AN IMPROVEMENT IN A RECLINING CHAIR
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Stephen Summerford, of 4, Hemmings
Row, W.C., for the Invention of “AN IMPROVEMENT IN A RECLINING
CHAIR,"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Stephen
Summerford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 27th January 1874.
I, JAMES STEPHEN SUMMERFORD, of 4, Hemmings Row, W.O., do.
5 hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
A RECLINING CHAIR," to be as follows:-
The framework of the chair A, D, as in Drawing, acts on a pivot at E
and a rack C, and allows the chair to be either folded into a flat shape
as in Drawing No. 3, extended fully as in Drawing No. 2, or placed at
any angle that may be required. There is a roller at A round which the
back F may be coiled to suit the angle at which the chair is placed, the
roller then being secured by a metal pin and rack. The back F is

page_text: fastened to the seat at B; G is a moveable cushion which may be raised
or lowered as desired.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, I wish it
understood that I do limit myself to or claim any peculiarity in the
shape of the seat or back of the chair, or to any of the details of the
construction thereof, or to any particular material; but I claim the
power of raising or lowering the seat of the chair to any angle or
required position, either by shortening or lengthening the hanging back
(which I prefer to do by means of a roller), or by altering the point of
connection of the seat with the back, thus enabling the chair to be
either used upright as an ordinary sitting chair, or to be extended to any
angle or position as a lounge. This is the only chair which can be used
for both purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Stephen Summerford in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 13th June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
STEPHEN SUMMERFORD, of 4, Hemmings Row, W.C., send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said James Stephen Summerford,
Her special licence that I, the said James Stephen Summerford, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
James Stephen Summerford, my executors, administrators, 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, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,. and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN A RECLINING CHAIR," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Stephen Summerford,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing, under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describo and

page_text: 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 months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Stephen Summerford, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:
The framework of the chair A, D, as in Drawing, acts on a pivot at E
and a rack C, and allows the chair to be either folded into a flat shape
as in Drawing No. 3, extended fully as in Drawing No. 1, or placed at
any angle that may be required. There is a roller at A round which the
back F may be coiled to suit the angle at which the chair is placed, the
roller then being secured by a metal pin and rack. The back F is
fastened to the seat at B; G is a moveable cushion which may be raised
or lowered as desired.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, I wish it
understood that I do not limit myself to or claim any peculiarity in the
shape of the seat or back of the chair, or to any of the details of the
construction thereof, or to any particular material; but I claim the
power of raising or lowering the seat of the chair to any angle or
required position, either by shortening or lengthening the hanging back
(which I prefer to do by means of a roller) or by altering the point of
connection of the seat with the back, thus enabling the chair to be either
used upright as an ordinary sitting chair, or to be extended to any
desired angle as a lounge. This is the only chair which can be used for
both purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Stephen Summerford, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of Junc in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-