The Standing Desk
THE BANFIELD DESK
The world’s first standing desk which I invented in 1998 to solve my own health problems has established a manufacturing industry which was reported as having a global market value in 2018 (20 years later), estimated in excess of U.S. $6,000 million (six billion) annually.
All previous standing desks were rare because they offered no significant health benefits, and very few people ever asked for, or purchased them, and the majority since have the design features which I published under copyright. See the data report below
Click this link to see The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome page, and my Bookshop
See a summary to it’s development in the YouTube video below.
All modern research and standing desk designs are derived from my research and design.
I did all the research from 1975 onwards which led to my invention of the standing computer desk in 1998 at a time when there was virtually no support for the idea, so in order to stop other individuals or groups from falsely claiming that they did the research, and or discovered the health benefits, and or are the inventors or founders of that desk, I have decided to call it THE BANFIELD DESK.
Between those years the mainstream newspapers, radio and TV stations were saying that it was too radical and controversial for them to discuss with the public, the “experts” were rejecting it as unproven and wrong, and the furniture companies didn’t want to manufacture it under license to me for a royalty of only 5% because they said that none of there customers ever asked for them, and that they wouldn’t buy standing desks because they preferred to sit in the newer comfortable chairs, and that no-one would want to stand all day and wear themselves out or get backache.
Even when I said that they could alternate between sitting and standing they still said that they were not interested in making them, and that no-one would buy them, but they all ended their conversations politely by wishing me luck in getting other companies to make them. None of them did.
Invented by an Australian desk worker
(not by teams of experts or furniture companies)
Some of the many ideas, experiments, and diagrams which led to the development of the world’s first standing computer desk.
Leading the world in the standing desk and related office design revolution
Helping tens of millions of other desk workers who were becoming ill without knowing why, and without having any method of prevention
“Sit less, stand more, move more” ©
Everything on this webpage and in my books, websites and videos is copyright with all rights reserved
Who invented The Standing Computer Desk
It was not a doctor, a medical specialist, a medical researcher, an ergonomics professor, or a team of highly qualified international experts, and it was not a furniture manufacturer, and it was not somebodies Aunt Gerty from the 1950’s, or Winston Churchill, and it was not Leonardo da Vinci, the genius, where the only Apple on his desk was a piece of fruit. It was an Australian desk worker named Max Banfield whose own doctors, and specialists, and the worlds best medical researchers couldn’t explain or cure his health problems so he had to do it himself.
It was Totally Rejected in 1999 and is Now Sold in the Millions
Anyone else who claims to have invented that desk is a liar and a fraud.
First: A comment on James Levine who has been stealing my research
In 1975 I had many health problems which my doctors couldn’t explain or treat effectively so I began doing my own research. The problems mainly occurred when I was sitting at a desk, so I had to start by reading a medical dictionary at the rate of one word a day, and then think about it for several hours. Five years later, in 1980, I wrote an essay in which I concluded that sitting at a desk and leaning forward was compressing my chest and abdomen to cause those health problems. I was diagnosed with cancer in 1993, and started writing a book about it and sold it to school and public libraries between 1994 and 2000 to educate children about how to prevent the illnesses that I had to endure. The first illustration of a standing desk was published in 1994 and the standing computer desk was invented in 1998 and the description and diagram of it was published in 1999.
James Levine of the Mayo Clinic has been stealing my research for many years, but I recently found a news item which says that he has published a book in 2014 called “Get Up! Why Your Chair is Killing You and What You Can Do About it”, and he is running a campaign to get standing desks into every school in America, as if it is his original research and idea??? See my website here http://users.chariot.net.au/~posture/ and my book here https://www.amazon.com/The-Posture-Theory-Physical-Undetectable-ebook/dp/B00LHG4UA . . . and his book here https://www.amazon.com/Get-Up-Chair-Killing-About/dp/1137278994 and the news item here http://tucson.com/news/local/standing-up-is-the-new-sitting-down-at-this-st/article_15f9dde0-7193-5716-8c36-7a6bea64635a.html
He is a healthy man achieving fame and wealth by stealing my research which I did when I was sick and disabled with pain whenever I sat at a desk.
