Fatigue Lab Scientists Drop Mercury to 40 Below Zero To Test Effects of Arctic on Army Men and Equipment

Thin, icy air American flyers encounter as they wing their way through the stratosphere, the moist tropical heat of South Pacific jungles, the dry, numbing cold of our Aleutian outposts are all being reproduced in the University's unique Fatigue Laboratory. Here a group of doctors and scientists study the effects such diverse weather conditions will have upon the energies of fighting men. Special diets are prepared and new insulated or even electrically heated clothing developed to protect our armies, equipping them in advance against the rigors of hitherto unknown climates.

Established in 1928 with funds from the Rockefeller Foundation, the lab is one of the first to concern itself with the physiology of fatigue in well, rather than sick persons. Its original problem was to discover what takes place in the human body when it is physically fatigued. With the coming of war, however, the laboratory has turned its attention more and more to the problems of our overseas armies.

Mechanical treadmills have long been the scientists' valuable tool to induce fatigue in its human guinea pigs. By analyzing the air exhaled by a subject as he walks the treadmill, the lab is able to discover how much oxygen is being consumed in the work. The experiments have been conducted under all weather conditions and the results compared so that the effects of climate on energy and fatigue can be accurately measured.

Among the ace runners who have volunteered to race the treadmill are Glenn Cunningham, Gil Dodds, Gene Fenske, and Gunder Haegg. Haegg astounded the doctors by turning in a better performance running 11 miles an hour than an ordinary man can at seven. They described the lanky Swede as "the most beautiful running machine" they had seen.

Lab Evolves Step Test

The demon step test which every incoming Freshman must take is a direct outgrowth of treadmill experiments, as the method of measuring fatigue in relation to heartbeat acceleration was developed by the Fatigue Lab.

At present much of the work is being done in a specially constructed room replete with treadmill, where temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero can be effected and the air thinned to simulate conditions of high altitude flying. There is even a special air lock leading into the chamber so that the faint can be removed without ruining the experiment.

This chilly laboratory, under the supervision of Harwood S. Belding, special research associate, has made great strides in the development of electrically heated flying suits. Prize subject for the experiments is Chauncey Smythe Depew 3rd, a thermostatically controlled dummy who can be left in the cold-room for days at a time. Electric thermocouples enable the scientists to determine the heat of any part of his body at will, and thus the insulation efficiency of the clothing being tested can be determined.

Alcohol Bad for the Mind

Effects of alcohol and drugs on mental efficiency are being computed in another section of the Fatigue Laboratory. Several of the drugs, incidentally, have been found stimulating; not so, the alcohol. A two hour stint at an instrument called the targetometer is guaranteed to produce mental fatigue in even the most alert.

The Quartermaster has made use of the Fatigue Lab's facilities since the beginning of the war and is now financing some of the work.