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Wheelchairs in one form or another have been around for over 500 years and in this time, as with all other technology, they have undergone some huge transformations.
The first ever wheelchair was invented in 1595 for Philip II of Spain. Back then it was referred to as an invalids chair. The inventor to this day remains unknown.
The earliest credit for building a wheelchair goes to Stephen Farfler, himself a paraplegic. He built a 3 wheeled chassis, hand pedalled, self propelled chair to get him around in 1655.
The first production wheelchair, the “Bath” wheelchair, came about in 1783. Invented in Bath, England (hence the name) by John Dawson. The chair was another 3 wheeled design and featured 2 large wheels and one small one. Although very uncomfortable, the bath wheelchair outsold all other wheelchairs throughout the early 19th century.
During the later part of the 19th century, many improvements were made to wheelchairs, making them more and more comfortable and in 1869 a patent appeared for a wheelchair with rear push wheels with small front casters. The early 1870s saw the addition or rubber, bicycle style, wheels on metal rims. In the early 1870s push rims made their first appearance.
1916 saw a huge development in wheelchairs. The manufacture in London of the first motorized wheelchair.
The first ever tubular steel, folding wheelchair came about in the early 1930s via engineer Harry Jennings. This chair was the blueprint to all subsequent and modern wheelchairs. Harry Jennings Built this wheelchair for a friend of his, Herbert Everest. Together, they set up the company “Everest & Jennings” which went on to dominate the wheelchair market for years. They abused their success though, and the Department of Justice brought an antitrust suit against the company, charging them with fixing wheelchair prices. They settled out of court.
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