Technology Pushes the Chair Forward

In the 1930s an engineer, Herbert Everest, took advantage of the new, lighter materials of the aircraft industry to build a better chair for himself. As form followed function, wheelchair technology no longer tried to look like household furniture but had become modern functionalism. Despite this, old-fashioned heavy chairs remained common for another decade. Two decades later the Canadian government directed National Research Council engineer Dr. George Klein to design a better motorized wheelchair.