Improvements in or relating to School Desks and the like.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Dec., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 14th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 16th June, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to School Desks and the like. .
A communication by WILHELM RETTIG, of The Stadtbauamt, Munich, in the
Empire of Germany, Director of Public Works.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of The Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool and 6, Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster and 323 High Holborn, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object an improved two-seated school desk, which
fulfils all requirements in such articles as regards hygiene, convenience for teachers
and pupils, economy of space when in position, neatness and simplicity, possibility
of keeping the school room clean, firmness, durability and lightness.
The improved two-seated school desk is constructed on the basis of these points
of view. It has three advantages over the kind hitherto employed.
a) In the first place it allows of the school room and the desk itself being easily
cleaned, it being unnecessary to move the latter away.
b) At the same time by reason of its forin of construction a considerable saving
of floor space is effected which it was impossible to obtain with the school forms and
desks hitherto employed.
c) It avoids any loosening of its parts and remains always firm.
In order to obtain these advantages, the following arrangements are employed-
One of the end standards (preferably of iron) of the desk is attached by means of
hinges to the floor, whilst the other standard stands free upon the floor. Thus after
the ink-pots have been removed, this free end may be raised, the desk turned on its
hinges and elevated at right angles, which operation may easily be done by a single
person. By this means it is not only possible to thoroughly clean the floor, without
having to move the desk away which ultimately causes damage to the floor, but the
desk itself can be cleansed from dust and dirt in the most convenient manner.
A further improvement in this school desk consists in the following arrangement.
In the case of the ordinary two-seated school desks hitherto employed, the avail-
able gangway between two rows of desks was only as large as the space which
remained free between the ends of the desk, as the seats were just as long as
the desks and the standards were arranged at the ends of the writing surface or
desk proper. The immediate consequence of this was, that a considerable deal of
room was absorbed by these two seated school desks, so that the school room must
be built of considerably larger dimensions when such desks are employed than when
four seated desks are used with the same number of seats-the sole disadvantage of
the usual two-seated desk hitherto employed.
This improved two-seated school desk avoids this disadvantage in the following
manner: The standards are no longer arranged at the end of the desks but at the
ends of the seats, whilst the desk proper or writing surface projects beyond them.
The gangway at each seat is increased by about 12 centimetres at each side, so that
sufficient space for the passage of one person is afforded between the desks. The
school room where these improved desks are employed does not require to be wider
than where a four seated desk is used.
A further advantage of this improved desk also consists in the arrangement of a
cast iron stiffening niece which may be firmly screwed into both ends, or fastened

page_text: in other suitable manner, and this avoids the disadvantages of the wooden
stiffening pieces hitherto employed through the shrinkage of the wood, and keeps
the desk always firm. Any shaking or disturbance whilst drawing or writing
thereon is thus avoided.
'
The remaining parts of the desk only differ from those hitherto employed in
details of construction.
Dated this 20th day of December 1893.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to School Desks and the like.
A communication by WILHELM RETTIG, of the Stadtbauamt, Munich, in the
Empire of Germany, Director of Public Works.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of The Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster, and 323, High Holborn, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :—
This invention has for its object an improved two-seated school desk, which
fulfils all requirements in such articles as regards hygiene, convenience for teachers
and pupils, economy of space when in position, neatness and simplicity, possibility
of keeping the school room clean, firmness, durability and lightness.
The improved two-seated school desk which is shown on the accompanying
drawings, Figure 1 being a cross section, Figure 2, an elevation, and Figure 3, a plan
view, is constructed on the basis of these points of view. It has three advantages
over the kind hitherto employed.
a) In the first place it allows of the school room and the desk itself being easily
cleaned, it being unnecessary to move the latter away.
b) At the same time by reason of its form of construction a considerable saving
of floor space is effected which it was impossible to obtain with the school forms
and desks hitherto employed.
c) It avoids any loosening of its parts and remains always firm.
In order to obtain these advantages, the following arrangements are employed-
One of the end standards a (preferably of iron) of the desk is attached by
means of hinges b to the floor, whilst the other standard a' stands free upon the
floor. Thus after the ink-pots have been removed, this free end may be raised,
the desk turned on its hinges and elevated at right angles into the position shown
in Figure 4, which operation may easily be done by a single person. By this
means it is not only possible to thoroughly clean the floor, without having to move
the desk away which ultimately causes damage to the floor, but the desk itself can
be cleansed from dust and dirt in the most convenient manner.
Figure 5 shows a plan of a schoolroom in which three desks in the left hand row
looking from the teacher's desk have been turned up.
A further improvement in this school desk consists in the following arrangement
In the case of the ordinary two-seated school desks hitherto employed, the
available gangway between two rows of desks was only as large as the space
which remained free between the ends of the desks, as the seats were just as long
as the desks and the standards were arranged at the ends of the writing surface
or desk proper. The immediate consequence of this was that a considerable deal
of room was absorbed by these two-seated school desks, so that the school room
must be built of considerably larger dimensions when such desks are employed than

page_text: when four seated desks are used with the same number of seats-the sole disadvantage
of the usual two-seated desk hitherto employed.
This improved two-seated school desk avoids this disadvantage in the following
manner: The standards are no longer arranged at the end of the desks but at
the ends of the seats, whilst the desk proper or writing surface projects beyond
them. The gangway at each seat is increased by about 12 centimetres at each
side, so that sufficient space for the passage of one person is afforded between the
desks. The school room where these improved desks are employed does not require
to be wider than where a four seated desk is used, as may be at once seen from
Figures 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings, the latter being a plan of a school
room fitted with four seated desks.
A further advantage of this improved desk also consists in the arrangement of
a cast iron stiffening piece c which may be firmly screwed into both ends, or
fastened in other suitable manner, and this avoids the disadvantages of the wooden
stiffening pieces hitherto employed through the shrinkage of the wood, and keeps
the desk always firm. Any shaking or disturbance whilst drawing or writing
thereon is thus avoided.
The remaining parts of the desk only differ from those hitherto employed in
details of construction.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is-
1. A school desk or the like, characterised by the standards at one of its sides
being attached to the floor by means of hinges or the like, so that the desk may be
turned up vertically at right angles to allow of the floor of the room being cleaned
without the desks being moved away.
2. A school desk or the like, characterised by the desk proper or writing
surface projecting at both sides beyond the seat, whereby two-seated desks can be
used without any increase in the size of the room being necessary.
Dated this 13th day of April 1893
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.