Ecospun safety vest

But this experience has not translated across the board. The trend throughout the Western world has moved away from the experience shared by urban children since the start of the Industrial Revolution of playing on the street and towards setting up play areas and activities away from traffic. Children take the car rather than walk to school where public transport is not available, which is frequently in Europe. Although the American school bus system is often spoken of with admiration in Europe, it has yet to have any imitators.

With more cars going to school, traffic densities increase again and a vicious cycle is set up, leading to less and less people choosing to walk or cycle and the amount of daily activity they do going down, with obvious consequences on fitness levels.

Of course, the history of the vests is not just a vignette into various trends in modern society from the feminization of the workplace to the modern epidemic of obesity. It is also a history of technological development which started over 3500 years ago when the phenomenon of fluorescence was first observed in China.

However, the father of this science is regarded as Athanasius Kircher who wrote a book called 'Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae' ('The Great Art of Light and Darkness') which described the effect of a wood extract in water and discussed the application of fireflies to illuminate houses.

In 1852 George Stokes developed 'Stokes Law of Fluorescence' which dictates the wavelength of fluorescence emission must be greater than that of the exciting radiation. Loosely referred to as the 'wow' effect, it means that the fluorescent material appears to shine more brightly than the light that it reflects. Okay, just 'Wow' then!

Fluorescence has been used in many ways since from invisible markers on equipment to help recover stolen goods to leak detection and safety vests. And new uses appear all the time.

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