Two wheels and a handle

The art of incremental innovation in creating the modern suitcase

Alfred Krupa was an artist. Escaping Poland after the occupation in World War II, he became a Partisan fighter, chucking Maltov cocktails at Nazis in-between covering canvases with lead-based paint. Early in his fighting days, he helped save Winston Churchill’s son Randolph on a mission to Croatia from Yugoslavia.

Krupa also saw himself as an inventor. He created walkable water skis to trek across a lake and a glass-bottomed boat. He also created a suitcase with wheels.

Anita Willets-Burnham was a painter. She was born in Brooklyn and moved to Chicago as a kid, where she started studying impressionist painting with some of the greats.

After one long trip around mostly Europe in 1921, she prepared for a second one in 1928. This time asking, “Why be a human truck horse?” she attached wheels and a retractable handle to her suitcase.

In 1970, the VP of the U.S. Luggage company got the idea to attach casters to his suitcase after observing some heavy machinery on a vacation to Aruba with his family. He patented it in 1972.

In 1987, a 747 pilot created the Rollaboard: a suitcase with two wheels and a handle. More modern iterations would eventually add extendable handles, spinning wheels, Bluetooth integrations, phone chargers, and cup holders to this suitcase design.

It took generations from the time the suitcase was invented to make it a bit easier to roll. Not adding much more than a couple of wheels invented millennia before. There were already big, bulky boxes with handles to carry apparel from one location to the next. Then these alchemists added a grip and some casters. Improving the solution with what they knew.

I’d like to personally thank Anita and Alfred for their early contributions and drive to create the next iteration, as someone who schleps more than one arm could carry when traveling. They were just two people keen on solving a problem. And isn’t it interesting they were both artists?

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References

Illustration taken from Anita’s book: Round The World On A Penny

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Willets-Burnham

https://www.winnetkahistory.org/gazette/before-her-time-anita-willets-burnhams-rolling-suitcase/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Krupa

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/who-actually-invented-the-wheeled-suitcase