See what other people think should be done about the copyright theft of his research in the video below.
See more details about the evolution of the upright human posture and the standing computer desk here and my YouTube video here and another on what has happened since can be seen below
This 32 minute video explains the controversy about the invention of the standing computer desk which has gone from being almost totally rejected by mainstream authorities in 1998 to being described as an example of the latest and best scientific innovation by world leaders in 2015.
Prior to my invention most people didn’t own or use a computer, but those who did sat at desks to type onto their keyboards in much the same way as office workers had sat at desks all day to write with quills, pencils, pens, or biros for hundreds of years, without knowing that it was just sitting all day that was harming their health.
Prior to my invention the popular view was that they were not doing anything physical, so their ailments couldn’t possibly have a physical basis and must be due to worry or stress.
I published the idea under copyright with the expectation that anyone who wished to derive an income from it, for example, by teaching the health benefits, or using it as a treatment method, or by taking out patents to make desks based on my design principles, would pay me royalties, but nobody has, despite it becoming the most widely recognised and useful invention of modern times.
Returning the favour?
On a recent TV show, a man who had his back pain relieved by surgery said that ‘One day he hoped to pay back the people who gave him his life back‘. However, millions of desk workers are now using standing computer desks to improve their health and prevent a lifetime of pain, disease, and early death, and yet they don’t appear to know that I am the inventor, or thank me, or protect me from copyright thieves, or return the favour by ensuring that I get the credit, and the royalties that are due to me.
The YouTube video above explains the problems associated with radical world 1st inventions which sometimes prove old methods were wrong.
The series of books above shows the 11 editions of The Posture Theory which were published between January 1994 and October 2000, when it reached 1000 pages. I stopped publishing it because not enough people were showing any interest in it, but I knew that sooner or later the harmful effects of sitting at a desk, and the benefits of the standing desk would become widely accepted. In fact it would be necessary and essential because it is the only way to prevent or treat many ailments effectively.
The controversial aspect was that prior to my discoveries the illnesses which affected desk workers were not evident on blood tests, x-rays, or CAT scans and it was universally considered that it was impossible for there to be a physical cause. The ailments were therefore attributed to anxiety, worry, fear, or stress, and treated by psychologists with psychotherapy to no avail. Since then the harmful physical effects of sitting has been reviewed and recognised, and is now being treated by physiotherapists who use my methods, including the use of standing desks.
I set out to solve some medical mysteries, not to prove anyone else wrong, but those who supported the previous ideas of psychological cause would rather the public did not know that I exist, so they try to hide my name, or delete it wherever it appears, and don’t mention it in modern research papers or the publications.
The diagram above shows a man standing in front of a desk to use a computer, rather than sitting, and was originally published on the first page of the 10th edition of The Posture Theory in August 1999. The 12th edition has since been published as an ebook available from Amazon.com and can be seen here.
THE MODERN GENIUS WHO HAS CHANGED THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER
I invented the standing computer desk after 23 years of research, and at that time, in 1998, the foundation of the idea was criticised in a review in the Australian magazine called The Skeptic, in which it was stated that it was “totally rejected by modern medical authorities“, and that there was “virtually no modern research on this subject” (apart from mine). See also here. However in recent years it is reported that teams of international experts have reviewed the latest research which they say shows a growing amount of evidence, and an “urgent” need for change to reduce the amount of sitting and increase the amount of standing and moving, and the manufacturers of ‘standing desks” are referring to the prestige of employers such as Apple Computer Co, Google, and Facebook who are all using standing desks as a part of the modern “work wise environment“, and to increase sales they emphasis that even Leonardo Da Vince, the brilliant fifteenth century GENIUS, used a standing desk.
Needless to say, I invented that desk to improve the health of desk workers who used computers, which didn’t exist in Da Vinci’s time where it was very basic and rarely made. It is only since my invention that the standing desk has been sold in the millions, with a Google search engine showing 3,680,000 hits for the topic on 29-1-2016, which means that I am the genius who has made that major advance in usage, not Da Vinci.
