the body could be left outside the fluid system.”
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To test and perfect his suit, Franks invented a “human centrifuge.” The machine ran on the same power grid that supplied electricity to Toronto’s electric streetcars. And it ran on a lot of electricity. Whenever Franks conducted a test, the streetcars nearby came to a stop.
After several modifications, the Franks Flying Suit was tested in the spring of 1941 when Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron Leader and Canadian pilot F.E.R. Briggs wore the outfit in flight. The suit had its first battle test in November 1942, in the invasion of North Africa at Oran, Algeria. Pilots were able to make dangerous maneuvers without blacking out. It was the world’s first anti-gravity suit worn in combat.
However, some pilots complained that the suit was uncomfortable to wear, specifically because the weight of the water made it extremely heavy. In 1944, the U.S. Air Force and Navy, working with the Mayo Clinic and Berger Brothers Company, designed a new model G-suit using compressed air. It had the same results as the Franks suit except it was much more comfortable to wear, and much lighter. The suits with compressed air weighed just three pounds, compared to 18 pounds for the Franks suit.
THE WAR HEROES
While Banting saw the development of suit, he did not get to see its success in battle. Ironically, he died in an airplane accident. As Banting flew on a mission to the U.K. to discuss the transfer of certain research projects to Canada, an engine in his plane failed. The pilot turned the plane around, but the second engine failed as well, causing the bomber to crash near Musgrave Harbor, Newfoundland, on February 21, 1941. Always determined to serve his fellow man, Banting managed to wrap the wounds of the injured pilot before dying from his own injuries at age 49.
In 1944, Franks received an Order of the British Empire for giving “the Allied forces a tremendous tactical advantage” and “saving the lives of thousands of Allied fighter pilots.”
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