Sad but true, I need a hip replacement. I can hardly walk these days, so my partner bought me a 1950s rolling medical stool at a thrift store (because I refuse to use an “old lady” walker), and I can roll around the house.
The chair was made by EF Brewster Co. in Wisconsin, and it entered the market in 1955. This chair brought tears to my eyes, if for no other reason than the instant recall of my dentist father seated on one of these stools back in Deerfield, Ill., in the early 1960s.
I remember when I was old enough to have a summer job in his office the medical furniture and device people would make calls to the Deerfield office and bring a bottle of Scotch, and talk up their products. I wonder if we ever hosted a rep from Brewster. Milwaukee wasn’t that far from Deerfield!
EF Brewster is one of those successful, ardent, trustworthy Midwestern companies who have been in the medical furniture industry for 76 years.
It all began in 1947 when EF Brewster took over the Wisconsin-based Ellsworth Pipe and Supply Co., metal tube fabricators. He realized a little rolling doctor’s office stool was a natural product to be made out of tubal steel. This was a new idea at the time.
Today the company is Menomonee Falls, Wisc., and has become a leader recently in the ergonomic saddle stool, a rolling mini-bike saddle.
Looking at the company’s product line to try to find the history of my medical stool, I notice that Brewster mentions a scientific study that 78% of all dental professionals suffer from a musculoskeletal disorder because of the twisting and bending and leaning and pulling part of their job. I had no idea. Dad seemed to be hale and hearty if the number of his affairs was any indication.
It was enlightening to see just how innovative the little stool was back in 1950 when Brewster invented it. 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 and they could be adjusted with a large screw pole for height. (Just rotate the seat.) At one time these stools were inexpensive and made of tubular steel and no plastic. They were weighty.
The company that made it has developed so many healthcare products that they make me proud to be an “almost Wisconsinite” Midwesterner.
For $39.50 in 1955, EF Brewer promoted the Brewer cycle lawnmower, which was a further design based on their electric scooter, called the Power Scooter, for those living with mobility issues. The scooter was narrower than a wheelchair, had one of the first electric rechargeable systems, could last for 5 miles, and had safety shut-offs and brakes, so why not take it a step further and make a sit-down lawn mower?
I read on the company website that the business was proud of the “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 Brewster employee 27 hours to go the 98 miles, showing up at Navy Pier for the Hardware Trade Show.
I see Brewster still participates in healthcare trade shows and has displays of their innovative exam tables, from which I can infer that the company is sensitive to the aging U.S. population. There are sizes, heights and electric lifts, and the company is sensitive to the obesity epidemic (these tables support up to 700 pounds) and the needs of injured individuals or patients living with disabilities or pregnancy issues.
These tables can adjust a patient from a seated position to a prone position as the table lifts the patient.
Brewster also invented the wheelable medical exam table years ago so that an exam could be taken anywhere.
In the 1960s, if you worked in a medical facility, both you and your patients liked iced soft drinks and needed ice packs. For that need, Brewster designed a medical ice dispenser. That device had these slanted doors, behind which was the ice tank — the Cube Master.
For pediatric hospitals, the company invented a non-climbable crib, where the walls are clear slick plastic. Beginning in 1950 with my little rolling stool, Brewster today makes medical seating, step stools, IV poles, hampers, instrument trays.
With fond memories of my dad pushing himself around the office, I now can do that. The stool’s value is $50.
Dr. Elizabeth Stewart’s “Ask the Gold Digger” column appears Mondays in the News-Press.
Written after her father’s COVID-19 diagnosis, Dr. Stewart’s book “My Darlin’ Quarantine: Intimate Connections Created in Chaos” is a humorous collection of five “what-if” short stories that end in personal triumphs over present-day constrictions. It’s available at Chaucer’s in Santa Barbara.