The idea which was revolutionary and controversial, and widely criticised and rejected as nonsense in 1998 is now seen as a symbol of intellectual status, prestige and wisdom at the highest level of the academic world, and I am the one and only person who can take the credit for it.
I am not making that statement out of vanity or to boast, but merely to stop other individuals or groups from taking all the credit, and all of the financial benefits and have left me with nothing. Max Banfield
The basis for the invention
After 23 years of research and experiments I invented the Standing Computer Desk in 1998 and discovered that it’s use could prevent and relieve many of the ailments commonly seen in those individuals who sit at desks all day, and for which there was no other effective treatment.
I published the concept under copyright with all rights reserved in 1999 to make the public aware of it, but not to give the idea away for free for anyone else to use for profit, or for any other reason, without paying me a royalty.
I would therefore like all desk workers who use this desk to prevent or treat their various ailments, to show their appreciation for my decades of research by ensuring that I get 5% royalty from the cost of any desk installed into your office.
Many other individuals have falsely claimed to be the inventor, or have claimed copyright or patents and are receiving the profits, and yet they contributed nothing to the research other than to review my conclusions and find them to be correct.
Meanwhile they have not mentioned my name, and I have been getting absolutely nothing.
My bank account details for deposits are M.A.Banfield, National Australia Bank, BSB 085 443, A/c No. 02665 7430.
Thankyou
Max Banfield
Australia’s Standing Computer Genius
Max Banfield
Researched and experimented to develop new forms of treatment, and determine the good and bad effects to make them safe for patients, and developed the world’s first standing computer desk between 1980 and 1998, published under copyright, with all rights reserved.
“Adelaide’s Standing Professor”: John Coveney
The channel 7 TV program “Today Tonight” knows that I am the one and only person in the world who discovered in 1980, that sitting at a desk was the cause of health problems, and the one and only person who invented the prototype for the standing computer desk in 1998, and that it is the basis for all modern standing desks and desk tops where the market value has gone from virtually nothing to $6.5 billion per year internationally.
However in 2013, host Jayne Doyle of the same TV program gave the credit to John Coveney of Flinders University by referring to him as Adelaide’s Standing Professor, promoting him on advertisements for their show and then interviewing him. I therefore phoned them and criticised them for not interviewing me and giving the credit many years earlier.
I then phoned John Coveney and asked him if he knew that I was the inventor and that he was breeching my copyright and he said he didn’t. I then told him that as soon as I tell him he is required to respect my copyright and stop misleading the public into believing that he was the researcher and inventor. I also told him that if he wanted to give lectures on my research findings and design that I required him to get my permission and pay me license fees and royalties on each lecture. His graduates who charge fees for such advice or use it to manufacture such desks should be advised to do the same, as required by copyright law.
I also asked him how he found out about the design and health benefits and he told me that a friend introduced him to the standing computer desk in 2005, and found it beneficial to his own health, so he now uses it, and recommends it to his students and local and international colleagues. However I have not received any royalty payments so he has arrogantly proceeded to breech my copyright.
He has several university degrees, and received numerous academic awards, and is dean of the School of Health Sciences at Flinders University. See here and here and here and here.
More recently on 18th June 2019 the same TV program, another host Rosanna Mangiarell gave the credit to two researchers at the Sunshine Coast University, for the theory that the forward position of the head is the cause of back ache and other health problems which “surprisingly” don’t occur immediately, but much later in life if not corrected early. (The fact that the symptoms don’t occur immediately is why nobody noticed it in the past until I described why in my essays and books).
Australia’s “Standing Computer Prime Minister”
Malcolm Turnbull Included a standing desk in his office after his appointment to prime minister in 2015 . . .
He said it is an example of the high regard he has for the latest and best in modern scientific innovation. See here and here and here.
He uses it to gain personal and political status, and to promote it’s manufacture so the Government can save
$billions per year in health care costs.
