Improvements in Reversible Seats.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Apr., 1891-Accepted, 9th May, 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Reversible Seats.
DESTED
I, HENRY CHRISTOPHER MOIR, of Summer Hill, near Sydney, in the Colony
of New South Wales, Doctor of Medicine, 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 relates to reversible seats or chairs, and is generally applicable to
car seats, deck and garden chairs, parlor settees, and the like. The scat and the
back-rest are integral with one another and their shape identical, and the reversal
of position is effected by "tumbling "the seat and the back in the standards so as
to inake cach become seat and back-rest alternately.
Referring to the annexed sheet of explanatory drawings which is to be taken as
part of the present Specification and read therewith as shewing the application of
the invention to a scat for an American Vestibule Car,"
Figure 1 is a front view of a double seat, part being shewn broken away to make
the construction better understood;
Figure 2 end elevation of same;
Figure 3 side view of runner on edges of back and seat frame ;
Figure 4 side view of carrier or rail on standards;
Figure 5 transverse section through runner on back and seat frame;
Figure 6 transverse section through carrier or rail on standard;
Figure 7 transverse section through alternative construction of runner on back
and seat fraine;
Figure 8 transverse section through alternative construction of carrier on
standards;
Figure 9 fragment side elevation of scat (or back) enlarged to shew arrangement
of buffer;
Figures 10 and 11 side view and plan respectively of buffer case and buffer:
Figure 12 inner end elevation of buffer case and buffer.
The
1 are the standards, which may be of wood or of metal, 2 foot-bars supported at.
the ends in brackets 3, which are secured to or are integral with the standards,
4 foot pieces through which bolts or screws pass into the floor, 5 runners, 6 carriers
or rails on or in which the runners 5 move, 7 bent wood or metallic side frames of
seats, & cross framing pieces, 9 rubber buffer, 10 buffer case which acts also as a
stop, 11 cushions or padding, 12 curved bar which supports the carrier 6.
shape of the runners and carriers corresponds, as indicated in Figures 5 and 6 and 7
and 8, and either or both can be either made integral with or attached by screws,
bolts, or rivets to the parts of the seat to which they belong respectively. They
must fulfil the double purpose of supporting the moving parts and of locking the
standards at a fixed distance apart. The carrier or rail is part of or is secured to
the curved bar 12. The curve of the carriers and runners must be struck from the
same radius and each must be a true segment of a circle, the relative lengths of
the arcs being so proportioned that sufficient support will be given to the seat to
enable it to hold a person sitting in it without tending to overbalance, and also so
that it may be "tumbled" sufficiently to bring it into the required position at both
ends of its travel. The use of the buffers will be understood on reference to
Figures 9 to 12 of the drawings; they are secured after the seat has been placed in
position and serve to prevent its motion being too suddenly chocked; the case 10
s preferably cast as shewn and india-rubber in a state of solution is then run in
and allowed to set and form itself into a solid block.
Referring to Figure 8 the split tube carrier 6 may be screwed to the bent bar 11
s shewn, or otherwise it may be formed with exterior side flanges through which

page_text: screws or bolts may be passed into such bar. The seat and back may be framed
as shewn in Figure 1, or otherwise may be formed of a bent metal plate suitably
strengthened if necessary and upholstered. It is not essential that the seats and
backs should be curved exactly in the manner shewn, so long as the side frames
and runners are suitably curved. At the present time railway car seats of the kind
described are made to accommodate two persons, but the seat is not divided as
shewn in the annexed drawings, and it consequently often happens that when a car
is partially filled a party of two or more persons cannot find accommodation in a
single section and must therefore break company. By the employment of the con-
struction described, each part of the seat may be used in either of two sections or
arranged face or back to the journey without interference with other seats adjacent;
the construction of the seats should be such that as little space as possible will
be lost between seats when they are arranged back to back.
It will be evident that the curves may be struck from a different radius from
that shewn and that the construction and arrangement of the runners and carriers
may be varied I do not, therefore, restrict myself to the use of the particular
construction described.
The seat as already described when provided with broad or weighted foot pieces
is suitable for deck, garden, and parlor use, and may be arranged at will as before
stated either as an ordinary side-by-side seat or as a settee,
If required, three or
more seats may be fixed in the one frame, each reversible independently of the
others and made sufficiently large to accommodate two or more persons.
In lieu of making the runners on the sides of the seat and back-rest move in
carriers on the standards they may be specially formed to admit of flanged or flat-
wheels or rollers, the axes of which are secured to the standards, moving within
them and performing the same function as the carriers before described.
I am aware that hitherto reversible seats have been made wherein the seat and
the back interchange positions and are supported by grip-rails or runners which
move in carriers or supports placed below the seats in such a way as to permit the
same to be reversed by "tumbling" and I am also aware that reversible seats are
well-known in which the back-rest is separate from the seat, being secured to a
pivot or pivots in the side standards about which pivot or pivots it is swung from
one side to the other to effect the change of positions required. In the latter con-
struction, it is, however, necessary in effecting the reversal to lift the back-rest
bodily over its centre of support, and this is frequently a great disadvantage.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a reversible seat wherein the seat and the back-rest interchange positions,
the employment of curved runners on the sides of the seat and back-rest moving
in or about carriers or rails of corresponding form on the sides of the standards,
and locking the standards together as described.
2. In a reversible seat the combination of seat and back-rest in the form of the
segment of a circle, runners on the edges of such seat and back rest, and carriers
in the standards engaging with said runners, substantially as illustrated.
3. The combination of a reversible seat operating as described, and buffer-case
and buffer, substantially as illustrated in Figures 9 to 12 of the drawings.
4. A seat divided transversely into two or more sections, each accommodating
one or more persous, and each reversible independently of the others, substantially
as described.
Dated the 7th day of April 1891.
JENSEN & SON,
77, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agents.