 Poster: A snowHead
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I found this rather interesting article about Howard Head (founder of the eponymous sports equipment company) who may be almost entirely responsible for inventing the construction of modern skis. Seems he did a phenomenal job in moving the technology on from solid hickory skis in the 1950s.
Not only that, having retired once, he promptly re-designed the tennis racquet as well!
I wonder how many snowheads are aware of his contribution to the sport? I certainly hadn't heard of his achievements before today....
S
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That's an excellent article. It makes passing reference to the Gomme ski, made in England by the Gomme family who founded the G-Plan furniture empire).
The Gomme ski actually pre-dated Howard Head's production, although his success dwarfed theirs - the Gomme ski later went out of production but it's acknowledged to have been the world's first metal-wood-plastic laminate ski. It was used by British skiers at the St Moritz Winter Olympics, 1948.
I guess someone somewhere has a pair. Sadly, one of the things lacking in this country is a comprehensive ski museum, because it would be a star exhibit.
One interesting question is how Head secured his patent, since Gomme had apparently beaten him to it. I guess Gomme never went for a patent, or never challenged Head's, but it would be interesting to check the patent records around that time. Technically I'd have thought that Head's patent application was invalid - the caption against the photo in that article dates the patent at 1956, by which time he was probably in such a powerful position that it was of secondary importance.
The all-aluminium skis referred to in the article are amazing things. I saw a pair in a French ski museum once, and they look like something out of a B&W science fiction movie.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Fri 13-05-05 17:38; edited 1 time in total
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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David Goldsmith, I know Head were the forerunners of plastic skis, never knew about Gomme but I thought that Dynamic were the first company to make a really succesful composite skis with the Dynamic 27 as used by a certain Jean-Claude Killy in Grenoble in 1968. I recall using a pair of composite Heads at about that date in Austria, still using leather boots.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Actually, if you go back a few years before that the Kneissl White Star became the first hugely-successful fibreglass ski. I think it dated around 1960-1962, made most famous by Karl Schranz who became a great rival of Killy's.
Dynamic's success was boxing the fibreglass around the wood core (rather than sandwiching it) to build a ski that was more resistant to twist. I never used early Kneissl fibreglass skis (which I've a hunch were phenomenally expensive), but I did use Dynamics in the mid 1970s and they were fabulous.
I think Killy shrewdly played the field after that and contracted his name to at least two other ski brands over the years - I seem to recall him ending up on K2s (though he probably made about 10 times more from his Rolex contract!)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yes David you're right and Karl Schranz was denied the olympic gold medal he should have received. I think a pair of Head Race skis were the second pair of skis I bought, circa 1970 something, bindings had just got brakes on them about that time and Tyrolia were making rubbish bindings even then.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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A quick survey of US records (non-exhaustive) shows:
1963:
US 3095207
Late-date Head patent showing integration of steel edges into Head-type ski.
1961:
US 2995379
Head patent showing tailoring of modulus of elasticity of Head-type ski.
1956:
US 2743113
NOT Head patent showing steel edges in a Head-type ski
1954:
US 2694580
Head patent showing internal laminations; Fig. 6-8 show distinct edges.
1953:
US 2661219
Coulson patent showing metal sheet laminate around honeycomb core.
Rubber blocks integrated with wood core. No specified edges.
1951:
US 2550002
Chorney patent showing upper and lower metal sheets bonded to wood core.
No edges shown. Hollow center section.
1950:
US 2526137
Hunt patent showing rubber sidewalls and hollow center in between metallic sheets. No edges shown.
US 2525618
Pierce patent showing metallic sheet laminate. Relatively thin sheets of metal enclose the exposed end grain of a balsa wood core, and may be sharpened to provide edge control
1948:
US 2446591
Hoerle patent showing a wood-filled U-trough of metal with inset edges. Not a true laminate, shows a metallic cover sheet that may be soldered or welded to the U-trough.
1945:
US 2377504
Lermont patent showing U-trough and boxed metallic cover sheet (torsion box?) along with a leaf spring in between. No edges shown.
1938:
US 2126152
Suits patent showing slit-mounted hard-wearing edges. All-wood skis otherwise.
Surprise, surprise, the originality claimed by the popular press article isn't quite of the nature it is portrayed to be. I didn't have a chance to review the international patents, but
the list of interest shows rapid invention in the 1940s:
FR1152848
DE811328
CH184522
FR979589
CH168471
CH226948
CH256867
CH260334
GB631879
FR766087
Check these and the US ones above on Espace here.
DG, the prosecution files to the 1963 Head patent are 'archived' in a cave in Pennsylvania and might take some time to retrieve. Those are the ones I would most like to read as the application date is 1956, and a 7-year latency is not average at all. I wonder if they had to apply the acknowledged principle of "unexpected benefit is proven through market success" to overcome obviousness arguments on that one.
HTH.
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Sweet dude.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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snoflake, take a look at the assignees of those patents. Notice anything? A distinct airplane company connection perhaps? OK, so Head actually left Martin-Marrietta prior to ski design, but United Aircraft kept theirs in force for their full term.
I suspect the metal ski owes its origins to the WWII legacy of unemployed metalworkers, much like those wonderful Italian barchetta sports cars. This is just my suspicion, mind.
I recently saw and examined a replica of the original Head design. (It's hanging in front of the fireplace at the Mountain Inn in Stowe). The first thing one is struck by is how -thin- the layup is. I've skied Volants, so this wasn't extremely unusual to me, but even those at first had tremendous difficulty retaining binding screws. Head may not have invented the concept of the metallic ski, but the work he did to bring them to an acceptable standard (proper binding mount. proper edges that don't fall off. proper flex and damping. proper base integration) certainly is not trivial.
Unfortunately, the popular press likes its heroes not to stand on the shoulders of others. Makes for good television, that does.
[/critic]
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FAQ
I kept them until very recently, but gave them to a friend (for ski-ing in the UK) who subsequently died, don't know what he did with the skis!
