Ever had trouble squeezing into the seat of a tractor?
Probably not, because it appears farm equipment manufacturers are ahead of their peers when it comes to friendly design. Wide seats with air suspension are crucial to comfort during long hours in the field.
Even when tractor seats consisted of dish-shaped metal plates with a few protruding bolt heads, they were always plenty wide enough for most nether ends. Ditto the bench seats of older model grain trucks.
Attention to the posterior aspects of farm equipment has likely insulated tractor and combine builders from concerns that now plague the manufacturers of other seat-dependent vehicles and locations – namely cars, airplanes and theatres.
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Those manufacturers are up against the 18-inch rule. You see, the average seat is a mere foot and a half wide, a standard measurement established in the 1950s when a Harvard study concluded that 18 inches would accommodate the average human rump.
Trouble is, the average human rump has been growing. The 18-inch seats have not.
To address this uncomfortable situation, about 20 major American corporations are underwriting a study that will measure one particular physical dimension of about 5,000 volunteers. They intend to use laser technology, as opposed to the standard tape measure, to get an ample sample.
The bottom line from this study could determine the future standard sizes of car seats, stadium chairs and blue jeans.
Some manufacturers aren’t waiting for the results. The seats in most new movie theatres are at least 20 inches wide. They might even be as comfortable as the seat in a brand new four-wheel-drive tractor.
Of course, an enlarged seat standard years from now won’t help the many farmers and ranchers out there who are now entering this year’s meeting season.
In community halls across the Prairies, armies of wooden, metal or plastic-derivative chairs – most of them 18 inches wide – stand to bear the weight of farmers’ bodies and thoughts.
These same chairs will transform themselves into instruments of torture, usually somewhere during hour three of any given meeting.
This won’t likely affect the meeting’s duration but it can affect the demeanor of the participants. De harder de chairs, de meaner dey can get.
