Patent Publication Number: US-3874725-A

Title: Convertible rocking chair

Description:
United States Patent 1191 Perry 1 Apr. 1, 1975 1 CONVERTIBLE ROCKING CHAIR 75] Inventor: James T. Perry, Knightstown, 1nd. 8  
 [73] Assignee: Philip II. Willkie, Rushville, 1nd. a  
 part interest [22] Filed: Aug. 16, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 388,825  
 12/1966 Winters 248/1882 9/1972 Pierce 248/159 [57] ABSTRACT A rocking chair which may be converted to a high chair or low chair. Each leg of the chair includes two rods threaded thereto which may be removed to adjust the height of the chair. A pair of rocker legs are fixedly mounted to the bottom rods of the legs. A tray is removably mounted to the chair arms by a plurality of spring biased pins which removably project into slots provided on the mutually opposed surfaces of the arms. A handle beneath the tray is movable to retract the pins. Inserts are provided in the slots on the arms to prevent outward movement of the tray until the pins are retracted.  
 1 Claim, 6 Drawing Figures PMENTED APR 1 I975 SHEET 1 BF 2 v b Mu CONVERTIBLE ROCKING CHAIR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l. Field of the Invention This invention is in the field of chairs.  
 2. Description of the Prior Art A number of patents have been granted on a variety of chairs which are convertible from a rocking type of chair to a conventional chair. For example, the following US. patents have been issued for convertible rocking chairs:  
 755,387 issued to Thompson;  
 1,427,795 issued to Ernst;  
 2,644,506 issued to Pollack; and  
 3,269,771 issued to Erdos;  
 Another patent of interest is the US. Pat. No. 3,334,942 issued to Breslow.  
  In spite of the prior art devices, there is still a need fora childs chair which may be quickly and easily converted from a rocking chair to a high chair and then to a low chair wherein the low chair has a seat which is positioned closer to the floor than the high chair configuration. Disclosed herein is such a chair.  
  A problem with many of the prior art high chairs is the fact that the tray which is mounted to the chair for supporting food. etc., is difficult to remove from the chair. Many chairs allow the fingers of the child to become pinched within the mechanism securing the tray to the chair. In addition, when removing the tray, one must look beneath the tray to disengage the mechanism. Disclosed herein is a chair having a tray which may be easily installed and easily removed.  
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention is a convertible chair comprising a main frame including a seat, back support and arms connected together with four legs depending therefrom, a pair of spaced apart arcuate rockers each of which having a pair of holes extending therethrough, and, leg extensions thrcadedly mounted to the four legs and extending therebencath, the extensions each having a bifurcated bottom end forming a pair of spaced apart walls with a bearing pin mounted thereto, the rockers extend between the spaced apart walls with each bearing pin extending thrt&#39;wrgh one of the holes mounting the rockers to all of the extensions.  
  It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improvedchair.  
  A further object ofthe present invention is to provide a chair which may be converted from a rocking chair to a high chair.  
 Another object of the present invention is to provide a rocking chair which may be converted to a high chair and then to a low chair.  
  Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description.  
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a front view of a chair incorporating the present invention.  
 FIG. 2 is a side view of the chair of FIG. 1.  
  FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken along the line 33 of FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.  
  FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken along the line 44 of FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.  
  FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.  
  FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the tray mounted to the chair shown in FIG. 1.  
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.  
  Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is shown a convertible chair 10 which may be quickly changed from a rocking chair to a high chair and then to a low chair. Chair 10 has a main frame 11 which includes a seat 12 having a back support 13 and a pair of arms 14 and 15 mounted thereon. Four legs 16 depend from seat 12 and have a pair of arcuate, spaced apart, rockers l7 and 18 mounted thereto. Legs I6 each include a top portion 19 which is fixedly mounted to seat I2, a middle portion 20 thrcadedly extending into portion 19 and a bottom portion 21 which thrcadedly extends into middle portion 20. As shown in FIG. 3, the upper portion 19 of each leg 16 is provided with an internally threaded socket 22 which receives the top end of middle portion 20. Likewise, middle portion 20 is provided with a bottom end having an internally threaded socket which thrcadedly receives the top end of the lower portion 21 of each leg. Bottom portions 21 of the legs attached to rocker 18 include bifurcated bottom ends forming a pair of spaced apart walls 22 and 23 with a pair of pins 24 and 25 extending through walls 22 and 23 and also through rocker 18 thereby mounting the rocker to .the legs. Rocker 17 is mounted to the bifurcated bottom ends of the other two legs in a similar manner. A pair of holes are provided in walls 22 and 23 to receive pins 24 and 25.  
