Standing desk

A standing desk or stand-up desk is a desk conceived for writing or reading while standing up or while sitting on a high stool. During the 18th and 19th centuries, standing desks were popular in the homes and offices of the rich.. Standing desks have regained some popularity due to purported health benefits, though such benefits have not yet been clearly established.

Notable users of standing desks include Leonardo da Vinci, U.S. founding father Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, author Virginia Woolf, author and philosopher Albert Camus, songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II, author Ernest Hemingway, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Standing desks have been made in many styles and variations. Standing desks may be specialized to suit particular tasks, such as certain variations of the telephone desk and desks for architectural drafting. Some standing desks may only be used while standing while others allow users to sit or stand by adjusting the desk height with an electric motor, hand crank, or counterbalance system. Some desks are also constructed like teacher's lecterns, allowing them to be set on top of an existing desk for standing, or removed for sitting.

While height of most seated desks is standardized, standing desks are made in many different heights ranging from 70 to 128 centimetres (28 to 50 in). Ideally the height of a standing desk fits the height of its individual user. With seated desks, adjusting the height relative to the user can be accomplished by adjusting the height of the user's chair. However, because users of a standing desk move around more than when seated, using a pedestal to adjust the user's height is not practical.

To solve this issue, a standing desk may either be custom-made, to suit the height of the user, or made with adjustable parts. For writing or drafting, the angle or slant of the surface may be adjustable, with a typical drawing table or table à la tronchin. If the desk is made for computer use, the legs may be adjustable. Another option is a platform made to sit on top of a regular seated desk that raises the desk's surface to a useful height for standing. Such platforms may be fixed height or adjustable.

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