At the Institute of Rchabilitution, in New York City, IMiss Edith Biichuald shows Clarence Qulst of Omaha how to usca long-armed grabbing instrument.
Polio vietim Gerald Qiapin invented this ingenious portable shower, which he can use while sitting in his wheel rhair—and without spilling a drop.
Escape for Wheel-Chair Prisoners By STEVEN
MSPENCER
How can a kid feed himself when he can't even bend his aiTns? What chance does a lawyer have, who is paralyzed in four limbs? Here are some gallant victims of crippling misfortune who found courageous answers to these questions. ¡ANCROFT HILL is a civil engineer and a transportation expert. He is used to big assignments, like raising an eighty-seven-ton section of Baltimore's Hanover Street bridge an inch and a half with a one-man hydraulic jack. But that achievement brought him considerably less satisfaction than making a gadget that lifts a spoon to the lips of a severely handicapped boy. And guiding the Baltimore Transit Company through nine years of depression and war—he was president from 1936 to 1945 —coimts for no more on Mr. Hill's personal balance sheet than designing a steering gear for Betty Adler's wheel chair. Certainly to Misa Adler the detachable tiller is the more important contribution, and to many others it is a neat symbol of practical self-help, a short cut through Bon* of the discouraging complexities of daily living. For the individual who cannot walk or raise an arm, or who, as in Miss Adler's case, has the use of only one hand, is constantly 22
faced with tasks he can almost but not quite do alone. Sheer determination unassisted would not, for exampie, hold Miss Adler's roast beef while she cut off a bite or keep a heavy reference book open while she copied out notes with her good hand—she is a librarian and lecturer. "And trying to navigate a wheel chair with one hand," she remarked, "was like rowing a boat with one oar. You go around in circles and wind up here when you want to be there." Miss Adler, an attractive, dark-haired young woman with a dependable sense of humor, ran into many of these frustrating obstacles during her long struggle back from the complete, iron-lung helplessness in which polio left her in 1941. Then, about a year ago, Bancroft Hill showed her how many of these baffling tasks could be accomplished with one hand, plus a few homemade gadgets. Among them was the tiller, which he fashioned from lightweight PHOTOGHAPIIY
BY HANS KNOPF
wood and arranged so that the steering arm could be pegged in any desirííd position. Miss Adler could then set her course and with one hand propel the wheel chair in a straight, unwavering line to her destination. The other Hill-made devices are of varying degrees of elaborateness, but are just as useful. Gadgetman Hill is genial, chatty and sixty-three. He was about to retire as a practicing engineer when the rudderless wheel chair and sundry other problems joggled him into a new career. He now considers himself a consulting engineer to all the crippled children and adults who can use his rare talents, although he insists they are not rare and that anyone with a few tools and a little imagination can turn out similar contrivances for the disabled. In any event, Mr. Hill is one of the spark plugs of an effort aimed at helping the nation's handicapped become happier and more self-sufficient. It is a project calling for close teamwork between patients.
Cutting up her meat witli only one hand was iin[>O!4!sible for Hetty Adler tiltil she got this fork-holding gadget, which her right toe opérales. doctors, engineers, inventors and handy men about the house. This program to provide "extra hands for the oandicapped" is concerned not with artificial limbs for amputees, a matter already receiving widespread attention, but with less-specialized devices for those who still have their own limbs, but who, for one reason or another, cannot use them normally. Their pattern of performance may have been weakened or disorganized by infantile paralysis, a spinal-cord injury—diving in pools and rough surf has accounted for a tragic number of paralysis cases—arthritis, a 8t:roke, cerebral palsy. For these individuals the Simple acts of eating, washing, buttoning a shirt or picking up a dropped hairpin become tasks of tower*ng dimensions, to be accomplished only by arduous **fl"ort and sometimes not at all. In many instances a properly designed gadget Hpell the difference between success and defeat may change a discouraged invalid into a cheerful and productive citizen. These do not, of course, constitute the whole story of rehabilitation. They do ^ot take the place of medicine, surgery, physical therapy or special job training —all of which are pretty well recognized by now. But the gadgets are Valuable supplements, and in the past they have all too often been overlooked. A number of ^terprising hospitals and organizations for the handicapped are now attempting to 'ïiake up for lost time by encouraging the development and distribution of such devices. Recently the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis gave $19,332 to the Institute of Physical Medicine and I^habilitation, in New York City, for the purpose of setting up a clearing house of information on "aids and assistive appliances." Dr. Howard A. Rusk, chairman of the department of rehabilitation and physical medicine at New York University's College of Medicine, is directing the project. He and Dr.
