Have you ever sat in an uncomfortable old seat? With a hard seat and a straight back. This is not a seat but a torture tool. However, there are so many kinds of comfortable seats now, all of which are inseparable from the Akerblom line.


Bengt Kerblom (1901-1990), a Swedish doctor, later became a pioneer in the field of electromyography. Dr. Kerblom's daily work was to study and evaluate the muscle tension caused by different postures and exercises, he was particularly interested in sitting posture. This interest was so long-lasting and far-reaching that the doctor almost laid the foundation for a very fashionable modern discipline, which was "Ergonomics".


In 1949, he published a 187-page paper, "Standing and Sitting Posture with Special Reference to the Construction of Chairs". It is this book that pioneered the ergonomic design of chairs. In this paper, Kerblom scientifically proved for the first time that muscle strain and discomfort can be minimized through the design of chair shape.


Dr. Kerblom finally found the biggest problem of the old seat, so how to apply it? At this time, a furniture designer appeared. In 1931, Gunnar Eklf from Stockholm just became an interior architect. First, after working for a furniture manufacturer for several years, he got a job as a furniture and interior designer at Karolinska University Hospital in 1936. While working in the hospital, he became interested in ergonomics. It was in this hospital that Dr. Akbrom completed his thesis. In this way, a doctor who studies sitting posture and a furniture designer who is interested in sitting posture came together.


Soon, Eklf designed a simple line chair according to the doctor's theory. Low seat (400mm high), 6° seat plate inclination, curved backrest, lumbar support is provided 165 mm above the seat, the seat plate is almost flat, and there is a very subtle saddle, so that the human body can easily transfer weight. This is the Akerblom line.


Around 1950, they contacted a chair factory called Nssj to manufacture the comfortable chairs in the idea. This factory was not ordinary. At that time, it was the largest chair factory in Nordic countries. It was founded in 1870, and it had 80 years of experience in making chairs. Unlike the popular classical furniture at that time, Akerblom chairs needed precise engineering design and some modern techniques such as steam bending. What this factory is best at is the dining chair and rocking chair with a bent wooden stick as the frame.


The design of the first Akerblom chair is very simple. From the side, it is almost a three-dimensional representation of Akerblom line. Between 1949 and 1958, more than 120000 chairs were sold. In addition, Gunnar Eklf also designed several variants of chairs, including side chairs, dining chairs and armchairs. Its design incorporates all the ergonomics of Akerblom. A Norwegian described this chair very accurately. He said, "I need to sit as comfortably as a bag of potatoes, but I also need to look as decent as at work. This chair meets my wishes."


Seats with cool shapes are common, but comfortable chairs are difficult to find, because these chairs do not grasp the essence of Akerblom line design. As long as you know Akerblom line, you can make a comfortable chair even with a log stake.