Front and side of Klein power chair prototype and close-up of the battery pack.

Front and side of Klein power chair prototype and close-up of the battery pack.

Wheelchair technology

Montage of front and side of George Klein's prototype power wheelchair built on an Everest and Jennings chair with a brown cloth back, seat and armrests; two large back drive wheels with pushrims and two small swivelling front wheels. Visible additions are a joy stick mounted on the right armrest and power unit mounted on a small platform behind the seat. A wire runs from the joy stick, under the chair and to the back power unit. Close-up of battery pack shows a gray metal box with six cylinders, marked on a strip under it - #1 left forwards, #2 left reverse, #3 left start, #4 right start, #5 right reverse, #6 right forward.

George Johann Klein, National Research Council

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Division of History of Medicine and Science, Washington D.C. U.S.A. Loan to Canada Science and Technology Museum, Science and Medicine, Ottawa ON

Carleton University Disability Research Group

1950

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Division of History of Medicine and Science

For © contact: Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved.

image jpeg

Material artifact

CMST_SI_1.13

Canada, Ontario, 1950