Posted by Hollie on December 06, 2001 at 07:47:13:In Reply to: Re: Self Controlled Wheelchairs-Why not robotics? posted by JWmHarmon on December 05, 2001 at 08:36:52:
I'll bet "Pa Pa" never would have thought the self controlled chair he created for my brother (who had muscular dystrophy) would be so widely used today. My grandfather spent a lot of time with my brother, Stevie, and didn't like seeing him wheelchair bound as such a young boy. This creativity and his strong love prompted him to come up with this mobile wheelchair (self controlled)so he never had to wait for someone to help push him around or go outside. The muscles in his arms were deteriorating with the disease so this made perfect sense. Pa Pa used two car batteries to power the chair, they sat in the lower area in the back and widdled a piece of wood, which stuck out of a small gray metal box for Stevie to use as a joy stick.
I know nothing about the particular mechanics of it but in retrospect I am so proud of my Pa Pa and wish he could've known how brilliant he was. He also made a little car for a parade out of two bicycles, plywood and a lawn mower motor.My grandfather used to take Stevie to race slot cars and Stevie said he too wanted to go fast. He could not only go fast (I am sure that one never would have met safety regulations in today's world!), but he could also manuever indoors and outdoors (and over threshholds) he could turn around in a tight circle really fast, could pop wheelies and did so quite often He was a real angel and quite creative himself, as he spent much of his time repairing coo coo clocks and making gifts out of popcycle sticks and tiny tiles. Steve passed away when he was 21 years old in the 60's. The chair was given away.
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