Reinventing the wheel? No, just the suitcase

46

THE WHEELED SUITCASE

Suitcases on wheels? It might not have occurred to anyone born after 1980, but there was a day when – instead of gliding effortlessly across the polished floors of the arrivals hall – suitcases were a dead weight. No wheels, just a handle. And if you couldn’t manage to lift your own luggage, you had no option but to try to find help – ideally someone with a barrow or trolley.

In the golden age of the railway, which came complete with porters, this wasn’t such a problem. But as more people flew, airports grew bigger and corridors longer, suitcases became more and more of a drag. Even so, it still took until 1970 before someone finally thought of the obvious.

In 2010 the 85-year-old Bernard D Sadow gave a round of interviews to American newspapers to mark the 40th anniversary of his greatest invention. “It was one of my best ideas,” the former executive of a Massachusetts luggage company told the New York Times. During a holiday back in 1970 and struggling with his own suitcases, he spotted an airport worker using a wheeled platform to move some machinery. “I said to my wife, ‘You know, that’s what we need for luggage.’” When he got home he began to experiment, screwing some casters into the bottom of a suitcase. “I put a strap on the front and pulled it, and it worked,” he said.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work well enough to be an overnight success. It took months of sales pitches before a New York department store finally ordered some and slowly a market began to build.

Even so, I remember suitcases like these as awkward, cumbersome beasts, with a will of their own. They bit at your heels as you pulled them and tumbled over when cornering. So, for me, the true precursor of today’s wheelie bags is not the Sadow, but the Rollaboard.

This was invented in 1987 by a pilot named Robert Plath, who made a frame with two wheels and a handle long enough to clear the top of a cabin bag. It meant you could roll your case in a more comfortable, upright position. The concept was much imitated. Handles became retractable, frames lighter and swivels were added to the wheels to enable sudden changes of direction.

Ironically, the biggest improvement, in my view, has been the return to four wheels. This means that a suitcase can be guided alongside you, rather than behind, and there is much less chance that an innocent passerby will be sent flying by a trailing suitcase.

I’m not sure even today the concept has been refined to perfection. Wheels still jam, cases over-balance, handles get stuck. And no one has yet come up with a solution to the noise. Anyone who has spent the night in a hotel overlooking a narrow street in Venice or Amsterdam, for example, will be familiar with the constant clitter-clatter of tiny wheels bumping over the ruts in the pavement. It follows the tide of tourist arrivals and departures, beginning before dawn, dying away after midnight. The wheeled suitcase may have improved life for

most travellers, but it has come at a cost.

On a roll: a wheeled suitcase has improved life for many travellers