Pram Watch first took a look at the Siebert Steering Baby Carriage in an earlier post. It’s a very unusual design from 1945, featuring a set of swivel wheels instead of the fixed ones normally found on US baby carriages of that time.
In March of 1946, Donald W. Siebert applied for a patent, on behalf of the O. W. Siebert Company, for a “running gear for baby carriages and the like” — a brand-new use for the over-sized casters that were common on wheelchairs. Here’s a schematic from that filing:
Pretty cool, isn’t it? The innovation was essentially the simple addition of large, ordinary, casters, but it was a revolutionary idea on a buggy. There’s an interesting grille on the front (in the US, we might be tempted to call it a “cow catcher“) that guards the casters. Here a complete sketch from the patent filing, showing the grille in detail :
And here’s a close-up on the carriage:
The metal work is substantial, and nothing like what you’d see today:
Those hard rubber tires are typical of US strollers and prams of the era; if they look like tricycle tires, there’s a good reason. Like many other similar companies, Siebert also made tricycles, as well as other wheeled toys.
The patent, number 2,433,069, was granted on December 23, 1947 to Donald W. Siebert, the son of the company’s founder, and its president at the time of the grant.
This new and refreshing take on pram tech didn’t catch on. Donald Siebert’s radical re-engineering was too distant from the elegant look of the British prams nearly every US mother dreamed of — and too far ahead of its time. More’s the pity!
Related — Mailbag: New Tech, 1945-Style and Siebert Steering Carriage: Another Advert
That is such a totally awesome pram. Pity the mothers of the time didn’t realise it!
It is, isn’t it? I guess it doesn’t pay to be quite this forward-thinking . . . but I can tell you that I would certainly have snapped it up, had I the opportunity!