IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS,
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Angelo James Sedley, of 210; Regent Street, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Angelo James Sedley
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th November 1860.
I, ANGELO JAMES SEDLEY, of 210, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAIRS,
SOFAS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF FURNITURE USED TO SIT OR RECLINE UPON," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in chairs, sofas, and other
articles of furniture used to sit or recline upon. For these purposes in con-
structing chairs, or sofas, or like articles of furniture the backs are supported on
axes or necks near their lower ends, and the lower ends of such backs are attached
by pin joints or otherwise to the backs of the seats. The fronts of the seats
are arranged to move to and fro over the front or front rails, the side bars or
rails of the seats resting and moving on pulleys or rollers mounted on axes at
the fronts of the chairs or sofas, or like articles of furniture, or on the front
rails thereof, and in order to retain the back of a chair or sofa or like article of
furniture in a desired position a lever catch is employed moving on an axis by
preference near the front of the chair or sofa or other like article, such lever

page_text: catch having notches or teeth formed thereon which take on to or against a
fixed stop or stud at the side of the seat of the chair or sofa or other article.
The chairs or sofas or other articles to which my Invention is applied may be
folding chairs, or otherwise, and they may be made with elbows or without
elbows.
In making invalid and such like bedsteads, and also in making some
classes of sofas, or such like articles of furniture, in place of the backs being
moveable with the seats as above explained, the ends or heads may be similarly
connected with respect to the seats or lower parts, which may in such cases
move over the end or end rail on pulleys or rollers, and be retained in any
desired position by means of lever catches and stops, as before explained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Angelo James Sedley in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th May 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANGELO
JAMES SEDLEY, of 210, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Angelo James Sedley, Her special licence that I, the said Angelo
James Sedley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Angelo James Sedley, 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 CHAIRS, SOFAS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF FURNITURE USED TO
SIT OR RECLINE UPONx," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Angelo
James Sedley, my executors or administrators, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Angelo James Sedley, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in chairs, sofas, and other
articles of furniture used to sit or recline upon. For these purposes in construct-
ing chairs or sofas, or like articles of furniture, the backs are supported on
axes or necks near their lower ends, and the lower ends of such backs are
attached by pin joints or otherwise to the backs of the seats. The fronts of
the seats are arranged to move to and fro over the front or front rails, the side
bars or rails of the seats resting and moving on pulleys or rollers mounted on axes
at the fronts of the chairs or sofas, or like articles, or on the front rails thereof;
and in order to retain the back of a chair or sofa or like article of furniture in a
desired position, a lever catch is employed moving on an axis, by preference,
near the front of the chair or sofa or other like article, such lever catch having
notches or teeth formed thereon which take on to or against a fixed stop or
stud at the side of the seat of the chair or sofa, or other article. The chairs
or sofas, or other articles to which my Invention is applied, may be folding chairs,
or otherwise and they may be made with elbows or without elbows.
In making invalid and such like bedsteads, and also in making some classes
of sofas, or such like articles of furniture, in place of the backs being moveable
with the seats as above explained, the ends or heads may be similarly connected
with respect to the seats or lower parts, which may in such cases move over
the end or end rail on pullies or rollers, and be retained in any desired
position by means of lever catches and stops, as before explained.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side elevation; and Figure 2, a front elevation of a chair,
constructed according to my Invention.
a and b are two metal frames connected together at c, c, by pin joints, and
there are stops & to prevent the two frames opening too far and to retain them
in the proper open position; in these respects the two frames do not differ from
what have been before employed in constructing metal frames for chairs and
other seats. The two ends of the frames 6 are connected together by a rod.
or bar e, which is fixed by screws or nuts, as shewn, or it may be otherwise

