The History of Stairlifts

Stairlifts can be found in homes across the country. For nearly eighty years, they have been allowing people to continue enjoying their homes with the freedom that they should.

The origin of the modern stairlift lies in America, with a Pennsylvanian entrepreneur and self-taught engineer called CC Crispen. Dismayed by the lack of mobility afforded to a debilitated friend, he came up with the idea for a chair that could make its own way up stairs. From this came his prototype, the inclining chair, or the Inclin-ator.

In the 1930s, stairlifts became much more prolific, being used in particular for the victims of Polio suffering from paralysis. The Inclin-ator-based model is what most of us are familiar with today, though with advancements in technology you're promised a faster, smoother and quieter ride.

However, recent findings by historian David Starkey have cast doubt on whether CC Crispen can truly claim to be the original creator of the stairlift. In a list of the possessions of Henry VIII, we find an entry for "a chair... that goeth up and down".

Starkey theorises, from this and other details, that after a fall whilst jousting, the Tudor monarch was left with an injury that made moving too painful to bear. So that he could still take advantage of his various palaces and their grounds, three "wheelthrones" were constructed, as well as what seems to be the earliest example of a stairlift, situated in Whitechapel.

This stairlift used a block and tackle system to move the king up and down a twenty foot staircase. Lacking motors, it was operated by his servants, and the technology was the same as that utilised by the king's warship at the time, the Mary Rose. Nowadays, the block and tackle system can still be seen in use on cranes used to construct buildings, or in the rigging of modern sailing ships.

So, from its grand beginnings in aiding the royalty, to its reinvention with the advent of motors, the stairlift has been helping people to get around and make use of all that is available to them. As technology continues to improve, it seems that the only way for stairlifts to goeth is up.