Gustave Zander and therapy machines
Born in Stockholm in 1835, Dr. Zander pioneered “mechanotherapy” by promoting health and healing through the use of exercise apparatus.
He established the connection between mechanics of the body and muscle building in the early 1860s.
He quickly established the Zander Therapeutical Institute in Stockholm, a state-supported institute using his machines to help workers correct physical impairments, he would further develop these devices, going on to win a gold medal at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia for his exercise machines.
The apparatus for mechanical treatment are divided into three series, aecording as they are set in motion or merely exercise (corrective) pressure.
First Series: Apparatus set in motion by the patient’s own muscular power.
Second Series: Apparatus set in motion by some motor, such as a gas or steam engine.
Third Series: Apparatus designed to exercise a corrective pressure upon the skeleton or to Stretch the elastic parts of the
body by means of the patients own weight resting upon the apparatus, or by means of mechanical contrivances.