A n o t h e r of Chapiíí's inventions is ¡i
u;ilkiii{; c r i i l r h . " liii- Icll a r m ^*as loo
weak to handle a regular crutch, so he devised one ihal kicks itself ahead.
George G. Deaver, professor of clinical rehabilitation, and their associates, are testing and evaluating dozens of gadgets, and will eventually assemble descriptions of them in loose-leaf manuals for use by hospitals and other agencies throughout the country. In outlining plans for bis Rehabilitation Equipment Design and Development Laboratory, Doctor Rusk observes that "in perhaps no other field of medical endeavor is mechanical assistance of such keystone importance " as it is in rehabilitation. "One lever, even one 'gadget,'" he states, "may be worth one thousand hours, ten thousand treatments or one hundred thousand words." He emphasizes, however, that tbe use of mechanical aids should be started under a physician's supervision in order that the reestablishment of certain muscles and motions will not lie retarded or hampered. For tbe ultimate goal of rehabilitation should be the closest approach to normal function the patient can make without strain or undue awkwardness. Ideas for gadgets come from many sources. Manufacturers bave developed a few. Plywood tongs for picking things off the floor or from high shelves, elastic shoelaces wbicb need not be tied or untied, a hand brush with suction cups that hold it to the washbasin —these are among items already available. Some gadgets are invented by handicapped people themselves. Many are contributed by occupational or physical therapists. Others are liatched in home workshops, like the one in Mr. Hill's residence in Baltimore's suburban Mt. Washington. The Hill home bears many signs of its owner's craftsmanship. These range from mabogany tables and working replicas of ancient wooden-gear clocks to the remote-control trap door through which Noodle, the Boston terrier, makes his frequent exi's and entrances. Mr. Hill's introduction to the engineering needs of the handicapped occurred (Continued on Page 57)
Eddie Cliupek hasnU given up despite a footliall injury whieh left both arms and legs paralyzed. 23
TUE SATUIIDAY EVENING TOST
Your pride and good judgment %' tell you it's the best bu.y.
sultant to the co-ordinator of InterAmerican Affairs, in Washington, when polio struck her. The road back was slow and sometimes discouraging. But (Contiituetl from Page 23) she had finally come to accept certain basic restrictions imposed by her one day after he had had his sciatica paralysis. She knew, for example, tha treated in what he calls the " bake-and- she would always need help getting inte ruh department" at the Children's and out of her wheel chair or up and Hospital School, an orthopedic hos- down stairs. And she took this into acpital in Baltimore. count in planning her lecture itinerary " I wandered into the occupational- She Oïuld even manage a speaking en therapy room," he recalled, "and there gagement at the First Methodis was one youngster of about fifteen, his Church, of Towson, Maryland, with its body in a cast up to his armpits, lying perilous sweep of stone steps, " be face down on a stretcher and reaching cause," as she explained, " I knew down to a low bench to saw a board. the firehouse was in the next block, and The regular workbench with its vise firemen are very dependable when i was too high for him. This arrangement comes to carrying the body." was awkward and unsteady, but he was No, it was not the problem o a determined lad and he stuck to it." getting from place to place that both For several minutes the visiting en- ered her so much, troublesome and ex gineer watched the boy, whom we'll pensive aa that was. It was having to call Ed McCarthy, and then stepped ask for help on the little things. " Wha over and made a few measurements, in- really convinced me that I needed cluding the distance from the floor to something to help out my one good Ed*8 easy-reach level. A week later an hand/' she recalled with a chuckle expressman delivered to the hospital a "was a broiled lobster . . . in the shell small, neatly built workbench, com- I went to a restaurant with a friend one plete with vise and tool drawers—and evening and ordered the lobster just on exactly the right height for Ed and an impulse, knowing full well I'd have others to use from a stretcher. Ed, who trouble with it. My escort solicitously had tuberculosis of the spine, was over- asked me if I didn't want to change my joyed with the bench and he tackled order. Wouldn't I prefer lobster salad his radio-rebuilding projects with re- or lobster Newbui^? 1 said, 'No, sir, doubled speed and efficiency. Today he I'll have a whole lobster and I'll manis a radio-engineering student in the age it myself."' Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation CenThe lobster was served, and Miss ter, at Fisheraville, Virginia. Adler, who enjoys telling the story on The bedside workbench was a fairly herself, picked up the small fork and straightforward piece of carpentry. began to spear away. "Every time I But subsequent problems were tougher. started to pull a fragment of meat out Most of them were tossed into Mr. of the shell the lobster would slither to Hill's lap by Miss Martha Hall, di- the edge of the plate," she said. "At rector of occupational therapy at the first I wouldn't let my friend help me, hospital, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry O. and then, when I would have given up, Kendall, physiotherapists, who became he jokingly refused to help. Well, I expert at spotting candidates for his wrestled with that lobster for ten mingadgeting. One day they told him utes before I finally got a good piece about Miss Adler. out of the claw. When I did succeed, A capable and well-educated young four elderly gentlemen at the next woman—Goucher College graduate. table, who had been watching and enPhi Beta Kappa, Drexel Institute li- couraging me, gave me a big round of brary school — MisH Adler was already applause." well launched upon her career as a liBut that was to be Betty Adler's last brarian, lecturer and research con- singlehanded encounter. Henceforth
ESCAPE FOR WHEELCHAIR PRISONERS
n/s'PíRO"iooHí brush c/eans àefween âack ieeth where ûot/aaWs start- troub/e/ Stop tooth decay at its source with a Pro-phylac-tic "PRO" Tooth Brush! The scientific End-Tuft makes it easy to clean tietween back teeth wliere decay so often starts.
