How the inventor of the bouncy castle saved lives

On November 29, 1972, a occurrence broke retired successful the high-rise Rault Center, successful downtown New Orleans. As firefighters struggled to scope the blaze and tv cameras rolled, 5 women trapped successful a quality salon connected the 15th level had to marque an intolerable decision: stay successful the burning building, oregon leap.

One by one, they jumped, aiming for the extortion of a neighbouring six-storey building. Four of the women died.

At the time, a 46-year-old technologist and chap New Orleanian had been toying with an thought that mightiness person saved them. The calamity spurred John T Scurlock into action.

He wanted to technologist an inflatable cushion that could supply a harmless landing for radical plunging from large heights. But to bash it, helium needed the assistance of his sons.

First, helium got them to propulsion 45kg (100-pound) rolled-up pieces of vinyl disconnected the apical of his bureau gathering and onto the cushion helium had designed below. The vinyl was attached to an accelerometer, which helped John cipher the value the cushion could sorb astatine antithetic speeds.

Once helium was assured it was safe, it was clip for the adjacent step: having his sons leap disconnected the roof.

“We were similar 10, 12, 14 years old, and we were jumping disconnected a gathering into a large airbag. It was a batch of fun,” recalls Jeff Scurlock, present 66.

John T Scurlock and his woman Francis [Courtesy of Space Walk Inflatables]

‘Space pillow’

The pursuing year, John patented the information aerial cushion, the huge, inflatable pad inactive utilized contiguous by occurrence brigades from New York to Tokyo to rescue radical from fires and deaths by suicide.

But it was not his archetypal invention. In fact, his life-saving inflatable was drawn from his earlier invention: the ubiquitous just attraction known by galore antithetic names – the bouncy castle, satellite bounce, bounce location oregon abstraction walk, depending connected wherever you are bouncing.

In the Scurlock home, it was known arsenic the “space pillow”.

A twelvemonth aft John filed a patent for the halfway of what would go the abstraction pillow, helium started moving astatine a NASA installation successful New Orleans. It was 1961, and NASA had opened its doors 3 years earlier successful effect to the Soviets pulling up successful the abstraction contention with the motorboat of the world’s archetypal satellite, Sputnik 1.

The US abstraction bureau was abuzz with projects exploring the anticipation of spaceflight, and by 1960, it had developed an involvement successful designing a crewed, inflatable abstraction station, thought by galore to beryllium a indispensable archetypal measurement successful reaching the moon.

Large, rigid abstraction stations would necessitate aggregate rocket trips to bring up the parts, but integrative inflatables were considered light, beardown and casual to transport. An inflatable abstraction presumption could beryllium launched into abstraction with a azygous booster and unfurl erstwhile successful orbit. (A meteorite-resistant inflatable abstraction module was sent up to the International Space Station in 2016, and NASA engineers are hoping to physique a semi-permanent moon habitat out of inflatables.)

John recovered himself successful the mediate of this innovation, which continued adjacent successful his spare time, erstwhile helium would sketch designs for and stitch his proto-space pillow, utilizing a commercialized sewing instrumentality helium acceptable up successful a pit successful the crushed of his store truthful helium could haul the dense vinyl worldly towards him arsenic helium stitched.

When helium assembled an early, homemade abstraction pillow for his young sons to play with successful the backyard, it soon became a monolithic deed with the section children.

“We were precise fashionable kids then, due to the fact that we had 1 permanently successful our backyard,” says Jeff. “The full neighbourhood would travel and leap connected it.”

Jeff says it was his mother, Francis, who recognised however overmuch children loved the inflatable and got the thought to marketplace it. Eventually, John near his occupation to ore full-time connected the “space pillow”.

One of John T Scurlock’s aboriginal prototypes of the ‘space pillow’ [Courtesy of Space Walk Inflatables]

Inflatable solutions

In 1968, they started selling the invention to fairs astir the country. But the information risks were serious. “It was a nightmare, safety-wise,” says John’s grandson, Mials, 35. “It had nary support, nary netting, nary mode to support you connected it.”

When a carnival idiosyncratic broke his cervix and died, the institution was “sued retired of existence”, Mials says.

No longer a tiny backyard venture, the plan needed protective features.

John acceptable to enactment designing improvements: the abstraction pillow grew columns, cushioning walls, netting astir the sides and a roof, making it acold safer. In 1972, the past twelvemonth antheral walked connected the moon, the household launched a caller company, called Space Walk Inflatables, to manufacture and rent inflatables successful the Louisiana metropolis of Kenner.

Today, the planetary bounce location marketplace is worthy $4bn, driven by the popularity of rentals.

But arsenic his invention ballooned successful popularity, John besides turned his attraction to solving problems with heavy-duty inflatables.

Inflatable engineering is deceptively analyzable and requires answering mathematical questions to crook a 2D cloth into a 3D shape, says Dr Benjamin Gorissen, a prof of inflatable mechanics astatine KE Leuven successful Belgium.

John loved numbers, recalls Mials, and was “a feline who could bash the math”. He filed patents connected respective structures, including 1 intended for underwater tube welding for offshore lipid platforms, which resembles a human heart with idiosyncratic moving inside.

“Whatever quality nonfiction would happen, he’d beryllium successful his office, sketching retired a solution,” says Mials.

Jeff recalls his begetter speechmaking astir sunken submarines successful the newspaper, and past moving connected an invention that could assistance to resurface them.

Up until John’s decease successful 2008, “he ne'er truly stopped working”, says Jeff. His past instauration successful his 80s was a elephantine inflatable thenar tree, a benignant of aerial sculpture meant to supply shadiness implicit a 2.8 quadrate metre (30sq ft) area.

John did not acceptable retired to physique a concern empire, Jeff and Mials, who present tally the business, note. Though bouncy castles stay the halfway of their business, the Scurlocks proceed to nutrient information aerial cushions, which person a much analyzable structure. Their astir heavy-duty merchandise is certified for 20 storeys, oregon 200 feet (60m).

Since it was invented, the information aerial cushion has saved thousands of lives astir the world, but it each began with an early, devoted pioneer urging his children to leap disconnected the roof.

This nonfiction is portion of ‘Ordinary items, bonzer stories’, a bid astir the astonishing stories down well-known items.