Ritter Dental Chairs
Ritter Dental chair was a joint endeavor of Frank Ritter, a native German and Dewell Stuck of Big Rapids, Michigan. Frank Ritter was a cabinet maker by trade and in 1870 when he came to America he started his own Furniture factory. In 1887, Dewell Stuck joined him with an idea to build a new kind of Dental chair. Frank invested in Stucks idea and with several delays and modifications, finally built first 50 original Stuck Dental Chair. Stuck chairs were a real improvement over the chairs which were on the market at that time. These chairs were the first ones to have disc base while the chairs in the market still were supported on four legs. It had completely dry movement and no oil was used. These chairs became instantly the choice of Dentists all over. Frank Ritter had to produce more than 100 chairs over another two year period.
In 1991, Ritters group came up with a new improved model called Celebrated Columbian Chair which picked up the nickname of the "Jackknife Chair". This chair was the first chair in market at that time to use hydraulic pressure for the raising and lowering mechanism. Second unique feature of this chair was the range of lowering and raising mechanism, which was grater than any other chair produced at that time. Frank built and sold 215 chairs of this type.
Over the years Ritter group kept improving its models of chairs always staying ahead of its competitors. In 1928, an electric motor was added to the Ritter Dental Chair, which was a big step on the ladder with previously built foot pump models.
The Model E Unit and Model F Unit improved the chairs further. Ritter Dental Company pioneered the fitting of chairs with all dentistry equipments. In these dental units the dentists had within his reach all the essentials: air, gas, water and electricity. For the procedure. While the air and water appliances were under finger-tip control, the electrically operated instruments shut off automatically when they were returned to their respective holders. In 1950s The Company revolutionized the concept of seating in Dental chairs by Model D Euphorian Chair. This chair used an electric motor driven pump and two hydraulic cylinders one for lifting the base and the other for back movement.
The mid-1970s again saw a complete improvement of the previously built chairs. The latest chairs Ritter X-100 Model J, Ritter X-2000 and Ritter Knight Model L Chair were completely motor driven chairs without any hydraulics. The Ritter X-100 Model J and X-2000 incorporated a solid-state PC Board located in the base of the chair. This was a major improvement on the chairs. Though the company has evolved over the years but there is no doubt that its vision is sharper then ever and is still a pioneer in building latest medical equipments. The chairs of Frank Ritter are a vintage and encase a history of dental science revolution in them.