An Improved Wheeled Chair for Hospital and other Use.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 10th July, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 6th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 12th May, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Wheeled Chair for Hospital and other Use.
JAMES CUNNINGHAM HOWDEN Sunnyside Montrose N.B. Doctor of Medicine
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
A chair primarily to be used by invalids in hospitals, but which may also be used
for other purposes, providing a safe and comfortable rest for paralytics and others
with arrangements for facilitating their removal from one apartment to another in a
hospital or other building or to the open air, and from the chair to a bed, a w.c. a
bath, and such like purposes; the chair being on wheels so arranged that it can turn
at any angle.
The nature and novelty of the improvements are as follows, viz.
The chair has a frame with arms and a hammock seat, the frame being set on
wheels; the seat and back rest would be formed of hammock cloth or other suitable
material and would be attached by a moveable rod behind the front rail or legs of
the chair and to a bar at the top of the back which can be actuated on by lever
power so that the hammock cloth can be drawn up over the back rail and tightened
or slackened at pleasure so as to allow the patient to rest in the position desired;
or for permitting his or her removal from the chair, provision being made for the
easy removal and replacement of the hammock cloth."
Dated this 8th day of July 1893.
JAMES C. HOWDEN.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Wheeled Chair for Hospital and other Use.
I, JAMES CUNNINGHAM HOWDEN, of Sunnyside, Montrose, North Britain,
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, that is to say :—
My said invention has for its object the construction of an improved wheeled
chair primarily designed to be used by invalids in hospitals, but which may also be
used for other purposes, providing a safe and comfortable rest for paralytics and
others, with arrangements for facilitating their removal from one apartment to
another in a hospital or other building, or to the open air, and from the chair to bed,
to a watercloset, or to a bath, and for such like purposes, the chair being on wheels
and so that it can turn at any angle.
And in order that my said invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood I hereunto append a sheet of explanatory drawings
to be hereinafter referred to and representing a chair as made with my
improvements.
Figure, 1, of the drawings is a plan of the chair, Figure, 2, is a side elevation,
and Figure, 3, is a back elevation.
Figures, 4, and, 5, are partial side and, back elevations showing a second
modification of some parts; and
Figure, 6, shows certain parts in positions different to those in which they are
shown in Figure,. 2.....
In these drawings the same reference letters are used to mark the same or like
parts wherever they are repeated.

page_text: The chair is made with a frame somewhat like an ordinary chair frame but
without a seat frame, the seat, A, consisting of a piece of carpet or other suitable
woven or flexible material, attached hammock-wise to the frame. The frame has
front legs, B, back legs, C, side arms, D, and connecting pieces, E, F, G, H, J ;
and is set upon two wheels, K, both of which turn loosely, and one independently of
the other on an axle, L, fixed to one, J, of the connecting pieces on each side of
the frame, the wheels being within the frame and consequently less liable than
external wheels to encounter obstructions when passing through doorways or narrow
spaces.
The hammock seat cloth, A, has its front or lower edge folded and hemmed to
receive a rod, M, the ends of which are engaged in brackets fixed to the backs of
the front legs, B; and the cloth passes thence under and round the front rail, E,
and continues inwards in a curved form, and upwards to a roller, N, extending
across between the tops of the back legs, C. This cloth, A, is supposed to be
removed in Figure, 1, so as not to hide parts below it. The upper or back end of
the cloth, A, is secured by being laced round and between rods, P, fixed to and
extending between two handled levers, Q, which are centered on studs fixed to the
back legs, C. Each lever, Q, is fitted with a spring-pressed locking bolt, R, which
can engage in any one of a number of notches in a plate, S, fixed to the back legs, C.
By unlocking and moving the handled levers, Q, the seat cloth, A, can be drawn
back over the roller, N, so as to tighten it, and if required raise up a person
occupying the seat to facilitate removal. The notches in the plate, S, allow of the
seat cloth being secured in any one of several positions. It is a practical advantage
of the described mode of securing the hammock seat cloth, A, that it can be easily
removed for being cleaned or replaced.
When the chair is stationary it is supported and steadied at the back by a
castor, T, attached to a lever, U, which is centered between brackets fixed to the
back rail, F, and which has jointed to it another lever, V. The lever, V, has formed
in it a slot at the lower end of which is a notch which in one position, as shown
in Figure, 2, engages with a pin fixed to brackets fixed to the back rail, F. When
the chair is to be wheeled from one place to another the attendant, who propels it
from behind, raises the outer end of the lever, V, with his foot, whereupon the parts
assume the position in which they are shown in Figure, 6; and the chair can then be
slightly tilted to raise the front legs, B, off the ground and be easily wheeled along,
whilst owing to the wheels, K, being loose on a fixed axle and independent
of each other, the chair can be turned into any direction with facility. Depression
of the lever, V, will restore the parts to their former position.
In the modification shown in Figures, 4, and, 5, instead of the levers, Q, being
made with separate handles, they are connected by a handle bar, W, which bar is
fitted to be capable of a small turning movement, and has fixed on it close to each
lever, Q, a tongue, X, arranged to act on the locking bolt and lift it out of a
notch in the plate, S, whenever it is wished to alter the adjustment of the seat
cloth, A.
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 :-
The combination of parts constituting my improved wheeled chair for hospital
and other use substantially as herein before described.
Dated this Fifth day of Anril 1801
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.