The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory Brought Aid and Comfort to America’s WWII GIs

Lab was instrumental in improving boots, clothing, and materials for U.S. Servicemen

Newswise — Historians refer to World War II (WWII) as “The Big One.” And with good reason: more than 100 million people worldwide fought on behalf of their respective countries, as the major powers dedicated their economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities to the war. In the U.S., researchers at the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory tested materials, food, and clothing that were ultimately used in preserving the lives and limbs of the nation’s 16 million soldiers, also known as GIs.

The lab examined everything from the best forms of insulation for cold-weather combat to the metabolic effects of a diet consisting solely of “pemmican,” a foodstuff consisting of 50% protein and 50% fat. The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory’s efforts are recounted in a new article, “The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory: Contributions to World War II,” by G. Edgar Folk (with Diana L. Thrift). The article appears in the September 2010 issue of Advances in Physiological Education, a quarterly journal of The American Physiological Society (APS; www.the-aps.org). The APS has been an integral part of the scientific discovery process since it was founded in 1887.

The Harvard Fatigue LaboratoryThe Harvard Fatigue Laboratory was created in 1927 by biochemist L. J. Henderson and chemist David Bruce Dill. The laboratory’s main mission was to explain the physiology of fatigue—hence the laboratory’s name—and researchers there studied the effects of heat and cold on the human body with the goal of making work or exercise more comfortable in extreme environments. The lab maintained a “hot room” that operated at temperatures up to 115°F and a cold chamber that could chill to -40°F. The lab also boasted what was then considered to be state-of-the-art equipment for measuring research subjects’ physiological responses, such as metabolic rates during rest and exercise. Although most research subjects were U.S. soldiers, it was the lab’s practice that investigators also used themselves as subjects.

Cold Room Experiments and the Battle of the BulgeVarious branches of the U.S. military tasked the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory with authenticating the insulation values of different garments when wet or dry. To categorize the results of their experiments, researchers used a unit of measurement called a Clo. One Clo represents the insulation of a business suit for a person sitting in a 70°F environment. Through various experiments the researchers were able to determine that a soldier remaining inactive at -40°F would require garments with insulation values of approximately 6 Clo to stay warm.

The lab’s cold-room research team used copper models of the human body in their experiments to help them determine how insulation needs differed in the extremities as opposed to the torso. By measuring heat flow from a source within the models and comparing it to heat flow from human subjects, the team was able to determine what kind of insulation would be necessary to prevent frostbite in soldiers fighting in temperatures as low as -40°F.

Although the team’s experiments made it clear in 1942 that the standard leather military boot was inadequate for cold weather service, several generals made the unfortunate decision to continue marching infantrymen in leather boots. Two years later, trench foot and frostbite were the primary sources of U.S. casualties during the Battle of the Bulge— the largest and bloodiest battle involving Americans in the entire war.

Contributions to the Battle of the AtlanticIn the air war over the Atlantic, pilots and crew were often left floating in the ocean for hours after being shot down. Some kind of garment was needed to preserve the lives of troops who could be subjected to these conditions.

In 1943, the military supplied the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory with several dozen immersion suits for testing. True to their obligations, Dr. Folk (the article’s author) and a group of soldiers donned the suits and subjected themselves to experiments that replicated the conditions sailors and airmen would endure should a ship sink or an airplane be forced to land in water. First the team walked on treadmills to simulate the troops’ body state during normal activities. Then they sat in a cold room at varying temperatures to simulate the conditions of an immersion crisis.

The team’s reports on how long such conditions could be endured provided crucial data for the use of the immersion suits. Once the suits were issued to GIs, it wasn’t long before the team learned of cases where troops would have died had they not been wearing the new suits.

Field-Testing an Extreme DietThe Harvard Fatigue Laboratory’s research was not confined to in-lab experimentation. Indeed, the team was required to check their experiments against rigorous testing in the field. Dr. Folk conducted field studies in Newfoundland, Canada, to test equipment soldiers would use while camped in deep snow without shelter. He accompanied flight crews in Canadian flying boats as they patrolled for German submarines so that he could record the meteorological environment within the cabin and recommend improvements to the flight crew’s clothing. In another study, Folk led a team up the 3500 ft Mt. Chocorua in New Hampshire’s White Mountains to determine the proper kind of insulation for boots.

But perhaps the most notable field study involved testing a specialized emergency diet. One of the lab’s affiliated scientists, arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, had spent five years living among the Inuit, whose diet is roughly 50% fat and 50% protein. His experience with the Inuit diet prompted him to urge the military to create rations of pemmican, used by the Inuit and other North American Indians to sustain themselves on long journeys.

To test pemmican’s suitability as a ration, researchers and soldiers went to the field to live on the substance for 7 days. The result of their experiment could be summed up in one word, “yuck,” as every soldier in the study quickly refused to eat the pemmican. Indeed, they said they would “go hungry rather than eat the stuff.” In the end, all study subjects developed severe ketosis, either from the high-fat diet or from not eating at all, and the lab declined to recommend pemmican as a military ration.

Research Gone “Batty”Although humans were the subjects of most Harvard Fatigue Laboratory experiments, the lab also conducted experiments using other species. In the article, Dr. Folk recalls a request for his assistance by a former lab researcher, Donald Griffin, with an experiment involving bats. Dr. Griffin’s then-current lab had received a military contract after the armed forces had received an unusual suggestion.

The suggestion was for allied airplanes to fly over towns in Japan and release bats above the residents’ straw-roofed houses. The bats would carry incendiary objects and crawl into the straw— their natural habitat—and thus set the houses on fire. Dr. Griffin was charged with finding out how much weight the common bat could carry as it floated downward from an airplane. Although Dr. Griffin and Dr. Folk did find the answer, the plan was never put into effect.

The Lab Closes Its DoorsAfter WWII ended, Harvard University’s policy discontinued the use of government funding. Dr. Henderson died in 1942 and Dr. Dill left the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory in 1946 to become Scientific Director at the Medical Laboratory of the Army Chemical Corps. After Dr. Dill’s departure, Dr. Folk remained as the lab’s unofficial acting director until it was disbanded in 1947, not realizing that he would one day record the lab’s contributions to WWII for posterity.

See the Story Told in Photographs The article includes images that help tell the story of the time. Included in the article are photographs showing:

• the staff at the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory circa 1944.

• the “cold chamber” staff circa 1944.

• an artificial heated foot model used to measure the amount of insulation needed on feet when exposed to temperatures down to –40° F.

• equipment designed by Donald Griffin to distribute the heat in electrically-heated clothing (in this case, gloves) to be used at –40° F.

About the AuthorG. Edgar Folk, PhD, is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Iowa. He has authored or co-authored more than 175 papers and chapters, more than 163 preliminary reports, and 3 books. He worked at the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory from 1943 to 1947.Diana Thrift is a research assistant and writer, and frequent co-author with Dr. Folk.

Source: September 2010 issue of Advances in Physiology, a publication of the American Physiological Society (APS; www.the-aps.org). To schedule an interview with Dr. Folk, please contact Donna Krupa at 301.634.7209 or [email protected].

Key words: Harvard Fatigue Laboratory; physiology and World War II.

Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create health or disease. The American Physiological Society (APS; www.the-APS.org/press) has been an integral part of the discovery process since it was established in 1887.