Im- PROVEMENTS IN SEATS AND WRITING DESKS USED IN SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC ROOMS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Gaskell, of Raleigh Street, in the Town
of Nottingham, Schoolmaster, and John Wright, of Portland Road,
in the same Town, Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Gaskell and
John Wright at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 29th October 1872.
We, WILLIAM GASKELL, of Raleigh Street, in the Town of Nottingham,
Schoolmaster, and JOHN WRIGHT, of Portland Road, in the same Town,
Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN SEATS AND WRITING DESKS USED IN SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC ROOMS,"
to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in a new arrangement of seat and desk,
whereby the same may be used for various purposes; and for this

page_text: object we use two or more iron standards, each standard having a rest on
which the seat will slide in a V groove, so as to be placed nearer to or
further from the desk as required; the standards (which carry a receptacle
underneath the seat for books and slates) are held together by a stretcher
or tie bar, and at the top of each standard working on an axle is a
semicircle, with a flat top on which the desk is fixed, the semicircle
having slots, nitches, or teeth cut in it, and revolving upon an axle
enables us without levers or movable pins to fix the top board in a
sloping position, so as to form a writing desk, or perfectly level to form
a table; or by turning the top board to the front of the standards it will
form a back to the seat already mentioned; or by turning it to the
back of the standards it will form a back board or rest to the next
seat; so that while the standards remain in a fixed position the top
may be turned, and the scat made to face either way as occasion may
require.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Gaskell and John Wright in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 29th April 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
GASKELL, of Raleigh Street, in the Town of Nottingham, Schoolmaster,
and JOHN WRIGHT, of Portland Road, in the same Town, Builder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said William Gaskell and John Wright,
Her special license, that we, the said William Gaskell and John
Wright, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said William Gaskell and John Wright, our executors, admi-
nistrators, 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,

page_text: within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEATS
AND WRITING DESKS USED. IN SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC Rooms," upon the condition:
(amongst others) that we, the said William Gaskell and John Wright,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,.
or their, or one of their hands. and scals, should particularly describe
and ascertain 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 mouth's next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Gaskell and John
Wright, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in.
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described.
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof and accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in a new arrangement of scat and desk,
whereby the same may be used for various purposes; and for this object
we use two or more iron standards, each standard having a rest on
which the seat will slide in a V groove, so as to be placed nearer to
or further from the desk as required; the standards (which carry a
receptacle underneath the scat for books, slates, &c.) are held together
by a stretcher or tie bar, and at the top of each standard working on an
axle is a semicircle with a flat top, on which the desk is fixed, the semi-
circle having slots, niches, or teeth cut in it, and revolving upon an axle
enables us without levers or moveable pins to fix the top board in a
sloping position, so as to form a writing desk, or perfectly level to form
a table or by turning the top board to the front of the standards it will
form a back to the seat already mentioned; or by turning it to the-
back of the standards it will form a back board or rest to the next
seat; so that while the standards remain in a fixed position the top
may be turned and the seat made to face either way as occasion may_
require.

page_text: Our improvements consist in the employment of two or more iron
standards A, see Figure 1 and 2, each standard having a rest B, seen in
plan at Figure 3, to which the seat is secured, or by employing standards
having the rest of the shape shewn in front view at Figure 7, and securing
the seat to grooved pieces D to slide thercon, the seat may be placed
nearer to or. further from the desk as required; such seat we make of
one board E, if a permanent back is not required to the seat, but if
such back is required we employ a second board E' attached to the '
board E by butt hinges. in such a way that when the second board is
lifted up it will occupy the position shewn by the dotted lines at
Figure 1, and form a back to the seat. A receptacle for books, slates,
&c., is formed underneath the seat by boards F, F1, F2, the board F.
forming the back being secured to one edge of the rests B, the board F¹
forming the bottom is secured to projections C cast on the standards,
and the boards F forming the doors are hinged to the front edge of the
bottom. The standards are held together by a stretcher or tie bar G
which is passed through holes G₁ in the standards, as seen at Figure 6.
A board G² may be secured to the top of the standards to form a shelf
underneath the desk or table G³. Notched or slotted semicircles H. may
be secured to the top of the board G², or such semicircles may be cast
with and form part of the standards, as seen in plan at Figure 4 and side
view at Figure 6; a stud or axle projects from each side of the semicircle,
which stud passes into a slot in each check of a bracket I, of which an
under side view is shewn at Figure 5, and side views at Figures 1 and 6.
The brackets are secured to the under side of the board G³, which forms
the desk or table, and each bracket carries one stud, as shewn at Figure 1,
or a pair of studs, as seen at Figure 6, such stud or studs take into the.
notches or slots in the semicircle, thus allowing the board G³ to be placed
in an horizontal position to form a table, as seen at Figure 1, or in a
sloping position, as shewn at Figure 6, to form a writing desk; or by
lifting the top board so that the studs in the brackets clear the tops of the
semicircles the board may be turned' down to the front of the standards,
so as to form a back to the seat E, E¹; or by turning it to the back of
the standards it will form a back board or rest to the next seat; so that
while the standards remain in a fixed position the tops may be turned
and the seat made to face cither way as occasion may require.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, we declare
that what we claim and desire to be secured to us by the hercin-before in

page_text: part recited Letters Patent is, the improvements in seats and writing
desks, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated on Drawing's
or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, wc, the said William Gaskell and John Wright,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth day of
April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-three.