After every meal . . . brush then rinse! Ttiis method definitely reduces decay, as proved by dental authorities.
%/lflmkafi
No dentifrice—no matter how good—can effectively reduce decay, except with frequent, thorough brushing! Today get a phy-lac-tic " P R O " Tooth Bnisli and start on the road to improved dental health.
oes - • . a thoroughbred from every standpoint! There is no mistaking the fiandsome style, the quality leathers, |he finer points of construction that 'ead to complete solisfactlon where Smartness with fi7 is the word. For the besi buy" in footwear see American Gentleman ¡oday!
A FEW STYLES HIGHER DISTANT POINTS SLIGHTLY HIGHER
Write iot Nome of Neoreil Oeofer
AMERICAN
GENTLEMAN DIVISION Shoe Corp., Lynchburg, V a .
'Need a liltle more money, eh? Wtll, let's see wlial we can riiiure out. . . t'vrr considerL'd hockiii» your overcoat?" THE SATI'knAY ÜVENINC I-OST
THE SATUIIDAY EVENING I»OST
58
Keep cool..sleep cool with ihîs Double-Duty
WINDOW EXHAUST FAN in fwo short minutes, fresh, cool air in 4 or 5 rooms with marvehus Mohiiaire Double-Duty Window Exhaust Fan Oulwmarl sweltering wrfltlior willi !his won«U-rfuI, new Mubilairc. Jîuilt ou tlic I'abulous air-jet principle, it exhausts the hot air, ill cot>l outside air . . . in alninsl ing flat. You slt'cp cool on warm lii^'hl« . . . ki't'p cool on hot «lays. Yet it HHCS liltic more current thau a 100-watt bulh. UM; \ÏU'. Moliilain^ in any room in the house. Vorlalilf, compact, adjustahle to several heights . . . not a penny's worth of iustallaliou. Autl it's safe, quiet and rugfied . . . hiiilt to last a lifelime. I'si- it r<»r ni-ihttinie c(M)Ung or daytime cooling anyAvherc.
May 20,1950
she was to he equipped with a strong arch-shaped blocks which serve as the and versatile "extra hand." Engineer jaws of a vise and grip the bottle firmly Hill learned that she had a small when a wing nut is screwed up tightly. amount of movement in her right foot, The arched blocks can be reversed to enough to lift her toe about two inches hold a square object or for grasping a off the foothoard of the wheel chair. pencil while you sharpen it. Misa Adler Therefore he built the holding device also uses this portable vise to hold up to be operated by foot power, through her rearview mirror — itself a gadget cord looped around Miss Adler's that broadens a wheel-chair patient's right shoe. The gadget itself is clamped horizon and saves a lot of neck craning. to a worktable which rests across the Probably nothing does so much for chair arms and on which Miss Adler the disabled person's dignity and ego does her writing and lakes her meals. HB graduating from the spoon-fed class Its central feature is a lever with a to full self-feeding status. Sometimes fork attached. At mealtime a dinner this is exceedingly difficult. Consider plate is slid under the poised fork, and the case of five-year-old Donald, who when Miss Adler pushes her foot down, from birth has had completely stifT elthe cord pulla the lever, the fork stabs bows and knees and but limited mothe meat and holds it firmly while she tion in his shoulders—a condition cut« it with her right hand. When she known as arihrogryposis. Unable to raises her toe, a set of counterweights raise his hand to his mouth, he could on the other end of the lever lifts the eat only when someone fed him. Yet he fork from the food. The fork is easily was as bright and eager to do things as removed for washing. was his physically normal twin brother. Mr. Hill's first, or "pile-driver," Therefore, when he was brought to the model, as he called it, stood eighteen Children's Hospital School, in Baltiinches high, and it» hulk offended his more, for treatment a year ago. Miss sense of efficient design. But Miss Hall sensed another assignment for Mr. Adler tried it out, pronounced it per- Hill. fect, and said that for the first time in Const ructing a feeding gadget to seven and a half years she had l)een match Donald's restricted motion took able to eat a slice of meat without hav- a good deal of close figuring, but after ing someone cut it up for her. Mr. Hill one or two attempts Mr. Hill produced OJ ouirsc, it's clrdric did, however, whittle away at the size what he called an " underslung stoker," of the gadget, made four models in all, to l>e used with the boy's lunch tray, each one more compact than its prede- Donald would grasp two handles at lap cessor. Present dimensions are about level — he could not lift his hands tablefour inches in height and six inches in high— and as he pulled the handles, a length and width. spoon moved across the dish and