AN IMPROVED PIECE OF FURNITURE CONVERTIBLE INTO A SEAT WITH BACK ON EITHER SIDE
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Laurie, Educational Publisher, 38, Cockburn
Street, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
PIECE OF FURNITURE CONVERTIBLE INTO A SEAT WITH BACK ON EITHER SIDE,
Sealed the 25th May 1866, and dated the 29th November 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Laurie at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
November 1865.
I, THOMAS LAURIE, Educational Publisher, 38, Cockburn Street, Edin-
burgh, Edinburghshire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED PIECE OF FURNITURE CONVERTIBLE INTO A SEAT WITH BACK ON
EITHER SIDE, A SEAT WITH DESK ON EITHER SIDE, OR A SEAT WITH TABLE ON
EITHER SIDE," to be as follows:-
A bench of wood forming a seat (marked a in accompanying Diagram),
supported at both ends by metal standards with projecting feet (b, 6,) on
which the bench is fixed. Two metal bars (c, c,) are secured to the standards
by means of bolts passing through holes pierced in each standard and each
bar (d, d,) so as to permit the free action of the bar from side to side of the

page_text: seat. The upper ends of the bars are secured by a screw to the two ends of
a bench of wood (e, e,) clasped with iron the same length as the seat, on the
edge of which it reclines, so as to form a solid back (t). Attached to the
standards and stretching from side to side are two bars of iron (9), inside of
which the bars (c, c,) work. The bench being supported and swung on the
iron bars, can be transferred to either side of the seat, or by means of metal
pins passed through holes pierced in the upper ends of the bars (at c), can
be elevated to become a desk with any slope or a table (as in Diagram 2).
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Laurie in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th May 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
LAURIE, Educational Publisher, of Thirty-eight Cockburn Street, Edinburgh,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Laurie, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Laurie,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Laurie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "Con-
VERTING A BACKED SEAT INTO A DESK OR TABLE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE SEAT, TO BE
CALLED 'LAURIE'S BRITISH SCHOOL DESK, SEAT, AND TABLE,'" upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Laurie, my executors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and 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 Thomas Laurie, do hereby declare the

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
A bench of wood forming a seat (a, a,) is supported at both ends by metal
standards (6,6,) on which the bench is fixed. Two bars (c, c,) are secured
to the standards by means of bolts passed through holes pierced in each
standard and each bar (d, d). The top of the bars are secured by a nut and
screw (e, e,) to the two ends of a bench of wood (f) forming the back
of the seat. Attached to the tops of each standard, and stretching from
side to side of the seat, are metal plates (9, 9,) which assist to keep the
bars in position, and within which the bars work from side to side. The
bench specified as forming the back of the seat (f), being supported and
swung on the iron bars, can be transferred from one side of the seat to the
other, or by means of metal pins (h) passed through holes pierced in the
upper ends of the bars (j, j,) can be supported so as to serve either as a
table (k) or as a desk (1) of any requisite slope.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Laurie, have heretofore set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord
1866.
THOMAS LAURIE. (L.s.)