IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DINING AND OTHER TABLES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Jewett Harris, of Greenwich, in the County
of Kent, Cabinet Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF DINING AND OTHER TABLES."
Sealed the 26th January 1858, and dated the 1st August 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Jewett Harris
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 1st August 1857.
I, WILLIAM JEWETT HARRIS, of Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Cabinet
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DINING AND OTHER TABLES," to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists in the application of the combined arrangement
of levers, known as the "lazy-tongs," for the purpose of expanding or con-
tracting telescope and sliding dining tables and other tables. The centre
pivot of each pair of levers may be secured to each rail belonging to the
slides, or the two ends, or any number required. The arms of the levers are
actuated by one or more screws, by racks and pinions, or by like suitable
means. The novelty of my said Invention consists in this application of the
system of compound levers, and not in any precise mode of causing the same
to expand or contract.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Jewett Harris in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st February 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JEWETT HARRIS, of Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Cabinet Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Jewett Harris, Her special licence that I, the said William
Jewett Harris, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Jewett Harris, 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 law-
fully 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 DINING AND OTHER TABLES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Jewett Harris, 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 is 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 Jewett Harris, 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 :-
My said Invention cousists in the application of the combined arrangement
of levers, known as the "lazy-tongs," for the purpose of expanding or con-
tracting telescope and sliding dining tables and other tables, the same being
actuated, by the aid of one or more screws, by racks and pinions, or by like
suitable means. And for the better understanding of my said improvements,
I will now proceed to give the details thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, in which the same letters refer to like parts
throughout.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a plan of one mode of applying my improvements to the
telescope slides of dining tables; Figure 2, No. 1, is a plan of another
arrangement, and No. 2 the screws, drawn up beside or over each other;
Figure 3 is a plan of under side of rails, with two setts of cross levers, each
worked by a screw; and Figure 4 is a plan of upper side of rails, showing
cross levers worked by rack and pinion. A is the top, and B the bottom end
of the table; C, C, C, C, the cross levers or lazy-tongs, having their centres
fixed to the rails D, D, D, and the extreme ends of the series secured at A
and B'; A, E, is a common screw turning freely in a collar F, and at G
passing through and retained in an internal screw nut, fastened to the rail D.
One or more of these screws may be used, when placed so as to screw up
beside or over each other, as in Figure 2, No. 1 and No. 2, and in Figure 3
where two setts of cross levers are employed, and the screw of one placed
behind and over the foremost screw. When using more than one screw, the
front ends of the second, third, and others are lengthened so as to be more
readily rotated by the moveable winch handle J, or the handle itself may be
lengthened. The operation of thus turning the screw or screws is to cause
the rail D, carrying G, (as in Figure 1,) to advance or recede; and in like
manner, if acting on a second sett of levers C¹, or the screws A', E¹, or A", E",
whereby all the rails are acted on in succession, and consequently to expand
or contract the several levers C and C¹ throughout each series. Or, the cross
levers may be operated on by a rack H, and the pinion I worked by the
handle or lever I¹.
It will thus be seen that in applying the combined arrangements described,
that the centre pivot of each pair of levers may be secured to each rail by a
pin on which to turn, or the two ends of the table, or to any number of
rails required; also that the levers may be actuated by one or more screws, or
the frames be worked by screws alone, and that both the single and double
action may be given to the slides by means of a rack and pinion worked by a
lever or otherwise. I also work the cross levers by fixing the series at each
extremity to the table ends, and having a separate screw fixed to each slide
nut, to be operated one after the other as the rails draw up.
Having thus fully described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would here observe that the application
of cross levers or "lazy-tongs" to dining tables, independent of the mode of
actuating them, is not new, it having been suggested to apply and work the
same by means of screw spindles and similar screw action, but such methods

page_text: do not answer in practice. I wish it also to be understood that I do not
restrict myself to the precise form, number, situation, or materials of the
several parts, so long as the principle of my said improvements is maintained.
And I hereby declare that what I claim as the Invention ntended to be
secured by the said Letters Patent is, the adaptation of a screw or screws,
or rack and pinion, constructed and arranged as above described, in com-
bination with cross levers or "lazy-tongs," to dining and other tables.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Jewett Harris, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of January, in the year of
of our Lord 1858.
W. J. HARRIS. (L.S.)