Sad but true…I need a hip replacement, and can hardly walk these days. So my partner bought me a 1950s rolling medical stool at a thrift store. I refuse to use an ‘old lady’ walker. I roll around the house on this chair made by EF Brewer Company in Wisconsin. They entered the market in 1955. This chair brought tears to my eyes if for no other reason than the memory of my dentist father seated on one of these stools back in Deerfield, Illinois in the early 1960s.
I remember when I became old enough for a summer job in his office. The medical furniture and device people made calls to the Deerfield office, with a bottle of Scotch, and talked up their products. I wonder if we ever hosted a rep from Brewer. Milwaukee isn’t that far from Deerfield, Illinois!
The Beginning
EF Brewer is one of those successful, ardent, trustworthy Midwestern companies in the medical furniture industry for 76 years. It all began in 1947 when EF Brewer took over the Wisconsin based Ellsworth Pipe and Supply Company, metal tube fabricators. He realized a little rolling doctor’s office stool was a natural product to make out of tubal steel, a NEW IDEA. Located today in Menomonee Falls, they became a leader in the ergonomic saddle stool, a rolling mini-bike saddle.
I looked at their product line to try to find the history of my medical stool. Brewster mentions a scientific study that 78 percent of all dental professionals suffer from a muscular skeletal disorder due to the twisting, bending, leaning, and pulling as part of their job. I had no idea. Dad seemed hale and hearty if the number of his affairs served as any indication.
To see how innovative they considered the little stool back in 1950 when Brewer invented it enlightened me. Today the wheeled stool in the doctor’s office is part of the scenery. There were the type with the rectangular curved back, or the type with no back, adjusted with a large screw pole for height. At one time these stools were inexpensive, and made of tubular steel and weighty, no plastic.
Brewer’s Crazy Stunt
The company developed so many health care products that they made me a proud “almost Wisconsinite” Midwesterner. For $39.50 in 1955 EF Brewer promoted the Brewer cycle lawnmower, a design based on their electric scooter, called the Power Scooter, for those living with mobility issues. The scooter, narrower than a wheelchair, included the first electric rechargeable systems, that last for five miles. Because it came with safety shut offs and brakes, why not take it a step further and make a sit down lawnmower? I read on the company website about their pride of a “Crazy Stunt” that promoted the ride-on mower in 1955. Innocent Midwestern humor, someone thought let’s ride this from Milwaukee to Chicago. It took a Brewer employee 27 hours to go the 98 miles, showing up at Navy Pier for the Hardware Trade Show.
Brewer’s Sensitivity
I see Brewer still participates in Health Care Trade Shows, and displays their innovative exam tables. From this I infer the company’s sensitivity to the aging US population. Their exam tables come in various sizes and heights with electric lifts. Their sensitivity incorporates the obesity epidemic, since these tables support up to 700 lbs., and the needs of the injured, or patient living with disabilities, or pregnancy issues. These tables adjust a patient from a seated position to a prone position as the table lifts the patient. Brewer also invented the wheelable medical exam table years ago, in order to take an exam anywhere.
If you worked in a medical facility in the 1960s, both you and your patients liked iced soft drinks, and needed icepacks. For that need Brewster designed a medical ice dispenser. Those Cube Masters had ice tanks behind slanted doors.
For pediatric hospitals, they invented a non-climbable crib, where the walls are clear slick plastic. Beginning in 1950 with my little rolling stool, today they make medical seating, step stools, IV poles, hampers, and instrument trays. With fond memories of my dad pushing himself around the office, I now do that too. The value is $50.