picked Miss Adler finds the gadget helpful up a bit of food. By lowering his head not only at the table —it will steady a slightly he could get the spoon into his slice of bread while she spreads the but- mouth, learning to use the feeder reter— hut in her work. She used to hold quired practice. Misa Hall found the a letter in her teeth while she slit it youngster a patient and persistent open with a paper knife. Now (he fork pupil, however, and he grinned with f cH, coiii|iK'tt;ty holds it. She can replace the fork with pride when he succeeded in scoop»afc wlicre ehiltlren play. a ruler-shaped attachment for holding ing up the first bites. He was soon putthat cumbersome reference Iwok open ting away his meals with as much disor for keeping her papers from blowing patch as when his mother bad held the away when she writes outdoors or IMJ- spoon for him. side an open window. Fortunately, not all self-feeding One thing the fork gadget would not problems require sucb elaborate soludo was to hold an ink bottle while tions as the underslung stoker. But Betty Adler removed the cap to fill her they do call forth a great deal of serious fountain pen. For this and a variety of gadgeteering, and at the Institute of other gripping jobs, Mr. Hill made Rehabilitation, in New York, many what he calls a squeeze hox. It is a table aids are being collected and tried simple wooden frame enclosing two (i'.iHtdiitntl ini I'llgv 60}
WESTINGHOISK F.Li:(rriîlC CORPOltATlON AI'I'I.IANCK IHVISIO.N • SrKlN<;Fli;i.I) 2. MASS. T m * - Mark, K^ U. S. Pat. OJf.
Ask your Westinghouse Dealer for a free home demonsfration^ now.
Simply and easily for variai)!»: wiiulo«
st:n 7-J*.s itH' UK iM.trie snuir .. . "sn ino »VK** . . . ¡:\ Kin w ¡:I:K
W«t«r H M I M
OaanM
fxhawil Fan
Loundremal
Roafl«r-Ov*n
Rang«
Refrigerator
TIIESATI-RUAV
May 20,1950
THE SATCIIDAY EVENING TOST
60
(Continuetl front Page 58)
MULLIN ' " FISK AIR-BORNES ARE DIFFERENT.
ir
BALANCEO ENÛINEECING PUTS TWEM OUT fRONTON A L L c O U N T S .
12OO EXTRA
5 A FACT.... F I S K T P E A D S WITH l R O N . . . . A e i G REASON WHY
FISK AIR-BORNES VOU UP -^a 5 O %
CUBIC INCUES OF AIR MAKE AN OLD CAdRlDE LlKENtW.
FISKAIR-BORNES FLOAT YOUR CAR OVER BUMPS
r YOU C A N FEEL THE DIFFERENCE
out. Arm muscles too weak to lift the hand are helped by a simple sling hung from an overhead bar on the wheel chair. Fingers too crippled to grip the narrow handle of a fork or spoon can often hold a thick wooden or plastic handle, with perhaps a clasp or ring to help keep it in position. Wrapping an ordinary fork handle with a piece of sponge rubber will sometimes make it easier to grasp. For those who can use only one hand, a knife-fork combination is now on the market. It ÍHn*t so versatile as Miss Adler's foot-powered gadget, but it is useful for cutting meat. The blade is curved like a scimitar, and you cut with a rocking motion. On the back of the blade is a row of teeth— the fork. Another new eating device, «till in the experimental stage, is a pair of scissors with spoon-shaped blades, for cutting ofFand picking up a piece of meat. Sometimes a patient needs several such assistive appliances at meals. Here at the Institute of Rehabilitation is Eddie, an eighteen-year-old whose spinal cord was so hadly smashed in foothall last fall that both legs and arms are paralyzed and practically all sensation gone from his limbs. But Eddie has refused to give up. When we visited him at lunch, his left arm was suspended over his plate in a sling of the type mentioned above. On hia hand was a half glove to which a longhandled iced-tea spoon was tied. By using the small amount of motion remaining in his upper arm, he could teeter the spoon around until it connected with some food, and could then carefully, cautiously lift it to his mouth. It was a slow business, and he still needed a nurse's help, but in time his technique will improve, and perhaps his muscle power. In any event, he is on his way to greater independence at the table. For those first lessons in self-feeding it is important to choose dishes not too difficult to handle. It would he discouraging, for instance, to start ofT with slippery spaghetti or a head-lettuce salad. Miss Edith Buchwald, one of the most resourceful of the institute's instructors, has some practical suggestions on this point. "Applesauce," says she, "is the best diah for practicing spoon work. I t doesn't get cold during the alow eating process, because it is already cold. Nor does it melt, as ice cream would. It juat stays the right consistency and is still appetizing at the end of a halfhour lesson."
