IMPROVEMENTS IN SEATS AND SOFAS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Taylor, of 6, Whitehall, in the City of West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, Architect, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SEATS AND SOFAS."
Sealed the 25th October 1867, and dated the 27th April 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Taylor at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th April
1867.
I, JOHN TAYLOR, of 6, Whitehall, in the City of Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Architect, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEATS AND SOFAS," to be as follows, that is
to say:
The object of my Invention is to form seats or sofas susceptible of being
reduced to a smaller compass, and consists in forming a chair or seat suitable
for ordinary purposes, and converting one or several of such seats into a seat
or sofa for better purposes.
I first make a chair or seat suitable for comuion
use, which will permit of fitting a stuffed frame or carcass thereon, so as to
form a seat of a better or more easy description. The chair is made for one
or more sitters, having legs which screw on, and which when it is desired to
pack the chair can be unscrewed. The bottom parts of the legs are formed
with a female screw, to be used as herein-after described. The back is formed
of a horizontal board supported upon iron uprights furnished with hinges, to

page_text: permit of the back of the chair being folded down. The stuffed frame or
carcass is formed in the usual manner, its back resting against the back, and
its seat against the seat of the said chair, to which it is screwed or fastened.
The back of the latter seat is supported upon wooden uprights, which are
hinged so as to be folded down when required. The hinges at the backs of
the chairs or seats may when it is not required to fold the seat be dispensed
with. When the upper carcass is removed from the chair the legs of the
former become too short for ordinary use, and are raised by blocks screwe
into the female screws in the legs. To keep the seat horizontal on a sloping
floor I apply rings of variable thickness between the bottoms of the legs and
the blocks.
sofa stall.
Several chairs or seats being united together form a sofa or
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Taylor in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TAYLOR, of 6, Whitehall, in the County of Middlesex, Architect, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of
Her reign did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Taylor, Her special licence that I, the said John Taylor,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Taylor, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and. vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEATS
AND SOFAS," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1, the said John Taylor,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Taylor, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of my Invention is to form seats or sofas susceptible of being
reduced to a smaller compass, and consists in forming a chair or scat suitable
for ordinary purposes, and converting one or several of such seats into a seat
or sofa for better purposes.
I first make a chair or seat suitable for common
use, which will permit of fitting a stuffed frame or carcass thereon, so as to
form a seat of a better or more easy description. The chair is made for one
or more sitters, having legs which screw on, and which when it is desired to
pack the chair can be unscrewed. The bottom parts of the legs are formed
with a female screw, to be used as herein-after described. The back is
formed of a horizontal board supported upon iron uprights furnished with
hinges, to permit of the back of the chair being folded down. The stuffed
frame or carcass is formed in the usual manner, its back resting against the
back, and its seat against the seat of the said chair, to which it is screwed or
fastened. The back of the latter seat is supported upon wooden uprights,
which are hinged so as to be folded down when required. The hinges at the
back of the chairs or seats may when it is not required to fold the seats be
dispensed with. When the upper carcass is removed from the chair the legs
of the former become too short for ordinary use, and are raised by blocks
screwed into the female screws in the legs. To keep the seat horizontal on a
sloping floor I apply rings of variable thickness between the bottom of the
legs and the blocks. Several chairs or seats being united together form a sofa
or sofa stall.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figs. 1 and 2 show the front and side of a chair or seat for three sitters.
a, a, a, a, are the legs screwed on; b, b, is the horizontal backboard; c, c, c, c, c,
are the iron uprights; d, d, d, d, are the blocks screwed on to the legs, and
which are unscrewed when the seat is converted into the sofa stall. Fig. 3
shows the side of a chair or seat with the ring e introduced between the
bottom of the front legs and blocks, so as to render the seat horizontal when
placed upon a sloping floor. Figs. 4 and 5 show the front and side of three seats
of a sofa stall and a portion of one seat of an adjoining sofa stall having the
stuffed frame or carcass f, f, resting upon the scat h and the back i of the

page_text: chair or seat to which it is screwed or fastened. Fig. 6 shows the side of a
seat or sofa stall with the back folded down by means of the hinges in the iron
uprights of the chair or seat, and the hinges in the wooden uprights of the
sofa stalls.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim, the combined
arrangements of seats and sofa stalls shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Taylor, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
JOHN TAYLOR. (L.S.)