Inflatable armbands are devices to help a wearer float in water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 and learn to swim.

Inflatable armbands are typically cylindrical

Cylinder (geometry)

A cylinder is one of the most basic curvilinear geometric shapes, the surface formed by the points at a fixed distance from a given line segment, the axis of the cylinder. The solid enclosed by this surface and by two planes perpendicular to the axis is also called a cylinder...

 inflatable plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

 bands that are inflated and worn on the upper arm. When the wearer is in water, the air inside the armbands provides buoyancy on account of its far lower density than the water. Although often thought of as a child's flotation device, armbands are also available in adult sizes.

Although inflatable armbands are popular among small children, swimming experts caution against using them, because although water wings help the child to float, they do not prevent him/her from accidentally going under water and potentially drowning. Inflatable armbands are not a life-saving device

Personal flotation device

A personal flotation device is a device designed to assist a wearer, either conscious or unconscious, to keep afloat.Devices designed and approved by authorities for use by...

. Mistaking them for one can create a potentially fatal false sense of security.

Inflatable armbands teach children the improper vertical position in the water, instead of the correct horizontal swimming position. They can also slip off and lead to drowning. These are several reasons why these devices are not recommended by professionals.

National safety standards such as BS EN 13138-3:2007 require inflatable armbands to conform to certain standards, such as puncture resistance

Puncture resistance

Puncture resistance denotes the relative ability of a material to inhibit the progression of a tear once it has been pierced by a cut or a nick. Tests devised to measure puncture resistance are generally application-specific, covering items such as roofing and packaging materials, protective...

 and the level of buoyancy retained after a period of time beyond the inflation valve

Oral inflation valve

An oral inflation valve is present on most swim toys and beach balls. Since the valve is placed in the mouth and saliva can be ejected into the inflatable object, the valve is subjected to some health concerns....

 being opened and left open (an assessment of the efficiency of non-return valves designed to prevent the armbands deflating suddenly if an inflation valve is opened). Standards also require prominent labelling near the inflation valves to the effect that inflatable armbands are not life preservers and should only be used under competent supervision. Supervisors should be in the water within arms distance of the person wearing the devices.

Inflatable armbands for swimmers were invented by Bernhard Markwitz in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. In 1956, Markwitz's three-year-old daughter had fallen into a goldfish pond and nearly drowned. Because of this, Markwitz invented and developed a swimming aid that would be safer for children than the swimming rings at the time, which were made of cork

Cork (material)

Cork is an impermeable, buoyant material, a prime-subset of bark tissue that is harvested for commercial use primarily from Quercus suber , which is endemic to southwest Europe and northwest Africa...

. A lottery win (253 thousand Deutsche Mark) gave him a suitable start capital. In 1964, Markwitz had developed the armbands in their final form and marketed them under the name "BEMA". Their modern name in German, Schwimmflügel, literally translates as "swimming wings".

A similar design of waterwings was shown in the magazine Modern Mechanix in October 1931. They were made of rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

, consisted of two parts and were worn on the upper arms. The armbands could be inflated through a valve. These were first demonstrated in public on the beaches of Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, USA.

In 1907, in response to swimming having become part of the school curriculum and therefore increased parental concerns about the safety of their children in the water, the Dean's Rag Book Company, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, introduced the Swimeesy Buoy, inflatable armbands with a colourful design in the form of a butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

. (A plain white version was also available). This product became so popular that it was available, almost unchanged, until the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

External links

• British Standard 13138-3:2007, buoyant aids for swimming instruction. BS 7661:1993 specification for inflatable armbands worn as flotation aids is proposed for withdrawal given this more recent standard.