MORE RUBBEÄ O N THE ROAD FOR STOPe -^^
Miss Buchwald starts her knife pupils out on a slice of modeling clay, which is definitely not appetizing at any stage of the game, but which cuts nicely. Lesson No. 2, however, calls for a slab of roast beef, rare. Expert instruction is one of the ke3's to success in mastering any of the activities of daily living, whether or not gadgets are involved. Often such instruction has not been available. Doctor Rusk and Doctor Deaver have encountered many disabled people whose rehabilitation had been delayed many years simply because no one taught them how to roll over in l>ed, how to dress themselves, how to get in and out of a wheel chair, how to walk most efficiently on crutches. Not every handicapped person can accomplish all these tasks, but learning to do even the most elementary of them can mean the difference between complete dependence and a bappy, useful life. This has been dramatically demonstrated in the case of Tom fVancis, a handßome, sociable young lawyer whose practice in Oklahoma City was suddenly interrupted when polio struck him during a vacation in Mexico. All four limbs were paralyzed. For six years he was carried from hospital to hospital, searching for a way to strengthen his body enough to give his mind a chance to do some useful work again. He had no luck, and in 1947, still flat on his back, he made what he feared would be his last stop, a home for incurables in New York City. The very name of the place sent Tom's normally buoyant spirits down to a new low. Then in July of that year he heard about the rehabilitation program a t Bellevue IJospital, and the doctors there began to show him how to get the most out of what he had left. Counting only muscle, this wasn't much, but counting determination and ability to learn, it was a lot. In a short time he was able to turn himself in bed. Then he learned to sit in H wheel chair and to give some range of movement to his hands by means of shoulder and trunk motion. Within a few tnonths Tom was beginning to rebuild his law business. And a year after he entered Bellevue he married a charming, capable young nurse. They set up housekeeping in an apartment on East 48th Street, in New York. Here Tom now carries on a busy practice, specializing in counseling and corporation law. That he is confined to a wheel chair and cannot lift a hand (f'tmliniifil
till l'nue 62)
TIMETO RETIRE? " I ' d like \cry niii<>li I« lia\i' Itnnorruw «fT . . . bul sinrr it's Saliirdin. «niild I lunr .Moiulav iiislrad?" FISK TIRE COMPANY, OrviSION UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY
iiii: s \ i i k i n v
THE SATLItDAY EVENING POST
02
(f^nnlimntl from Vago 60)
No Other Dentifrice Offers Proof of Such Results! Proof That Using
COLGATE DENTAL CREAM HELPS STOP TOOTH DECAY!
2 Years' Research at Five leading Universities Proves That Using Colgate's Right After Eating Helps Stop TiDOth Decay Before It Starts! THE MOST CONCLUSIVE PROOF IN ALL DENTIFRICE HISTORY ON TOOTH DECAY!
Proof babtjtl on iiiur«; than 2 years'
scientific research at leading universities—hundreds of case histories! Modern researcli shows that tooth decay is caused by mouth acids which arc at their worst right alter eating. Brushing teeth with Colgate Denial Crvaiii as directed helps remove tlie^e aciils before they can harm enamel. And Colgate's aetive penetrating foam reachei. crevices between your teeth where fond particles often lodge. YES, THE SAME TOOTHPASTE YOU USE TO CLEAN YOUR BREATH WHILE YOU CLEAN YOUR TEETH, h a . U-.-n ¡.roved t o
niiilaiii ail tlii" necessary ingredients,
including an exclusive paWnlcd ingredient, for effective daily dental care. No risk of irritation to tissues and gums! And no change in Colgate's famous flavor, foam, or cleansing action ! No dentifrice ean stop all tootli deeay, or help cavities already .started, lîut hrushing teetli witli Colgale Dental Oeani as directed is a saív:,proved way to help stop tooth decay!
