[IP Encyclopedia] Familiar sporting equipment the ‘Dumb-bell & barbell’ brothers which one is an older brother?

Dumb-bell [Photo provided = imagetoday]

Patent Application : Dumb-bell and barbell (US1672944A / US2447218A)

Year : 1927 / 1945

Nation : The United States of America

Region : Philadelphia Pennsylvania / Milwaukee Wisconsin

Name : George F Jowett / Trzesniewski Stanley


Sporting equipment dumb-bell and barbell only can be seen at the gym. After COVID-19 since so-called ‘Home gym’ became a trend they also can be founded home. These similar two sporting equipment is familiar to us but their origins of the words or history are not that well known. In today’s IP Encyclopedia let’s take a look at since when dumbbell and barbell were used its history and the related patents.

They can be described as brothers or relatives. Because they are the ‘Bell’ family. By the way all the sporting equipment we know has ‘Bell’ at the end of their names such as dumb-Bell barbell kettlebell clubbell and macebell where do these names come from? The reason is because of dumb-bell.

Dumb-bell is an older brother of all sporting equipment as it is mentioned above. It was named for the first and other equipment got their names one by one. The origin of a word dumb-bell it is a compound word of ‘Dumb’ which means ‘Mute’ and ‘Bell’.

‘Mute bell’? If you cannot easily understand let’s go back to the Middle Age. In medieval age there was a class system referring to commoners nobles and royal family. Commoners were busy struggling to eat out and living day by day but nobles and royal family were not like them. They could have lazy hobbies thanks to financial stability there were a lot of them spending their time on health and beauty care.

Among them there was a hobby building body with workout currently various and detailed sporting equipment has been developed including fitness center but at that time there was no such things so mostly they just lifted heavy stuff to workout. In Medieval church Carillon a musique which sounds different by making a bell with various size and weight was in fashion from church to church.

Nobles used these various bells as working out equipment. Since it should not make sound during exercise so they removed clappers in bells later bells only for workout were produced. That is to say the word ‘Dumb-bell’ was introduced to the world since ‘Noiseless bell’ was transformed into workout equipment.

For your information in South Korea where use many Sino-Korean words (Chinese characters) we call dumb-bell as ‘Ah-ryeong (啞鈴)’ it is also made of Ah (啞) which means ‘Mute’ and Ryeong (鈴) which means bell. It literally translated the English meaning into the word.

For a long period from the Middle Ages to the 1800s humans used dumb-bells and Indian clubs to workout. Since modern military organizations have developed some of military forces have used dumb-bells and Indian clubs as sporting equipment. Some soldiers had to maneuver with their heavy weapons and and others were eager to build up their body muscles.

As the demand for exercise gradually increased in some military physical training facilities the facilities which felt the limit of the existing workout system a method of putting two dumb-bells on both sides of the bar had appeared. Barbells’ muscle bumping efficiency has already been proven and has gained considerable popularity among military personnel. But there was not much of demand to popularize.

Since the beginning of the 19th century interest and capital for exercise has been concentrated it led to the mass production of dumb-bells and barbells. In middle of 1830 Donald Walker started manufacturing mass production of exercise equipment mainly barbells marking the beginning of the gym boom and popularization of exercise equipment throughout the United States. In the early days the weight was adjusted by adding sand and iron balls but George Baker Windship a physician and sports enthusiast invented a barbell with a modern shape consisting of bars and plates for the first time in 1865.

According to the patent information dumb-bell and barbell filed their first patent applications in 1927 and 1945. Both were created by George F Jowett and Trzesniewski Stanley who had American nationality their shapes are similar to modern exercise equipment.

Dumb-bells are now available in the market ranging from 0.5kg which is easy for teenagers and women to 20 to 30kg for men and women who want to increase muscles. In addition to stainless and plating coatings it has diversified into PVC urethane and neoprene coatings. Barbells vary from 2 to 10kg for bars with weigh ranging from 2.5 to 50kg on each side.

The so-called ‘Three major fitness workout’ bench press squat and deadlift are the exercise using barbells and the total weight of the three exercises is sometimes challenging men to weigh more than 500kg. Of course if you use it at home you should avoid this heavy weight unless you have a physical training room because the floor and tiles can break.

Intellectual property dumb-bells and barbells that have helped human for quite long time. Nobles’ hobby using church bells is now a hobby that anyone can enjoy at the fitness center or at home. Exercise is now necessary to many modern people working long time sitting at the office. A healthy body makes a healthy mind. Hope you have a healthy daily life with a little exercise before or after work.

Carillon a musique in Lyon France [Photo provided = Lion mag]

Dumb-bell [Photo provided = imagetoday]

Patent of dumb-bell [Photo provided = Google patents]

Patent of dumb-bell [Photo provided = Google patents]

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