IMPROVEMENTS IN THE · CONSTRUCTION OF SEATS, CHAIRS, SOPAS, LOUNGES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OF FURNITURE
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Gedge, of the Firm of John Gedge
and Son, of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
· CONSTRUCTION OF SEATS, CHAIRS, SOPAS, LOUNGES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES
OF FURNITURE."-A communication from abroad by François Carré, of
the Rue du Faubourg. Saint Martin. Paris, France.
Sealed the 7th January 1864, and dated the 7th July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Gedge
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th July 1863.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of
No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SEATS, CHAIRS, SOFAS, LOUNGES, AND OTHER SIMILAR
ARTICLES OF FURNITURE," a communication to me from abroad by François
Carré, of the Rue de Faubourg, Saint Martin, Paris, France, to be as
follows:-
The seat of the chair is composed of a number of radiating metal laths or
plates, joined together at the axis of the circle which they form by bolting to a
metal cover occupying the centre of the seat; it is not necessary that the bolts
play in slots, as the radiating plates do not lengthen under pressure. The
other end of each of these radiating plates is bent, and, forming a curve of
about a quarter circle, is bolted inside the ring or frame of the seat. The
bolt which secures the outer end of each radiating plate to the frame passes

page_text: first through the chair frame, then through the radiating plate, then through
a steel plate, which runs beneath the radiating plates towards the centre,
extending, however, but little beyond the curve, finally through a flat piece of
iron, where it is rivetted or fastened by a nut. The short steel plates beneath
the radiating plates always tend to raise these latter when pressed down by a
super-incumbent weight, and the flat piece of iron above-mentioned serves in
the first place to strengthen the rivetting, and further to keep the entire
breadth of the short steel plate pressed against the radiating plate. The back
of the chair is formed of a succession of vertical metal plates or laths, placed
at suitable intervals, and with their upper and lower ends bent over and
rivetted to two cross pieces extending from side to side of the framing of the
chair back, the one near the seat, the other near the upper part of the chair
back. With some modifications these improvements are applicable to garden
'seats, sofas, and other seats.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent; filed
by the said William Edward Gedge in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th January 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of No. 11, Wellington
Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Gedge, Her special licence that I, the said William
Edward Gedge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Gedge, 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 Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SEATS, CHAIRS, SOFAS, LOUNGES, AND
OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OF FURNITURE," a communication to me from abroad by
François Carré, of the Rue du Faubourg; Saint Martin, Paris, France,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Gedge,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or

page_text: their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 William Edward Gedge, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawing hereunto
annexed, and forming part of this Specification, and to the figures and letters
of reference placed thereon, similar letters denoting similar parts in each of
the Figures respectively :-
The arrangement and shape of the pieces, forming the improvements the
subject of this Invention, permits their easy application to all the following
articles, namely, music stools, ordinary and other chairs, easy chairs of all sorts,
sofas, couches, garden seats, and chairs, divans, benches and seats for theatres,
office stools and chairs, and generally to all articles of furniture intended for
similar uses. The luxuriousness of the article is completed by these improve-
ments, inasmuch as while giving to it all the elasticity inherent to this
arrangement, they necessitate no alteration affecting its style, and it need
scarcely be remarked that the article of furniture may be entirely covered with
stuff of any desired quality.
In order that the application and efficiency of these improvements may be
thoroughly understood, they are illustrated on the Sheet of Drawing, and
herein-after described as applied to a garden chair, Figure 1 representing
section of seat taken at A, B; Figure 2, which is a plan of thé seat seen from
beneath; Figure 3, lateral elevation of chair; Figure 4, back elevation of
same; and Figure 5, the general plan. The shape given to the article shewn
Figures 3, 4, and 5, is that habitually given to garden chairs, but the shape is
quite independant of these.
Improvements which apply generally.-The section, Figure 1, and plan,
Figure 2, show the fitting of the parts forming a seat of this Invention.
A indicates radiating laths or plates coming together at the axis of the
circle which they form; they are indiscriminately united by one extremity
to an open worked iron or other metal cover or plate B by bolts a. It has
been found quite useless to leave a slot or groove at the rivets or bolts,
inasmuch as the elasticity of the radiating laths in nowise lengthens under the
pressure exercised on the middle of the seat; thus it will be seen that this
arrangement is of the simplest, being a circle of iron pierced with holes

page_text: corresponding to the axis of the radiating laths, also pierced with holes, the
whole being riveted to form the centre of the seat.. At the opposite extremity
the laths are bent over, forming a curve of about one-fourth of a circle, and
come against the ring or frame C of the seat; a rivet or bolt d traverses the
axis of the lath, and carries at the same time another lath or plate of steel E
following the shape of the lath A; this rivet also fixes another flat piece of
iron Fat the same place, the whole is riveted to the frame C, and the seat of
the chair is complete. It will be observed that the steel lath or plate E
terminates at the formation of the tangent of the axis; further it is placed
beneath the lath, and riveted at the same place from being placed beneath;
if its elasticity be forced at the rivet, it can but tend with all its force to push
or lift the main lath, it being the tendency of every spring to resume its normal
position. An action is here obtained which experience has shewn to be
always, under no matter what pressure, such that it tends constantly to drive
the radiating laths from the elasticity when pressure is brought on the.axis,
and on the contrary when there is no pressure, the whole remains immovable
and, forcibly so, inasmuch as the laths being riveted in the centre.cannot
lengthen, and hence immobility. The flat piece of iron F above mentioned
serves, firstly, to consolidate the riveting, but further to keep the entire
breadth of the plate E constantly against the lath, so that its action may be
effected on its entire surface.
In the application of this Invention to chairs the back is formed of vertical
laths G, see Figures 3, 4, and 5, bent at the ends where they are fixed by
rivets 6 to the cross pieces H, H; these laths possess all the flexibility
necessary to produce the elasticity indispensable to their return to the normal
point, when the pressure of the back of the seated person is withdrawn on his
rising, and are based on the same principle as the preceding.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and means by
which I carry it into practical effect, I would have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise. details herein given so that the distinctive
character of these improvements be retained.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Gedge, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
W. E. GEDGE. (LS.)