ALWAYS USE COLGATE'S TO CLEAN yOUR BREATH WHILE
)
you CLEAN youR y TEETH-AND HELP STOP TOOTH OECAy¡
above the level of his worktable are facts which he and his wife face cheerfully and philoBOphically, and which they proceed to get around by all manner of stratagems. He has long since outgrown his simplest gadget, a rubber-tipped stick he held in his teeth to turn the pages of a book or magazine, but he recommends it highly to those with limited hand motion. I t is a favorite among ironlung patients, incidentally. Tom eats with the help of a metal splint, or cradle, supporting his forearm. The splint is pivoted on top of a short pedestal placed on the table beside his plate. A smaller splint keeps his hand from drooping at the wrist and permits him to hold a spoon or fork. At work in his apartment he is as efficiently equipped as any attorney in a Wall Street office. Nor is the equipment conspicuously gadgety. " 1 could have had a lot of things strung from the ceiling in easy reach," Tom remarked, "but I would then be so ensconced in wires that it would take thirty minutes to hook me up and another thirty minutes to unhook me." The principal office items are a dictating machine with a lapel microphone and a switch Tom can reach with his chin, an electric typewriter with a continuous roll of paper and a lightweight remote-control keyboard, which he uses for some of his personal correspondence, and a telephone that is always "ofF the hook" and near his ear. The phone hookup represents a triumph of simplicity. "For six years I had to have someone hold the telephone to my ear while I talked," Tom explained. " A t Belle vue an engineer worked for several weeks on a complicated counterweight system to operate the ordinary telephone cradle switch. Then someone had the bright idea of calling in the phone company, and in no time one of its experts had clamped the hand instrument to an iron apparatus stand of the type used in chemical laboratories and had installed a toggle switch at the edge of tbe table here. Now when the phone rings I simply throw the switch with my hand, lean my ear to the receiver and fire away. The whole setup cost only about five dollars." "You can spend a lot of money on special, custom-built equipment," the t>ancises point out, " b u t often you can find standard items that will do the job, either as is or with a little alteration." Instead of a high hospital bed, they set a regular bed up on hardwood blocks. For a breakfast table without legs to interfere with the wheel cbair, Mrs. Francis found just the thing in a bar-supply place — a cocktail table with a heavy center pedestal. Dressing, an activity of daily living which is often a troublesome hurdle for the handicapped, can be made easier by wise selection of garments and sometimes by gadgets. Wheel-chair patients find hip-length jackets easier to manage than long overcoats, and one of them suggested that thiß may have been why Franklin D. Roosevelt wore a cape. Miss Buchwald advises women who use crutches to choose widesleeved dresses and blouses, but is amazed at the number with hand involvements who try to wear clothes that button in back instead of in front. Slide fasteners are often easier to manage than buttons, although this may depend on the nature of the individual's disability, A ten-year-old girl who could not bend her elbows learned to use a pair of long-handled
May 20,1900
FIRST AID to good housekeepers
.CflDILLflC VACUUM CLEANER . . . first aid to rugs and furnishings, t o o , because CadUlac removes dirt thor-. oughly and safely — keeps.; colors briaht and fresh.
Take a few minutes' shopping time now to save hours of cleaning time later. See Cadillac in action. ^ Compare its dirt gct** ting power with that of any cleaner at any price. J Cadillac cleans better ^4j —gives you more • -* for your money. Sc
lltutlraftdr MODEL 3 0 1 iSingle speed!
Write for dealer's name today.
$4995* Intludifli itltcnmtnli thoon. Di t u i Mahl 100 (2-iP«iiI control) wtlh full ift old« luititUchmtnti
$69.95*
MODEL 13S (Single speed)
$4995 < Including 5 •Itaclimfnti.
Il Im HMir I4M (2-1 Mad control]
with ttt ol d« IB«I
•Itichmentt.
$74.45* * SUghtly mor» wtit ofRoekiea.
CLEMENTS MFG. CO. 6608 S. NarraganieH Ave. • Chicago 38, til.
nc« 1911. told only by reliable deolert.
