The company also claimed that it would cure “cripples, paralytics, the corpulent, the insane, and the blind.”
This appears to be a modern photo of a surviving example.
On top of being the most important health mechanism ever produced, this ad might be the most important example ever produced of why you should pick a font and stick with that one for a little while.
Searching “saddle horse” gives nothing of context. Especially not in curing the blind.
I think they literally mean it simulates the motion of being on a horse one rides, but I would like to be proven wrong!
For some reason, I read all of these in Robert Evans’ (Behind the Bastards) Old-Timey voice lol
yeah i think this would cure me
How was this supposed to work??
The ad’s byline calls it a saddle horse substitute, and looking at the mechanism, it appears the part you sit on was sprung and could move somewhat independently of the base.
So I’m guessing, you would hold onto the handles and then move the seat back and forth a bit like a modern rocking chair perhaps? Maybe it could provide a small amount of exercise in the process. Even some upper body workout if you used primarily your arms on the handles to supply the force.
How that translates to the most important health mechanism ever produced is left as an exercise for the reader.
I figured the springs were under great tension, and the handles are a release mechanism that ejection seats your ass up through the celing.
