The Big Bang to Herbert's Dirt Nap:   A reliable history of the wheelchair, by an unreliable narrator

If you're like me, not only are you intrigued by wheelchairs, but you're also intrigued by the history of wheelchairs, especially the parts that no one else knows. The whole wheelchair concept, as I'm sure was stated in a lost notebook of the father of the Big Bang theory, Georges Lemaitre, began billions and billions of years ago with the Big Bang - that is, a cosmic explosion of a primeval atom.   Nevertheless, that's a little too far back for our discussion, so let's fast forward billions of years to, well, let's say, 4000 B.C., to the eastern Mediterranean basin, where they didn't yet have super models sunning themselves; however, what the Mediterranean basin did have was the inventions of the wheel and the chair.   Sure, you say, this must be where the wheelchair was born.  After all, it doesn't take a genius to add wheels to a chair, to create a wheelchair.  But, remember, these folks didn't have 300 television channels or fruit roll-ups, so they were a bit behind the times, at least by a few thousand years, or so. But, in 530 B.C., the Greeks placed wheels on a bed, creating the first combination of wheeled furniture.  (We know this from scribbling on an old pop bottle -- or illustrations on an ancient Greek vase, as the literati would say.) While the Greeks were lounging on their wheeled beds and eating grapes (and Charleston Heston began his film career), the Chinese placed wheels on a chair in 525 A.D., and, by the 3rd Century, the Chinese were savvy enough to create a wheelbarrow-type apparatus to cart the infirmed - or, as the young kids say, physically challenged.   But, the Greeks and Romans were hardcore toward disability rights, and in 1553 created wheeled mobility to get the disabled to the work fields.  The time is marked in history as the A.D.A of A.D. - also known as, here's-a-wheeled-cart-and-be-glad-we-don't-feed-you-to-the-lions. While the Greeks and Romans were dedicated to drinking wine and watching those with disabilities work in the fields, the Spaniards were just happy drinking wine.  So, in 1595, King Philip II created the first wheeled chair with footrest, so he could hold his chalice of wine, while wheeled by servants (hopefully reflective of our retirement years). Meanwhile, someone said to Stephen Farfler, a watch maker, "Stevo, do you know what time it is?  It's time for you to build yourself a wheelchair, for you can't walk."  And, in 1655, Fafler, a 22-year-old paraplegic, built among the first self-propelled wheelchairs, followed by Englishman, John Dawson in 1783, who built the first commercial wheelchair.  Now, when I say "commercial wheelchair," I don't mean those rented by Wal-Mart to show on thirty-second television ads that they are disability-friendly.  Rather, what I mean is, Dawson refined the wheelchair as a universal product, complete with adjustable legrests and reclining backrest.  Dawson's interpretation of the wheelchair as a device of practical mobility set the pace for the modern wheelchair, much like Linda Lovelace's acting in the early 1970s set the standards for adult films. While Dawson's chair was a leap in technology, it wasn't winning races at Boston, so others saw great room for improvement.  In 1881, pushrims became standard fair; in 1900 wire-wheels replaced wooden wheels; and, in 1916, the first powerchair rolled around London, a town now best known for birthing great musicians like the Spice Girls. In 1933, with little more than a garage and a disability, Herbert Everest propositioned his friend, Harry Jennings, to start a band - or, so I like to suppose.  However, because garage rock wouldn't take off for 57 more years, and they were both engineers, Everest and Jennings opted instead to improve the wheelchair, creating a folding X-frame that increased transportability, the design that remains the industry standard today. Whereas E&J revolutionized the manual wheelchair in 1933, Swedish doctor, Per Udden revolutionized the powerchair in 1963, with the chair coined Permobil (the fact only known by me is that, in the process of choosing a name for his chair, Udden also considered Uddenmobile, Peruddenmobil, Mobilperurdden, and Mobilurddenper - none, however, had the catchy ring of Permobile). By the mid 1970s, while Herbert Everest looked forward to a nice, long dirt nap, Errol Markheim at Sopur in Germany, Jeff Minnebraker at Quadra in California, and Rainier Kuschall in Europe, all latched on to the next evolution of manual chairs, creating lightweight, aluminum, highly-adjustable chairs (aluminum worked well for airplanes and beer cans, so why not wheelchairs?).   Have there been evolutions in wheelchairs since 1976?  Sure.  I mean, we can point to the powerbase powerchairs in the 1980s, manual wheelchair suspensions in the 1990s, mid-wheel powerchairs with suspension of the late 1990s, and 6-wheel powerchairs in the 21st century, but I won't mention those.   As we look back on the history of the wheelchair, two events are clear:  the Big Bang, and Herbert Everest's dirt nap.  But, with so much history in-between, evolving the wheelchairs that we use today, I can't help but appreciate the levels of mobility we have -- and still I wonder what would have come of Everest and Jennings forming a band? A Reliable Timeline of the Modern Wheelchair 4000 B.C. The chair and wheel exist in the eastern Mediterranean basin 530 B.C. ..Greeks place wheels on a bed 525 A.D. ..Chinese place wheels on a chair 3rd Century ..Chinese create rolling apparatus for the infirmed 1553 Greeks and Romans create wheeled mobility for disabled 1595 .King Philip II creates wheeled chair with footrests 1655 .Fafler builds self-propelled wheelchair 1783 .Dawson produces commercial wheelchair 1881 .Pushrims added 1900 .Wire-spoked wheels replace wooden wheels 1916 .First powerchair available 1933 .Everest and Jennings create modern folding wheelchair 1963 ..Udden refines modern powerchair 1976 ..Markheim, Minnebraker, and Kuschall innovate lightweight manual wheelchairs