Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Can't get into the shower?
Can't stand the entire time while taking a shower?
Larry Hyden, 54, Palestine, and his brother-in-law Richard Ault, 64, Akron, patented a solution to help - the "Tub-Easy Shower Seat."
With this design, said Hyden Tuesday, the plastic seat swivels in and out of the tub. The seat is mounted to the wall.
"The seat swivels 180 degrees," he said. "It comes out of the tub" and makes it a lot easier for people to get in and out of the tub.
The seat is "for old people, anyone who's handicapped, anyone who's afraid to stand up and take a shower," he said.
Hyden and Ault came up with the seat after Hyden's other brother-in-law became ill and couldn't stand up in the shower. Though Hyden's brother-in-law is now deceased, Hyden said, he "absolutely" inspired the invention.
The chair, he said, if it ever comes out on the market, will give people with a disability the dignity to shower by themselves.
Ault and Hyden filed for a patent on the device May 13, 2002, and then received the patent Sept. 9, 2003.
Hyden said Invention Submission Corp. is working on getting the seat to the market.
"They're working on it right now," he said. The corporation helped the men get their patent for the chair.
"I really, truly believe when it gets out on the market, it will make a lot of them (shower seats on the market today) obsolete," Hyden said.
A prototype for the device is being developed now.
A couple of companies out of Ohio, Hyden said, want to buy his patent, but Hyden said he doesn't want to sell it.
The patent number for the chair is U.S. 6,615,420 B1.
