The Great Airbag Hassle

To demonstrate a new motorcar safety device, a test vehicle was driven into a barrier at the General Motors proving-ground in Michigan one day last spring at precisely thirty miles an hour. Whereupon, the following events occurred almost instantaneously:

A sensing instrument on the front of the car identified the shock as of emergency dimensions. It flashed an electric signal to a steel bottle containing air under 3,500 pounds pressure. The signal broke a tempered glass diaphragm. There was a shotgun-like explosion. The compressed air shot into an airbag stored under the instrument panel. The airbag ballooned out, filling the space between the front seat and the windshield.

RS

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Robert S. Strother

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To demonstrate a new motorcar safety device, a test vehicle was driven into a barrier at the General Motors proving-ground in Michigan one day last spring at precisely thirty miles an hour. Whereupon, the following events occurred almost instantaneously:

A sensing instrument on the front of the car identified the shock as of emergency dimensions. It flashed an electric signal to a steel bottle containing air under 3,500 pounds pressure. The signal broke a tempered glass diaphragm. There was a shotgun-like explosion. The compressed air shot into an airbag stored under the instrument panel. The airbag ballooned out, filling the space between the front seat and the windshield.