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| Home : Volume 31 : Spring 2005 : | |
| Looking in on COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING alumni | |
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Paul R. Weber, BS '39
Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Consultant (retired) DuPont |
Paul Weber
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After a 41-year career with DuPont, Paul Weber may have thought that his 1980 retirement marked the end of his designing and inventing days. Weber was wrong, and some retired folks in Pennsylvania are luckier for it.
In 2003, Weber was approached by his friend Dr. Wayne Martz, a retired internal medicine specialist, for help to solve a problem. Martz was concerned about the effects of peripheral neuropathy on the elderly population. The disorder is marked by loss of feeling in the feet and hands. It is caused by everything from aging to illnesses such as diabetes, and progresses slowly. The nerves in the feet are often the first affected, since they are furthest from the brain. Many sufferers are unaware they have the disorder. It can be particularly dangerous when driving. An affected driver can "lose track of his feet," accidentally hitting the gas instead of the brake — with sometimes devastating results.
Paul Weber shows the instrument he designed to detect possible peripheral neuropathy.
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Martz wanted to study the problem among the elderly population in the Jenners Pond retirement community where he and Weber both reside in Jennersville, Pennsylvania. But there was no quantifiable way to test for the disorder in a way that would allow physicians to accurately track its severity. The crude available method involves holding a vibrating tuning fork on a bony part of the extremity being tested (such as an ankle), and asking the patient to evaluate whether he or she felt the vibration. He felt there had to be a better way.
Enter Paul Weber.
In his late 80s, Weber admits that his design skills were a little rusty — but it didn't take long get into the routine again. Once Martz described the problem, Weber plunged in, outlining the necessary features for the instrument. It had to be simple to operate, and give reliable and reproducible results. The instrument had to be rugged and easy to transport, and safe electrically and mechanically. Finally, it had to have a vibration amplitude range from zero to a level that anyone could detect.
Falling back on the time-tested techniques he honed at DuPont, Weber began sketching out the instrument to scale. After several attempts, he narrowed it down to the simplest, most straightforward instrument possible: an enclosed electric vibrator mounted below a panel. The subject places his or her bare foot or hand on the panel, and the calibrated, variable control is adjusted to full vibration. Then the vibration is slowly reduced to a point where the subject can no longer feel it. A reading is taken at this point. Then the vibration is reduced to zero and slowly increased until the subject can feel it once again. The value is recorded, and the mean of two readings results in the subject's score for the test. The instrument has proven to be accurate and the data are reproducible, Weber says.
About 180 people have been tested with the instrument to date. If the subject's score suggests cause for concern, they will be advised to see their physician for further consultation. "There have been a few people we've tested who were having symptoms in their feet and didn't know it," Weber says. "In the worst cases, they have modified their car to have hand controls for gas and brake, instead of foot pedals." Martz has published the results of data gathered with the instrument in the Delaware Journal of Medicine.
Weber and Martz have used the instrument at the health fairs held at their retirement community, and at similar health fairs in other communities. "They often test blood pressure and those kinds of things at the health fairs. We hope that this will also become a regularly offered test," says Weber.
The pair took out no patent on the instrument, preferring to make the plans available. "We don't anticipate making money out of this," Weber says. "We want to help as many people as possible." The process of creating the instrument has shown Weber that "we truly can be productive and contribute usefully no matter what our age." Keeping an active mind is key to staying young, he adds: "I read a lot and keep up with science and the news. I try to get out — we have a UW alumni club in Delaware and I was the president for a while. We watched all the big games together."
Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu
Date last modified: Wednesday, 25-May-2005 10:30:05 CDT
Date created: 25-May-2005
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