Lucien Brouha: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
Chocmilk03 (talk | contribs) →North America: name now given in previous paragraph |
Chocmilk03 (talk | contribs) →North America: suggested amends to list to help readability. I understand from MOS:LIST that bullet points are preferred unless there is a reason for having a numbered list (eg needing to refer back to points). |
||
| Line 70: | Line 70: | ||
The tension in Europe preceding World War II weighed heavily on Brouha's mind and in February 1940, he and his wife left Belgium to join the French National Research Council in [[Paris]]; shortly after, in May 1940, his laboratory in Liège was destroyed through bombardment during the [[German invasion of Belgium (1940)|German invasion of Belgium]]. [[Guy La Chambre]] assigned him to the [[French Air Force]], where he worked in the Laboratory of the Medico-Physiological Services with physiologist [[André Mayer]]<!-- Q20751723 -->. Brouha's role was to test pilots for physical fitness and fatigue. He had, however, been asked by Cannon and [[Lawrence Joseph Henderson]] to move to Harvard on several occasions following his 1930s research visits, and in August 1940 he answered their calls and arrived in [[Boston]].<ref name="Vangrunderbeek and Delheye" /> |
The tension in Europe preceding World War II weighed heavily on Brouha's mind and in February 1940, he and his wife left Belgium to join the French National Research Council in [[Paris]]; shortly after, in May 1940, his laboratory in Liège was destroyed through bombardment during the [[German invasion of Belgium (1940)|German invasion of Belgium]]. [[Guy La Chambre]] assigned him to the [[French Air Force]], where he worked in the Laboratory of the Medico-Physiological Services with physiologist [[André Mayer]]<!-- Q20751723 -->. Brouha's role was to test pilots for physical fitness and fatigue. He had, however, been asked by Cannon and [[Lawrence Joseph Henderson]] to move to Harvard on several occasions following his 1930s research visits, and in August 1940 he answered their calls and arrived in [[Boston]].<ref name="Vangrunderbeek and Delheye" /> |
||
At Harvard, Brouha worked under Henderson and [[David Bruce Dill]] on military research at the HFL. Brouha was appointed as research associate and tutor, covering biomedical sciences. The focus on military research was necessary for the research team as their funding from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] was about to run out and funding from the military was readily available. The [[United States Army]] requested that a simple endurance test be developed with which they could assess the fitness of soldiers. The idea was to utilise [[treadmill]]s that had been in use at HFL since 1928; at the time, these were large and immobile, and of no practical use for the army beyond fitness tests. William H. Forbes<!-- Q99194052 -->, William L. Woods<!-- Q108292928 -->, Brouha and Carl Seltzer<!-- Q108290035 --> developed requirements that needed to be met by a simple fitness test:<ref name="Vangrunderbeek and Delheye" /> |
At Harvard, Brouha worked under Henderson and [[David Bruce Dill]] on military research at the HFL. Brouha was appointed as research associate and tutor, covering biomedical sciences. The focus on military research was necessary for the research team as their funding from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] was about to run out and funding from the military was readily available. The [[United States Army]] requested that a simple endurance test be developed with which they could assess the fitness of soldiers. The idea was to utilise [[treadmill]]s that had been in use at HFL since 1928; at the time, these were large and immobile, and of no practical use for the army beyond fitness tests. William H. Forbes<!-- Q99194052 -->, William L. Woods<!-- Q108292928 -->, Brouha and Carl Seltzer<!-- Q108290035 --> developed requirements that needed to be met by a simple fitness test. These requirements were that the test must:<ref name="Vangrunderbeek and Delheye" /> |
||
* take no more than 10 minutes |
|||
* be hard work, so that one-fourth to one-third of participants cannot finish 5 minutes |
|||
* use large muscle groups |
|||
* not require a high skill level |
|||
* be of similar difficulty for participants with different body types |
|||
* be in proportion to the size of the participants |
|||
* be standardised and repeatable |
|||
Brouha took on the task of developing such a test. In the first instance, he wrote a report for the [[Office of Scientific Research and Development]] comparing the existing tests against the above criteria. Brouha and his colleagues found that the Harvard Pack Test came closest to meeting the requirements. This test required subjects to carry a pack weighing a third of their body weight, and to step up and down a {{convert|16|in|cm|adj=mid|-high}} step every two seconds. The subject's pulse was taken over three 30-second intervals after the exercise stopped, and the sum of heartbeats plus the duration of the exercise in seconds were entered into an equation that gave a fitness index. The disadvantage of this test was the requirement for different-sized "weight packs". |
Brouha took on the task of developing such a test. In the first instance, he wrote a report for the [[Office of Scientific Research and Development]] comparing the existing tests against the above criteria. Brouha and his colleagues found that the Harvard Pack Test came closest to meeting the requirements. This test required subjects to carry a pack weighing a third of their body weight, and to step up and down a {{convert|16|in|cm|adj=mid|-high}} step every two seconds. The subject's pulse was taken over three 30-second intervals after the exercise stopped, and the sum of heartbeats plus the duration of the exercise in seconds were entered into an equation that gave a fitness index. The disadvantage of this test was the requirement for different-sized "weight packs". |
||