Description

Meet Stephan Farffler. He lived from 1633 to October 24 1689. He was a German watchmaker. It is not known for sure, he was either a paraplegic or an amputee. To assist him in getting around, he invented what he called the manumotive carriage in 1655. This is widely considered to have been the first self-propelled wheelchair. I (Harry Kraemer) am in the process of recreating his manumotive carriage. Since we did not have YouTube or Facebook back then, I am doing my best based on this drawing found online. Since he was a watchmaker and the drawing does show something similar to watch gears on the front wheel, we are going with the assumption that the inner workings of his vehicle resemble a watch inside. I am building it out of wood, however one side of the front box will have a plexiglass panel in it so you can see the inner workings. It will be fully functional.