Wilton Carlyle Dinges founded Emeco (the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company) in 1944, after collaborating with the aluminum company Alcoa to develop a chair suitable for use on naval submarines and warships. The result was the Emeco 1006 or the U.S. Navy chair made of recycled aluminum. With an estimated life cycle of 150 years, the chair is still used by the navy, but also in hospitals, prisons and restaurants.
Made entirely of twelve aluminum parts welded together gives the impression of the Emeco 1006 being made in one solid piece. To prove that the chair was robust it is said that Dinges once threw it through the window of the sixth floor at a fair in Chicago.
Wilton Dinges passed away in 1974 at the age of 58.