For health's sake, don't raise dust! Vacuum, instead, with CADILLAC
THK S.ATUItDAY EVENING POST
hooks designed by Mr. Hill—a buttonhook and an "unbuttonhook." Men with lame hacks have found simple hooked sticks a help in pulling on socks and trousers. Frequently aa important to the handicapped as the cut of his clothes are the design of his home and the architecture of public buudings. He can do something about his own house, and he doesn't expect all his ups and downs around town to be paved with ramps. But his greatest gripe is a legitimate one —the thousands of stairsteps without a rail for a handhold. And public libraries are among the worst, offenders. "All we ask is just one railing," says Doctor Deaver. " Yet here is New York City's main library on Forty-second Street, inaccessible or hazardous to thousands of disiibled and elderly |KK>ple because of its long flight of railless steps. And the entrance to Hunter College, a great circular sweep of steps without railings, is certainly discouraging to students or potential students who are crippled." Mrs. Richard IÎ. Bennett, now of Bronxville, New York, who organized the Polio Parents Club in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, introduced legislation in that state which, if passed, would require all new school buildings to have at least one ramp or groundlevel entrance. An architectural anomaly which has plagued nearly every wheel-chair patient is the great American bathroom — with a door too narrow to admit a wheel chair. And the tub is often so close to the opposite wall that there is no way to widen the path short of tearing out a wail and starting all over again. Many chair-bound [Miople have simply resigned themselves to sponge baths, unless someone in the family can lift them in and out of a tub. But Mrs. Bemieit's son, Gerald Chapin, who is
six feet six and a pretty formidable armload, was determined to have a real ahower bath. So he invented a bam tent in which he can let the water sluice over himself while he sits in his wheel chair . . . and not spill a drop on the chair or floor. The tent, which he hopes to patent and make available to other invalids, is of strong waterproof cloth, open at the top and closed and opened by a slide fastener down one side. It is hung from overhead rods fastened to the back of (he chair, and part of it lies in the seat of the chair itself. The bottom of the tent is funrelöhaped and drains through a hose into a bucket, washtuh or any other available outlet of convenient height. The shower head is connected hy a rubber tube to a hathroom or kitchen faucet and has its own hot-and-cold mixer, controlled from inside the tent. The portable shower is one of several gadgets and helpful hints Jerry has invented during the three and a half years since he contracted polio. '*I've had lots of time to think about things," he remarked, when I visited him at hia grandmother's home in Catonsville, Maryland. And for many months it seemed that thinking would be about all he'd be able to do. For the polio virus had hit him hard. It had attacked just after he had been discharged from the Navy and had returned to high school, near his home in Penfield, a Philadelphia subxurb. His little sister, Betsy, had caught polio just a month before and was left with a weakened arm. But Jerry got it in both arms and both legs. " I had been playing lacrosse one afternoon," he recalled, "when I noticed my left arm going bad. By night I was gasping for breath, and next morning they put me in an iron lung for a forty-day stay." Ha was in bed eight months, and the doctors said he'd never he able to use a
Taste that Fresh Frozen Dairy Goodness Mmiti-m-m... it's the smoothest, dreamiest "dish" in townl A delicious, fresh, whole-milk 'n' sweet-cream food frozen seconds before you eat it. Served right from freezer to you. Try DAIRY QUEEN today!
Enjoy Tempting rDAIRY QUEEN SUNDAES • MAtTS • SHAKES QUARTS • FINIS
AdvnUsemenï sponsored by mtmbtrs of DAIEY QUEEN HATIONAt TRADE ASSOCIATION, IHC. MOLINE, IU1N0IS
DAIItr QUEEN STORES ARE
NATIONALtY KNOWN . . . tOCAtlY OWNED
'The trolley I was on ran into a heer Tin; BATL'HDAK LVKNING I-OST O, THC ruiLHIH CO.