America’s “Standing Computer President”
Barack Obama
In the past 2 years “The Great Standing Desk Debate” has led to “a slew of articles” about the hazards of sitting for too long, so “The Executive Office of the President estimates that they will spend up to $700,000 for “height adjustable standing desktops and accessories. October 8th 2015. See here.
Famous Standing Computer Offices
Standing computer desks are now being used by the staff at the headquarters of the Apple Computer Company in Silicon Valley, and there are now 350 Standing Desks in the offices of Facebook. See here
The blatant theft of Australian Intellectual property
In 1975 the modern mainstream medical opinion was that the health problems of desk workers were due to the imagination (hypochondria), or the mind, where the subconscious mind supposedly turned disturbing emotions into physical symptoms such as chest and abdominal pain or fatigue (supposed conversion disorders).
Within the next five years I was able to identify that it was actually sitting at a desk which was compressing the chest and abdomen to cause those health problems (The Posture Theory), and in 1998, after being diagnosed with cancer and later heart disease, and between cancer surgery, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, I invented the world’s first standing computer desk to relieve or prevent those initial health problems.
I published the invention under copyright with all rights reserved in 1998 and then waited for honest academics to review it and find it to be effective and beneficial, and for honest manufacturers to contact me and ask my permission to make it and sell it for profit in exchange for a 5% royalty but they didn’t.
About 14 years later I discovered that many individuals and teams of healthy and wealthy academics have been stealing the concepts to gain promotions, status, prestige, and money for themselves and their universities, and thousands of manufacturers have been blatantly stealing the idea and manufacturing those desks in their millions for the purpose of satisfying their grubby greed without having contributed to any of the research.
I want honest journalists in respectable newspapers to do a major story on how that has happened, so that I can get all of the credit, and make the majority of profit, instead of the thieves, as determined by copyright law.
Above: An example from techspot.com of a blatant and offensive breech of my copyright in an incompetent attempt to steal my research for the purpose of selling the product, as if they have a right to, where their motive is greed. (Too lazy to do their own research or invent their own product}.
If the administrators of TechSpot are responsible adults then I demand a public apology and that they produce a major article about my invention where I am given the credit. and notifying all honest manufacturers who make money out of my invention that they are required to pay a 5% royalty.
I also need the support of all desk workers who use it for the benefit of their own health.
Ergotron Inc. is 18 years too late to be claiming to be the
“the global leader in the sit-stand workplace revolution”
. . . because I was the global leader in 1980 when I identified that sitting at a desk could be harmful to health, and again in 1998 when I invented, under copyright, with all rights reserved, the worlds 1st standing computer desk with guidelines for it’s height and usage.
This is their claim from a PR Newswire report on 28-12-16 . . . “Ergotron Introduces the WorkFit-DL, an Update to Its Popular Sit-Stand Desk”. The new WorkFit-DL is designed to meet workforce demands. NEWS PROVIDED BY Ergotron, Inc. Dec 28, 2016, 10:00 ET ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 28, 2016 PRNewswire/
“Given the increased demand for flexible workstations, Ergotron, Inc., the global leader in the sit-stand workplace revolution, has enhanced its popular WorkFit-D standalone desk to better meet the needs of its users. The updated WorkFit-DL Sit-Stand Desk features two new worksurface sizes and enhanced design features for a sleeker, more refined finish for the modern office.
Recent research from Ergotron revealed that a majority of office workers are looking for more flexible workstations, with 84 percent of full-time employees indicating they would prefer to sit and stand at will while at work. The WorkFit-DL Sit-Stand Desk meets the needs of these employees who are looking to integrate healthy behavior and more movement throughout their day.”
Note that when I started research to find the cause and treatment for my own ailments none of my doctors or specialists, and none of the world experts or researchers knew the cause, and none of the medications or other treatments relieved them.
It took me five years to clearly identify that sitting at a desk was causing the ailments, and another 18 years of research and experiments to invent the world’s first standing computer desk which relieved those problems, and which is why manufacturers are using my discoveries in the design and sales of the product to more than 300 million other desk workers.
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