The road to the modern road legal mobility scooter involved a considerable amount of evolution and integration of a range of somewhat parallel technologies.
A key aspect of that development is flexibility, comfort and versatility; everyone has different requirements in a mobility aid that the right scooter can help with.
This is why there are smaller models that can be folded up to fit in the boot of a car, and larger ones designed to travel considerable distances on the road. This is also a reason why the classes of mobility scooters matter as much as they do.
However, part of the reason for this fertile landscape of mobility assistants is that the mobility scooter as a concept is far older than many people expect, and has therefore had a lot more time to figuratively and literally take shape.
Who Made The First Mobility Scooter?
Chairs with wheels have been depicted from as early as the sixth century BC in Chinese and Ancient Greek art, but whilst the wheelchair slowly developed over 2000 years, a fundamental barrier to independence was that every design up until the 17th century required additional assistance to get around.
In 1655, a young Nuremberg watchmaker by the name of Stephan Farffler decided to change that and in doing so created the origin point for half a dozen other inventions and modes of transport.
Seriously injured in an accident at the age of three in 1636, Mr Farffler was paralysed from the waist down, although accounts vary as to the nature of the injury itself.
To help him get around and gain independence, he developed a three-wheeled handcycle that moved via a handcrank and an elaborate gearbox.
The design of the carriage might have been inspired by a similar machine made a few years before by Hans Hautsch, which would have been the first self-propelled carriage and thus the earliest descendant of the mobility scooter had it worked as it claimed.
Mr Farffler adopted the clockwork idea but opted for the simpler approach of having the crank hand operated rather than relying on the storage of potential energy.
It was effective as a transportation device and it helped Mr Farffler become a somewhat successful watchmaker and engineer in Altdorf by Nuremberg, adding chimes to the town’s clock tower and developing a device that would regularly turn an hourglass and allow for more accurate measurements of time than were possible via clockwork at the time.
After he died in 1689 at the age of 56, Mr Farffler’s machine was celebrated and exhibited in the Nuremberg City Library, and most of the information about his life and the origin of the mobility scooter, powered wheelchair, bicycle and tricycle was thanks to biographers such as Johann Wagenseil and Johann Doppelmayr.
The Bath Chair And The Birth Of Modern Mobility
Just a few years after Mr Farffler’s mobility scooter, a similar hand-powered wheelchair was used by Sir Thomas Fairfax. Following multiple battle wounds, illnesses and a bout of rheumatism, he would rely on that seat from 1664 until he died in 1671.
The next major development for the mobility scooter was the bath chair, named for the hometown of its creator, James Heath.
Whilst it was in some respects a step backwards as it relied on being pushed from behind or drawn by a donkey or pony, it also offered controls via a turning handle that controlled the front wheels.
They were invented around a century after Mr Farffler’s machine in 1750, but became the first mobility aid to become popular and widespread outside of one-off inventions and the nobility.
Initially used to help people travel to the Roman Baths in the city of Bath, the bath chair would become more widespread, being frequently seen in seaside resorts during the 19th century and would remain popular until the development of more sophisticated powered prototypes following the First World War.
The First World War And The Mobility Revolution
The early bath chairs would evolve into a range of different self-propelled mobility aids from carriages to scooters to chairs, primarily designed by Carters and increasingly marketed towards soldiers wounded during the First World War.
By this point, many mobility scooters were powered using small petrol engines, although some would also use battery-powered motors starting in the 1920s.
Whilst they had a wide variety of shapes and designs, and would often resemble motorcycles, rickshaws and even small cars, these would be the first recognisable mobility scooters in terms of function and accessibility.
There had been a progression not only in functionality but also in availability, from one-offs and royal commissions to the nobility, then the middle class and finally everyone who needed them.
Following the Second World War, there was a further divergence between powered wheelchairs and mobility scooters, with the latter becoming increasingly separated into those designed to be comfortable for short-distance journeys compared to those made to travel on the road such as the Invacar.
The first modern mobility scooter was confusingly sold as an electric wheelchair by the department store chain Sears. It was rather unusually designed, lacking back support and featuring a design that made it difficult to get in and out of.
This was not a commercial success, but there was potential in the design and concept for a mobility aid that worked for people, although it would take several decades, changes in legislation and consultations to find out what was needed in a modern, versatile scooter.
The biggest change came in 1968, when plumber Allan R Thieme developed the Amigo, a lightweight and accessible scooter with a swinging seat, tiller steering and basic operating controls.
It was designed to be used inside as well as outside, and became such a huge success that it would shape mobility scooters from that point on. Nearly all folding, lightweight models available since then have taken some design nods from the original Amigo.
Many of the changes to legislation surrounding mobility scooters, such as the 4mph speed limit for class 2 scooters, were in part inspired by and set by the Amigo’s features.
