Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1912 — Elasticity of Human Skull. [ARTICLE]

Elasticity of Human Skull.

Fortunately the human skull, although composed of bones, is elastic —much more so than one would think. The average male adult skull, in fact, is so elastic that it may be compressed laterally in diameter by a blow or pressure applied at the center of area at right angles to the surface at that point by I*£ centimeters, or about six-tenths of an. inch; recovering its original diameter and fprm without breakage. The material of which our bones arehmade is so highly resistant that a cylindrical piece thereof only one square millimeter or 0.00155 square inch in area—l. e.; only 1.128 millimeter or 0.044 inch in diameter, has a tensile strength of 15 kilograms or 33 pounds avoirdupois, figuring out at about 21,300 pounds per square inch. A similar sample of hardwood tested in the same manner held only ten kilograms—that is, bone has 50 per cent, more tensile strength than * wood. A single bone fiber is shown in the hygiene exhibition, Dresden, supporting a weight of five kilograms or 11 pounds avoirdupois.