Invalid carriage

The term "invalid carriage" persists in the United Kingdom in the regulation of mobility devices for disabled people, but excludes most of the more powerful, motorised types.

Stephan Farffler was a Nuremberg watchmaker of the seventeenth century whose invention of a manumotive carriage in 1655 is widely considered to have been the first self-propelled wheelchair.

In December 1948 the De Luxe models were upgraded with larger rear wheels, a new petrol tank, and a fan-cooled Villiers 147cc unit.

[10][user-generated source] From the 1930s to the late 1940s, Nelco Industries made a three-wheeled battery powered vehicle.

[11] In 1946, Larmar Engineering made small single-seated cars that were specially designed for physically disabled people.

The vehicles were only 80 cm wide and each had a body made of plywood and aluminum, a side door, seat, windshield and a soft top.

Noticing the number of former servicemen injured in the Second World War, they spotted a commercial opportunity and approached the UK government for support, leading to the creation of Invacar Ltd.[13] Invacar was not the only company to be contracted by the Ministry of Health to produce three-wheeled vehicles for disabled drivers.

There are at least five Invacars in private ownership which are "road-legal", as well as several other unroadworthy examples which are awaiting their demise, including one in the Coventry Transport Museum collection, two in the Lakeland museum in Cumbria, and one road-going example "TWC" features on the HubNut YouTube channel.

Another 1976 example, one of the last made, can be found on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu in Hampshire, England.

[15] In Britain, in the 1960s and 1970s, invalid carriages were provided as subsidised, low-cost vehicles to improve the mobility of people with disabilities.

Vehicles leased by the National Health Service had three wheels, were very lightweight, and therefore their suitability on roads among other traffic was often considered dubious on safety grounds.

[16][failed verification] All remaining NHS leased Invacar type invalid carriages were ultimately withdrawn in a safety recall in 2003.

[17] Invalid carriages were also made in other countries, including Simson DUO in East Germany,[18] SMZ in the Soviet Union, and Velorex in Czechoslovakia.