![]() There are a wide variety of types of wheelchairs, differing by propulsion method, mechanisms of control, and technology used. The X-brace idea came to Jennings from the men's folding "camp chairs / stools", rotated 90 degrees, used in the outdoors and at the mines. Their "X-brace" design is still in common use, albeit with updated materials and other improvements. Everest and Jennings saw the business potential of the invention and went on to become the first mass-market manufacturers of wheelchairs. Everest had previously broken his back in a mining accident. and his disabled friend Herbert Everest, both mechanical engineers, invented the first lightweight, steel, folding, portable wheelchair. Soon, many healthy tourists also rented the decorated "rolling chairs" and servants to push them as a show of decadence and treatment they could never experience at home. In 1887, wheelchairs ("rolling chairs") were introduced to Atlantic City so invalid tourists could rent them to enjoy the Boardwalk. The invalid carriage or Bath chair brought the technology into more common use from around 1760. However, the device resembled a hand bike more than a wheelchair since the design included hand cranks mounted at the front wheel. In 1655, Stephan Farffler, a 22-year-old paraplegic watchmaker, built the world's first self-propelling chair on a three-wheel chassis using a system of cranks and cogwheels. This makes the design more comparable to a modern-day highchair or portable throne for the wealthy than to a modern-day wheelchair for disabled people. Although it was an elaborate chair having both armrests and leg rests, the design still had shortcomings since it did not feature an efficient propulsion mechanism and thus required assistance to propel it. Īlthough Europeans eventually developed a similar design, this method of transportation did not exist until 1595 when an unknown inventor from Spain built one for King Phillip II. A distinction between the two functions was not made for another several hundred years, until around 525 CE, when images of wheeled chairs made specifically to carry people begin to occur in Chinese art. ![]() The first records of wheeled seats being used for transporting disabled persons date to three centuries later in China the Chinese used early wheelbarrows to move people as well as heavy objects. The earliest records of wheeled furniture are an inscription found on a stone slate in China and a child's bed depicted in a frieze on a Greek vase, both dating between the 6th and 5th century BCE. ![]() ![]() Nicolas Grollier de Servière (1596–1689) Wheelchair in his Cabinet of curiosities The most widely recognized distinction is between motorized wheelchairs, where propulsion is provided by batteries and electric motors, and manual wheelchairs, where the propulsive force is provided either by the wheelchair user or occupant pushing the wheelchair by hand ("self-propelled"), by an attendant pushing from the rear using the handle(s), or by an attendant pushing from the side use a handle attachment. They may include specialized seating adaptions, individualized controls, and may be specific to particular activities, as seen with sports wheelchairs and beach wheelchairs. Wheelchairs come in a wide variety of formats to meet the specific needs of their users. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebral palsy, brain injury, osteogenesis imperfecta, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, and more. A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. ![]()
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