  In order to change the rocker shown in FIG. 1 to a high chair, lower portions 21 are unthreaded from middle portions 20. Likewise, when it is desired to change the high chair to a low chair, then middle portions 20 may be unthreaded from upper portions 19 so as to allow the chair to sit upon the bottom ends of upper portions 19.  
  Tray 25 is removably mounted to arms I4 and 15 and has four spring biased pins 26 through 29 which project into slots formed on the mutually opposed vertical surfaces of arms 14 and 15. Four tubes 30 through 33 are mounted to and beneath tray 25 each slidably receiving and spring biasing a pin outwardly. For example, tube 31 is hollow and slidably receives pin 27. A helical spring 34 is positioned within tube 31 and is operable to urge pin 27 outwardly and into the slot provided in the arm. The inner end of pin 27 is enlarged to prevent disengagement of the pin with respect to the tube. Each tube is slotted to allow connection between the pin and the retracting handle. For example, tube 31 is provided with a slot through which rod 36 projects with one end of rod 36 being connected to pin 27 whereas the opposite end of rod 36 is connected to pin 26. Rod 36 in turn is fixedly connected to a second rod 31 which is slidably mounted to bracket 38 fixedly secured to tray- 25. Likewise, rod 39 is connected to pins 28 and 29 and to rod 40. The opposite ends 41 and 42 of rods 31&#39; and 40 form retracting handles which when pulled together retract the pins from arms 14 and 15.  
  Arm 14 will now be described it being understood that a similar description applies to arm 15. Arm 14 is provided with a slot 43 (FIG. 4) which has a beveled surface 44 extending around the slot allowing the pins to be guided into the slot. An insert 45 is positioned within slot 43 and is fixedly secured to arm 14. Insert 45 (FIG. 5) has a plurality of saw configured teeth 46 formed on the surface which is mutually opposed from arm 15. Each tooth includes a leading surface 47 which extends toward arm 15 and rearwardly toward the back support 13. In addition, each tooth has a rear vertical surface 48 which is perpendicularly arranged with respect to the arm. The teeth on arm 15 are mutually opposed to the teeth positioned on arm 14. Likewise, the recesses between the teeth on arm 14 are mutually opposed to the recesses between the teeth on arm 15. Surfaces 48 act as stops to prevent the tray from moving outwardly until the pins are retracted. Surfaces 47 push the pins inwardly the tray is pushed toward back support 13.  
 &#39; It will be obvious from the above description that the present invention provides a new and improved chair. It will be further obvious from the above description that the present invention provides a chair which may be converted from a rocking chair to a high chair and then to a low chair.  
  While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood that only the preferred embodiment has been shown and described and that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention are desired to be protected.  
 The invention claimed is:  
 l. A convertible chair comprising:  
 a main frame including a seat, back support and arms connected together with four legs depending therefrom;  
 a pair of spaced apart arcuate rockers each of which having a pair of holes extending therethrough; and,  
 leg extensions threadedly mounted to said four legs and extending therebeneath, said extensions each having a bifurcated bottom end forming a pair of spaced apart walls with a bearing pin mounted thereto, said rockers extend between said spaced apart walls with each bearing pin extending through one of said holes mounting said rockers to all of said extensions;  
 a tray removably mounted to said arms; said arms have mutually opposed vertical surfaces with a slot in each of said surfaces;  
 said tray includes a pair of housings and a first pair locking means on said arm and in each slot to engage said pins and lock said tray to said arm;  
 retracting means mounted to said tray and connected to said pins being operable to retract said pins and unlock said tray from said arms, said retracting means includes a first handle fixedly connected to said first pair of pins and slidably mounted to said tray and a second handle fixedly mounted to said second pair of pins and slidably mounted to said tray, said first handle and said second handle being movable together to retract said pins from said arms;  
 said locking means includes a pair of inserts each mounted in a slot in said arms, said inserts include a plurality of recesses to lockingly receive said pins,  
 said recesses on one insert are mutually opposed and aligned with recesses of the other insert;  
 each of said extensions include a top rod and a bottom rod in line therewith and removably threaded together with said top rod removably threaded into a leg and said bottom rod connected to one of said rockers, said bottom rod of said extension is removable to convert said chair from a rocking chair to a high chair, said top rod of said extension is removable with said bottom rod of said extension to convert said chair from a high chair to a low chair;  
 said inserts have saw toothed configurations formed on mutually opposed surfaces of said arms, said saw toothed configurations each include a leading surface extending inwardly and rearwardly toward said back support and a rear vertical surface providing a stop surface which is arranged perpendicularly to said arms.