IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MUSIC STOOLS, TABLES, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF FURNITURE, AND IN MEANS OF SECURING SUCH ARTICLES TO FLOORS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick William Burton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th November 1863.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM BURTON, of 20, Somerset Place, New North
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Ornamental Carver, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
MUSIC STOOLS, TABLES, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF FURNITURE, AND IN MEANS OF
SECURING SUCH ARTICLES TO FLOORS," to be as follows:-
Music stools, as generally constructed, are raised and lowered by the appli-
cation of a screw and nut in their stems, an arrangement which is objectionable
in various ways; and one part of my improvements consists in applying to
the seat of the stool a stem with pin holes or recesses therein to receive a
spring or other pin in the body or under part of the stool, by which the seat
may be retained at any desired height within the range of the stem, and I
apply to the stem a spring with a tendency to keep the seat raised to its
highest position except when pressed on and retained by the pin. I also
apply another lighter spring to counteract the tendency to rebound. This
method of altering the height of a music stool is applicable also to tables,
dinner waggons, and other articles of furniture where difference of elevation
may be necessary or desirable.
In the cabins of ships and other vessels it very often occurs, particularly
during rough weather, that the tables, chairs, and stools get shifted, the chairs
and stools often being tilted over. The object of the improvements is to obtain

page_text: greater security to such articles by retaining them in an upright position, and
yet allowing them a certain amount of freedom to admit of their being shifted
on the floor. For this purpose I apply to chairs, by preference, at or near
the centre thereof a peg or stud descending downwards with a head to pass
into and be held by the sides of a groove in a plate let into the floor, by
which, whilst the chair or stool may be turned round on such pin, or be slided
to and fro in the direction of the groove, it can only slide in that direction, and
is prevented from being tilted over.
Tables may have two or more of such headed studs, and the plates having
the grooves in them to receive the studs are formed at one end thereof or at
suitable positions or intervals with enlarged openings to admit of the with-
drawal of the head of the stud for the removal or replacing of the article.
The studs may be formed with a slight spring sufficient to admit of their
descending below the level of the feet of the article to which they are applied
into the groove, and yet when the articles, having such studs applied to them
are used where there are no grooved plates adapted to receive the studs, such
studs may simply rise out of the way. In like manner may other articles of
furniture be held from tilting, yet so as to be readily removeable.
In shops, assembly rooms, and other places the improvements will be found
particularly useful in limiting the extent of shifting of the stools or chairs.
To prevent the two free withdrawal of the studs from their grooves, they may
be formed in relation to the inlet passages, so that they can only be intro-
duced or withdrawn when the articles to which they are attached are in one
particular position.