Improved Shop Assistants' Seat with Automatic Retiring Action.
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Shop Assistants' Seat with Automatic Retiring Action. !
We, HENRY WACKRILL, and WILLIAM GEORGE PRICE, trading as Wells and Son,
at bj, Wood Street, City of London, Shop Assistants' Seat and Hosiers' Window
Fittings Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:
'
•
This invention relates to a self or automatic retiring seat for linen drapers
and other assistants which only requires to be drawn or swung out from the
usual nests of pigeon holes or drawer frame usually behind a counter, and be
flush with the front thereof when not in use.
For the purpose of our invention, we shape a board or seat proper to say,
one fourth of a circular flat, and pivot it to metal straps from above and below a
shelf or drawer partition, the under side of which has a curved or segment race,
or sufficient of such as to steady the board or seat in its swinging motions. The
back of the board or seat is limited in its outward pull by check studs, or other
appliances, and ordinary door or pull springs, rubber rings, or rubber accumu-
lators can be fitted to return the seat into its pocket like receptacle under and
in contact for neatness with the shelf or partition and with the front edge flush
therewith.
To draw round the seat, a finger hold is formed in the under front edge, and
as it is drawn round, a person sits on it, and as he or she rises again, the seat
gently and securely retires and leaves the passage clear..
H. GARDNER,
Patent Agent, 166, Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said
Henry Wackrill, and
William George Price.
Improved Shop Assistants' Seat with Automatic Retiring Action.
We, HENRY WACKRILL and WILLIAM GEORGE PRICE, trading as Wells and Son,
at 63, Wood Street, City of London, Shop Assistants' Seat and Hosiers' Window
Fittings Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to a self or automatic retiring seat for linen drapers
and other assistants which only requires to be drawn or swung out from the
[Price 81i

page_text: usual nests of pigeon holes or drawer frame usually behind or at a back counter,
and be flush with the front thereof when not in use.
For the purpose of our invention, we shape a board or seat proper to, say,
one fourth of a circular flat and pivot it to metal straps from above and below a
shelf or drawer partition, the under side of which has a curved or segment race,
or sufficient of such as to steady the board or seat in its swinging motions. The
back of the board or seat is limited in its outward pull by check studs or other
appliances and ordinary door or pull springs, rubber rings or rubber accumu-
lators can be fitted to return the seat into its pocket like receptacle under and
in contact for neatness with the shelf or partition and with the front edge flush
therewith.
To draw round the seat, a finger hold is formed in the under front edge, and
as it is drawn round, a person sits on it, and as he or she rises again, the seat
gently and securely retires and leaves the passage clear.
Our invention will be clearly understood by reference to the annexed drawings.
Figure 1 plan view of the seat slab in a closed in condition.
Figure 2 shows the position of the seat slab when swung or drawn round
outwardly for use as a seat.
Figure 3 front elevation.
Figure 4 perspective view of a nest of drawers such as can be found behind
or at the back counters of most tradesmen's places of business.
A, seat slab. B, pivot or swing bolt. C, iron plate or strap as a tie or support
and fixed by screws D, D, to horizontal partition board E of a nest of pigeon
holes of a drawer frame F, such as represented at Figure 4.
G, weight carrying strap or tie bar similarly fixed to the board E by screws H,
H, and bolts I, 1', in conjunction with the under lipped piece J on which the
free edge of the seat slab A has a bearing to resist down thrust due to the weight
of a person sitting or even standing upon it, the depth of the inner edge portion
of the seat slab A from a to 6 for the full width of the seat being sufficient to
prevent all tendency to drop while a weight is upon it, whether upon its front
edge only or near the supporting points at B and I.
K, india rubber ring, metal spring, or the like, attached respectively to the
seat slab A and to the partition F' of the nest of drawers or pigeon holes to return
the seat slab back to its normal position, as at Figure 1, when released during
the uprising action of the sitter, or on the removal of the steadying bolt L, which
when the seat A has to be kept outwardly, as at Figure 2, engages in one of
the holes M. and retains it in that position, the returning spring K being kept
in tension.
With existing long tiers of pigeon holes or of drawer framing, the invention
will in no way interfere with the efficiency of the present fittings or fixtures, and
could be applied in any number to the upper shelf E of a nest, as at Figure 4,
which in most houses of business the drawers at that part immediately under
the counter back and front are dispensed with, and even where drawers are
fitted, the seat fitter could easily reduce the top edge of the drawer to make
room for our swinging seat A, which when closed in, lies flush and offers no
obstruction nor unsightliness to tiers or nests.
Such a slewing or swinging actioned seat slab A may be of ordinary wood
shaped or prepared to suit, or of papier mache or of other material, say, of three
or four ply cross grained veneers glued or cemented together on the flat, and in
order that such a seat slab may be slightly yielding it may be perforated without
destroying its strength and yet be more pleasing and less harsh to the eye of an
observer than a plain strip or slab of ordinary wood would be.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:
1. Pivotally arranging a seat slab for shop assistants from near one side
edge leaving the other side edge free to be swung or slewed round outwardly

page_text: by hand from and under a shelf, or a counter and be returnable by spring, as
and in the manner described and substantially as shown on the annexed drawings.
2. Pivotally connecting and arranging a self retiring segmentally shaped seat
slab A from near one end B to a metal strip C and to a counter shelf E, the
other end having a motion between such counter shelf E and a supporting lip
piece J in combination with a top strip F, as and for the purpose or purposes
described and represented.