page_text: into the forked ends a¹, a¹, of the frame a, and such pins or studs are retained
in such forks by the hooked catches h, h, as shewn. Or the back may be pin-
jointed in the ordinary manner, but the'manner of connecting the back of the
chair with the frame a, shewn in the Drawing, is that which is preferred, as
it admits of the parts of a chair being readily separated, and facilitates close
packing; i, i, is the frame of the seat and its ends j, j, pin-jointed to the ends
'of the back frame, as shewn. The back and seat frames may be separately
stuffed, or a suitable stuffing may be made for being attached to the top rail
and bottom rail of the back and the front rail of the seat frame, but whether
the stuffing is formed one way or the other it constitutes no part of my In-
vention; k, k, are two pulleys mounted on the front bar or rod e, and on these
pullies or rollers the seat frame is supported and moved; 7 is a lever catch by
which the back of the chair is retained at any desired inclination according to
the notch in the lever catch, which, for the time, receives the projecting stud m
fixed on the side rail of the seat frame. The lever catch moves on an axis n
at its front end, and at or near the front of the chair, by preference, at the
right-hand side of the chair, by which arrangement the person sitting in the
chair can with facility change the position or inclination of the back of the
chair, whilst sitting thereon; thus in the event of it being desired that the
back should be caused to incline more backwards, on lifting the lever catch off
the stud m by the right-hand, and pressing against the back of the chair, the
back will be caused to incline more and more backwards, whilst the seat will
be caused to come forward, then by pressing down the lever catch the back
will be retained at the inclination to which it has been pressed, and then in the
event of its being desired that the back of the chair should assume and be
retained in a more upright position, the person in the chair will only have
to lift the lever catch away from the stud m, and incline the person forward,
when the greater weight on the seat will cause it to move back, whilst the
back of the chair will come forwards till stopped by pressing down the lever
catch.
Figure 3 shews a side elevation; Figure 4, a vertical section of another
chair, the frame. of which is of wood; and Figure 5 shews a back elevation
thereof.
a, a, is the frame which supports the seat. In this arrangement the frame
is not a folding framing. is the front rail of the frame of the chair. The
chair shewn is without elbows but if desired chairs with elbows may be
constructed, and it is preferred when having elbows that they should be formed
with and form part of the frame a, a, which will readily be done, seeing that
the back parts of the frame a rise some height above the side rails of the

page_text: frame a, and such raised parts are, by preference, connected by a back bar x,
as shewn; f,f, is the frame of the back of the chair, which has fixed thereto
two axes or necks 9, 9, which turn in suitable bearings a', a', formed on the
raised parts of the frame a, a, of the chair; i, i, is the frame of the seat of the
chair. The frame of the seat and the frame of the back of the chair are con-
nected together by hinges at j,j, as is shewn by the Drawings.. The stuffing
of this chair may be performed in any convenient manner, as above explained,
in respect to the chair with a metal front, or by the stuffing being fixed to the
back and seat respectively, as is shewn, provision being made at the parts
where they are connected for allowing the back: to assume varying angles with
the seat; is a lever catch (by preference at the right-hand side) having its
axis at its front end and near the front rail of the chair. The seat rests on and
moves over the rollers k, k.
When constructing a sofa according to my Invention the frame of the elbow
is supported by necks or axes on raised ends or stumps on the end of the
front and back rail; the seat in place of being fixed is made on a frame in like
manner to the frame of the seat of the chair just described, but of greater
length, and such frame is supported on rollers or pullies, which move on axes
affixed to the frame of the sofa, near the opposite end to that at which the
elbow is applied, and it is preferred that the under surfaces of the back and
front rails of the seat where they rest in and are supported by the rollers or
pullies should have a slight inclination, so that that end of the seat may
slightly rise as the seat is moved over the rollers or pullies, by which the seat
when pressed on will have a tendency at all times when free to move back
towards the end where the elbow is attached. In order to prevent the end of
the seat to which the lower end of the elbow is attached rising when the elbow
is caused to incline more and more the ends of the frame of the elbow in place
of being connected to the seat by hinges, such ends have projecting pins or
studs, which enter vertical slots fixed on the back and front rail, by which, as
the elbow is inclined more and more, the seat will be pushed away from the
lower ends of the frame of the elbow and not raised thereby. A like lever
rack to that above described is applied to the frame of the sofa near the
end where the elbow is applied, and a stud is affixed to the front rail of the
seat.
In making invalid and such like bedsteads according to my Invention the
head frame is connected to the stuffed part of the bed, and the head frame is
supported by necks or axes by stumps or posts at the head end of the frame.
The frame of the bedstead, in like manner to the frame a of the chair last
described, is separate from the surface of the bedstead, on which persons recline,

page_text: and such surface, as in the chair and sofa, is carried by a separate frame, which
at the head end is connected to the head frame, whilst the foot end is sup-
ported by rollers or pullies. The head frame and the frame on which the bed
is made may be hinged together, or be attached as above described; in regard
to the seat and elbow of a sofa a like lever catch is applied to the frame of
the bedstead, and a stud on the frame, which sustains the bed, such lever
catch and stud being applied near the head of the bedstead.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to the
mechanical parts separately; but what I claim is the mode herein de-
scribed of combining such parts, either together or separately, in the con-
struction of chairs and sofas and bedsteads.
In witness whereof, I, the said Angelo James Sedley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
ANGELO J. SEDLEY. (L.S.)