IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DESKS AND SEATS, APPLICABLE TO THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Renwick Huston Gibson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th January 1873.-A communication from abroad by Alfred H.
Andrews, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, United States of
America.
I, RENWICK HUSTON GIBSON, of King Street, Cheapside, in the City
of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DESKS AND SEATS, APPLICABLE TO THE
USE OF SCHOOLS AND OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
school desks with or without seats attached to them, and consists of an
improved method of construction to render more casy the fitting
together of the separate parts of such desks and seats; also of an
improved method of hinging the seats so that they may readily be
turned up out of the way when not in use, and that when turned down
and used they may possess a certain amount of clasticity and be free
from jar and from noise; also of improved methods of constructing foot
rails and ink vessels for such desks.

page_text: In order to carry my Invention into operation I make two or more
frames of metal or other suitable material but preferably of cast iron, and
I arrange one of these frames at or near each end of the desk or scat, and
where necessary I arrange one or more additional frames at convenient
distances between the end ones described. I make these frames
ornamental if required, and I make their upper edges slightly inclined
in order that the desk board may form the proper angle when attached
to them. Upon the front edges of the upper parts of these frames I
attach the back of the seat which is arranged in front of the desk (80 as
to be used in connection with the next scat in advance when the scats
and desks are arranged in rows). For this purpose. I make the front
edges of the frames described curved to such a shape as may form a
convenient support to the backs of the persons using the scat.
At a suitable height from the ground I make each of the frames carry
a hinge or centre, upon which turns a bracket or bar which supports
the scat, and I make the upper edges of such brackets or bars of such a
curve as to give a convenient form to the seat.
In order to attach the desk board to the frames described I form
transverse grooves across the bottom of the desk board (which I prefer.
to make of wood), which grooves fit upon corresponding ribs or pro-
jections upon the top edge of the frames. And I make the grooves and
the ribs described of a dovetailed shape in cross section, so that when
fitted together they may be held firmly in position.
The desk board may be made of a series of strips instead of one board,
cach strip having transverse dovetailed grooves underneath fitting upon
the upper edges of the frames.
.
The back of the seat I form of a similar series of strips having
transverse dovetailed grooves at their back, which grooves fit upon
corresponding dovetail-shaped ribs upon the front upper curved edges of
the frames already described. The strips described forming the scat
back must not be of a width too great to prevent tlíc transverse grooves
in them from adjusting themselves to the curve of the franies.
I prefer to form the frames so that when the strips forming the back
of the scat have been adjusted in their places as described, the front
edge of the desk board abuts against the back of the top strip, and by
fixing one or more screws from below through the desk board and into.

page_text: the back of the strip the whole apparatus is held firmly and permanently
together.
I make the seat of a series of strips similarly made and having
tranverse dovetailed grooves beneath, which fit upon corresponding
transverse dovetail-shaped ribs upon the hinged arms or brackets
already described.
The strips forming the desk top, or the seat back, or the seat, or either
of these may be made of different colours so as to make the apparatus
more ornamental.
The hinge upon which the scat turns as described I construct as
follows: Upon each bracket or bar which carries the seat I make
at the point where the hinge is to be formed an annular lateral
projection which fits against a suitable socket upon the inside of the
frame.
The bracket or bar may be attached to the frame by means of a bolt,
pin, or rivet, passing through the centres of the annular projection and
of the socket respectively, and a hinge is thus formed upon which the
bracket or bar turns.
Formed at a suitable point upon the outer periphery of the annular
projection I make a projecting stop, which when the seat is pressed
down by being used abuts against a corresponding stop formed upon
the frame, which thus supports the weight. At a suitable point
inside the annular lateral projection upon the bracket or bar I form
another projecting stop, which when the seat is pressed down turns
towards but not into contact with a corresponding stop projecting
from the frame within the socket. And between the two stops last
described I place a piece of india-rubber or other sufficiently elastic
substance, and of such a size that before the seat is pressed down
by the weight upon it, so that the stops first described upon the
frame and the bracket respectively are in contact the india-rubber
must be compressed to a considerable extent. By this arrangement I
prevent any jar or noise when the seat is turned down and used.
At a convenient distance beneath the desk board I arrange a board to
serve as a book shelf, which fits upon grooves or ribs upon the inside of
the frames already described.
I prefer to form the lower ends of the frames with feet, by which
they may be screwed down to the floor of the room in which they are

page_text: used. Near their lower ends I sometimes arrange a cross rail of any
suitable material, but preferably of wood, to serve as a foot rail. I
prefer to make the ends of this foot rail fit into suitable sockets having
centres which turn in bearings formed upon the inner sides of the
frames. These centres are arranged nearer to one edge of the foot
rail than to the other; and by this arrangement by turning the foot
rail over upon its centres it can be brought a greater or less distance
from the seats so as to suit the size of the person using the seat.
Sometimes I make the sockets in which the centres turn in the form
of straight or curved grooves, and in this way I gain greater extent
of adjustment in the foot rail, which may be fixed in any required
position by means of screws passing through suitable holes in the
frames.
Where ink vessels are to be used fitted to school desks I prefer to
construct them as follows:-I fit an ink vessel (preferably of glass) into
a suitable circular holo in the desk board, and I form a flange to the
upper edge of the ink vessel. Round this flange I screw to the desk
board a hollow ring or gland which holds down the ink vessel by
means of a lateral projection upon the flange of the latter, but I make
the ring or gland with a recess of such a shape that when the ink
vessel is turned round so that its projection is opposite the recess, it can
be lifted out for the purpose of cleaning or changing it.
I also prefer to make a horizontal plate of metal or other suitable
material to serve as a cover to the ink vessel, and opening laterally by
turning upon one of its ends, which is jointed upon one of the screws
which hold the ring or gland described in its position.