the.com/stretcher
a bed that only moves when your day has gone catastrophically wrong
means A simple frame, often of canvas between two poles, used to carry an injured or sick person who can't walk.
from From "stretch" — Old English streccan, to extend or draw out — plus the agent suffix "-er," so literally "the thing that stretches." The frame stretches its fabric taut between poles, and stretches a body flat upon it; the same root runs through carpenters' and bricklayers' "stretchers" (pieces laid lengthwise) and even the slang "stretcher" for a stretched truth, a lie.
- origin
- named for stretched canvas slung between two poles
- war born
- battlefield medics carried millions on them
- folded design
- collapses flat to fit through narrow doorways
- weight test
- modern ones hold over 700 pounds
- art twin
- painters call canvas frames stretchers too
stretcher at 1912 titanic — used to carry injured survivors after the ship struck an iceberg in the north atlantic
stretcher in vietnam war — critical equipment used by medics to evacuate wounded soldiers from combat zones, 1955-1975
stretcher at mount everest — emergency rescue tool used to evacuate injured climbers from the death zone above 26,000 feet