IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES
Year: 1884

page_text: TRYIDIUNAL DILUIT
I, ARTHUR ERNEST KENNARD of Grand Parade, St Leonards-on-Sea in the
County of Sussex, Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to provide a chair for use by medical men and
others, which may be converted, as occasion may require, into a table for surgical
examinations and operations..
In carrying out my invention, I form the side frames of the chair with diagonal
stays or braces, in the upper ends of which I form bearings for a rod on which the
frame forming the back of the chair is hung in any convenient manner.
The seat of the chair is formed with a separate frame, which fits between the
side frames of the chair, and is hinged to the back in any convenient manner.
In the sides of the back and seat frames, grooves or slots are made to receive
slides, by which the two parts are locked together in a horizontal position when
the chair is converted into a table, and struts are hinged, to the underside of the
seat frame, which will serve to support the end of the table. These struts may be
arranged to slide in guides in the side frames of the chair.
To form the table, the top of the back is pulled over and depressed into a
horizontal position, and the seat will rise; the slides are then brought into position,
and the struts are placed so that the table thus formed is supported at one end by
the diagonal stays or braces, and at the other end by the struts.

page_text: I, ARTHUR ERNEST KENNARD of Grand Parade, St Leonard's on Sea in the
County of Sussex, Gentleman' do hereby declare the nature of my invention. for
IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
.
The object of this invention is to provide a simple and economical construction
of chair for use by medical men and others, which may be readily converted, as
occasion may require, into a table or horizontal support suitable for receiving the
patient who is required to undergo a surgical examination or an operation.
In the accompanying Drawing,
Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the chair taken at about the middle of its width, and
Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the chair, shewing the manner of supporting the
seat in its raised position.
A. A. is the framing of an arm chair strengthened at each side by a diagonal
stay A'. These stays are provided at their upper and projecting ends with metal
sockets for the reception of a transverse rock shaft B.-Made fast to this rock shaft
is a rectangular frame C forming, with its padding, the back of the chair. Hinged
to the lower end of this frame C is a rectangular frame D, padded like the back
frame, and made of such dimensions as to fit snugly within the chair frame A, and
bed upon the horizontal bars of that frame.
The covering of the back and seat I make in one piece, so that when the back
and seat are brought to a raised position to form an operating table, no junction of
the two frames C and D will be observable.
E is a strut frame hinged to the under side of the frame D, and serving to
support the seat in its raised position, as shown at Fig. 2.-The legs of this strut
frame enter recesses mado to receive them in the cross bar A² of the chair, as shown
by the section of the bar in Fig. 2; and to prevent the strut frame from rising out
of its bearings, the bar A* is provided with a sliding bolt e, which will lock the
strut frame to the cross bar.
Fitted to the opposite sides of the frame D, are sliding bolts d, which enter brass
sockets c in the frame C, and serve to lock the two parts firmly together when they
are brought to a horizontal position.
Supposing now it is desired to convert the chair into an operating table, it is
only necessary to tip the back frame C with its rock shaft by depressing the upper
end of the frame. This will cause the seat frame D to rise to the dotted position
of Fig. 1. The bolts d are then to be slidden forward, and the hinged joint of the
two frames being thus made rigid, the horizontal position of the parts will be
secured by guiding the legs of the strut frame into the recesses of the cross bar A³,
as illustrated by the front view Fig. 2. The throwing of the bolt e will then lock
the strut frame to the cross bar.
The operating table thus secured in position will be ready to receive a patient,
and will have no tendency to yield to the pressure of the load placed upon it.
In some cases it may be convenient to apply a head rest to the operating table;
such a rest is shown detached at Fig. 1º-It consists of two cranked brackets.to
which a board equal in length to the width of the table is made fast. These
cranked brackets terminate in tangs which are slipped into metal sockets provided
on the underside of the frame C to receive them.

page_text: The board is conveniently padded like the chair back, and the head rest thus
formed will, when applied as shown by dots in Fig. 1, stand some few inches above
the level of the operating table.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
Constructing chairs for surgical purposes with a movable back and seat so
arranged and fitted as to provide for their conversion into a raised operating table
in the manner above described.