Posts Tagged ‘history’

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The Development of the Modern Wheelchair

Monday, January 25th, 2010

The wheelchair is one of the oldest types of home medical equipment, dating back thousands of years, with images depicting the use of carts and similar devices, used to transport those with limited mobility. However, if you looked at most of the early wheelchairs, you might not even recognize them as a wheelchair, nor where they something that was generally available to the regular population.

In the past, wheelchairs were traditionally only available to those such as nobility or who had the means to have one constructed. This is because there was no set standard to them, so instead the wheelchair had to basically be reinvented each time it was built, relying on the skills of the builder.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, this began to change, with a semi-standard wicker wheelchair becoming much more common. This was in part due to the increased number of war veterans from the Civil War. These early wheelchairs where relatively inexpensive and featured a large wicker chair, which was often very high backed. Sometimes, however, wood was used in place of wicker, which was much sturdier, but also a great deal heavier.

While a big step up from the older models of wheelchairs, the wicker and wood wheelchairs were very cumbersome and could rarely be transported easily. They also usually required someone to push the wheelchairs, leaving the wheelchair user dependent on friends, nurses, or other caregivers to get around. These wheelchairs would remain common until the early 1930′s, when a much lighter wheelchair was developed.

The improved wheelchair, which was developed during the 1930′s was referred to as the E&J wheelchair, named for its inventors Everest and Jennings. What sets this apart from other wheelchairs was that it had a solid metal frame, constructed using hollow steel tubes. This provided a great deal of strength, but because the metal was hollow, it was not very heavy. The E&J wheelchair could also be folded up, making it much easier to transport in carriages and the less common automobile. In addition, the wheelchair featured large front wheels, allowing the wheelchair user to self propel, without the need to rely on a caretaker.

As was the case with the previous wheelchair design, much of the innovation and adoption was the result of injured veterans, this time from World War I. A few years later, World War II would begin and the E&J wheelchair would become the default wheelchair design.

By the 1950′s, the E&J wheelchair was still the most common choice of wheelchair, with inventors creating a electric wheelchair kit that could be used to convert a regular manual wheelchair to an electric one. These kits became very popular, with companies from Canada and New York developing quick converter kits.

Today, the E&J wheelchair design is still seen in most manual wheelchairs, with its lightweight hollow metal frame and folding design, making it a great choice for traveling. In fact, Everest and Jenning wheelchairs are still available, as the company has remained a powerful name in the wheelchair industry.

The History of the Modern Manual Wheelchair

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Manual wheelchairs are one of the oldest types of wheelchairs known to man and records of their use can be traced back thousands of years. However, up until the end of the nineteenth century, there was very little standardization when it came to manual wheelchairs and they were often only available to people who had the resources to hire a professional builder.

Wicker and Wood: Early Wheelchair Designs

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, however, the wicker basket wheelchair began to become very popular. These wheelchairs provided a wicker seat for the person using the wheelchair, which had a very long and high back. These wicker wheelchairs had three wheels and were not only incredibly bulky, but also very heavy.

As a result of how these wheelchairs were designed, it was very difficult to transport a wicker wheelchair and it was also very difficult for the person using the wheelchair to move it on their own. Instead, they were forced to rely on nurses and family members to push the wheelchair if they wanted to move around.

In addition to the wicker wheelchairs, there were also several popular wooden wheelchairs, which were also incredibly heavy and difficult to transport, but were easier to self propel than the wicker wheelchair.

The Development of a Lighter Easier to Use Manual Wheelchair

Despite all their flaws, the wicker wheelchair would remain the standard in wheelchair design for over two decades until the 1930′s, when the first foldable tube framed manual wheelchair was developed. This new wheelchair was created by two inventors named Everest and Jennings and would come to be called the E & J Wheelchair.

Harry Jennings set out to build a newer lightweight wheelchair when he saw the difficulties his friend Herbert Everest was having using the standard wicker wheelchair. Together, they came up with a very innovative wheelchair design, which used hollow metal tubes and a foldable frame. By using metal tubes, they were able to create an incredibly strong wheelchair frame, which was also relatively lightweight.

The E & J Wheelchair frame could also be folded up and placed in a carriage or other vehicle, making easily traveling with a wheelchair possible for the first time. As the E & J Wheelchair was being developed, the build up to the Second World War was beginning and the E & J Wheelchair would soon have a number of users.

The First Electric Wheelchairs

The E & J wheelchair was also used as the base of the first electric wheelchair, when inventors in the 1950′s developed an electric motor that could be attached to the frame of an E & J wheelchair. This allowed the E & J wheelchair to be easily turned into an electric power chair and several companies began selling conversion kits for the E & J Frame.

The Wheelchairs of Today

The E & J manual wheelchair quickly became the standard and was used worldwide. Today, E & J wheelchairs are still available and their influence can be seen in virtually all modern manual wheelchairs.

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