THE SATURDAY EMíNING POST
6-1
May 20,1930
wheel chair. But Jerry showed them things only last a few months, I save a they were poor prognosticators. Then lot of money that way," he remarked. he was told that his arms were too Ambitious as well as resourceful, weak to permit him to walk on Jerry Chapin is planning to enter a erutehes. He fooled the doctors on college, preferably one which won't rethat too. Much of his progress was due quire too much stair climbing. He preto his mother, who perceived the value pared himself by going back to Haverof encouraging him to do as much as he ¡•ord Townsbip High, near Penfield, the could for himself. "Don't help him,'* year after polio hit him. He is rememahe'd say to a solicitous friend or bered tbere as one of the most popular neighbor. "He'll work it out." And students in school. His courage, cheerusually he did. ful friendliness and refusal to take adHo worked out one of his first crutch vantage of his situation were, accordproblems by means of another gadget. ing to the principal, "a fine infiuence "Even Dora wondered why He hadn't suffieient strength in his left on the student body." He is also rewe couldn't complete a arm to move an ordinary crutch for- membered for certain gadgeteering ward into position for the next step. project« that went beyond the routine day's work in normal The doctors had been partially correct. activities of daily living. office hours. The boss "So when I got home from Warm As do moat youths, Jerry likes speed, Springs, Georgia, where many others and he and some of his friends had been kicked about overtime. had the same trouble, I decided," he trying to build a small car into which We all kicked about said, "tofigureout some way to make he could roll his wheel chair and drive warmed-over dinners. a crutch that would kick itself for- off. Tliat waa, and still is, an unfinished ward." He enlisted the willing help of piece of business, but in the meantime But the midnight oil an engineer neighbor, Michael F. Mul- he saw no reason why a wheel chair, kept right on burning, rooney; a physiotherapist, Henry P. even without a motor, should be all Kern; and a group at the Bok Voca- work and slow motion. So he attached until they called in tional School, in Philadelphia. The re- to the chair back two long uprights, a a specialist to quiet sult of their joint research and gadget- crosspiece and a yard of canvas, and our office noise." eering wasa "walking crutch," a rather took to the highway in the first squareremarkable device with a spring-actu- rigged wheel chair the startled residents ated " knee joint" that causes the lower of those parts had ever seen. In a good I>art of the crutch to kick forward at the wind he could make twenty or twentyproper moment. Doctors who have five knots along Brookline Boulevard, seen the walking crutch are afraid it with afleetof bicycles and roller skates might be hazardous for many patients, in his wake to give assistance if he but Jerry used it for nine months, by started to spill. Not above commercialwhich time his arm had become strong izing such a conspicuous spread of enough lo manage a regular crutch. " It white space for the good of his school, was wonderful for walking in snow," Jerry sailed around the Penfield streets Jerry recalled. " It kicked iits way right one week fiying an ad for the senior *'i'm the expert through instead of having to be pulled play. A more appropriate advertising out at every step." medium for the piece could not have who solved the case . , , been found. " I had the wheel chair," A problem familiar to thousands of Jerry grinned, "and all I needed was a "This office was typical of humlreds of cases. polio patients is the task of pulling beard to double for Monty Woolley." Unchecked noise kept everyone jumpy, detrousers on over long braces. " I figured The play, you see, was The Man Who stroyed efficiency and boosted overtime hours. it would be simple," said Jerry, "to Came to Dinner. have slide fasteners put in the side Our analysis showed that for a modest investseams, so you could open them up Once last fall Jerry hoisted his sail ment, Acousti-Celotex Sound Conditioning while you put on or took off your and whisked two miles down the Fredwould bring immediate quiet, comfort and savbraces. It workedfine.I wrote to Warm erick Road, in Maryland, to see a footings to this office and its staff." Springs about it, and pretty soon the ball game. "Wasn't that a bit danger'corset shop' there was working over- ous?" I asked him. time putting fasteners in the guys' "No, I didn't take any chances," he Remember , , . íí fakes all 3 /o "K.O." noise for goodl tro user legs." replied. "Peo[)le driving a big car may When Jerry wore out a plastic thumb feel superior and take foolish chances, 1—The Correct Material for each particular job! Your splint—price, ten dollars—which he but polios know the hazards, and we •;•"'-...•.•• distributor of Acousci-Celocex products lias a complete line used to help him hold things between know our limitations.-' They may of superior, ¡pcciaiizeJ acoustical materials, backetl by over thumb andfingers,he bought a piece of know them, but, with gadgets and 25 years of experience in custom-made Sound Conditioning. plastic, softened it in hot water and courage, the handicapjjed are doing an His free analysis of your noise problem assures correct molded a new one — cost, seven cents amazing lot of things to surmount Sound Conditioniog—/n advanct! THK and ten minutes of time. "Since these them.
"Cant you Night-Owls Ever Quit onTime?
2—Kxpert Installation to suit each individual requirement, specification and building code. Over 200,000 AcoustiCclocex installations the country over have solved every type of acoustical problem. That's why you get the right material, correctly installed die first time when you specify Acousti-Celotex products. 3—Guaranteed Materials, Methods a nd W o r k m a n ship. Acousti-Celotex products have the years of scientilic research, nationwide organization and time-proved qualities that enable your distributor to guarantee his work, his materials and his Sound Cooditioning techniques. FOR you« fRlE COPY of the informative booklet, "25 Questions and Answers on Sound Conditioning" and the name of your nearest distributor, write to The Celotex Corporation, Dept.SP-5,120 S.LaSalle St..Chicago 3, Illinois. In Canada, Dominion Sound Equipments, Ltd., Montreal, Quebec.
ACOUSTI-CEIOTEX U. ( . PAT.
OFF.
*.\nd do you know why you didn't notice lier lhi(k «nklts? Because she was clever enough to wear a low neckline, that*« why!" FOR OFFICES • FACTORIES • STORES • SCHOOLS • HOTELS • HOSPITALS • CHURCHES • BANKS
IHR SATl'Un.ïY KVBSINc;