AN IMPROVED STEEL SEAT OR CHAIR
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ferdinand Remy, of Paris, Rue du Faubourg
St. Martin, No. 68, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED STEEL SEAT OR CHAIR."
Sealed the 14th August 1868, and dated the 25th February 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ferdinand Remy at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 25th February 1868.
I, FERDINAND REMY, of Paris, Rue du Faubourg St. Martin,
No. 68, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED STEEL SEAT OR CHAIR," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to make a seat or chair of which the
seat proper and the back are each-made of one piece of steel. Thus
the scat proper is composed of a single piece of steel plate, the size or
extent of which is the size or extent of the seat proper. I cut out parts
with a punch or otherwise from the steel plate so as to produce a design
and to give elasticity to the seat. The steel plate is then placed on a
mandril, upon which it receives by stamping the convexity desired, while

page_text: at the same time fillets or strips are cut out to improve the appearance.
The steel plate is then tempered, and it is only necessary to place it on a
frame to have a perfectly elastic seat.
I have the following particular mode of connecting it to the frame :-
On the circumference of the steel plate I leave a strip or band of
about rd or an inch which is applied on the inner face of the crown
which forms the frame, and it is fixed to this crown by small rivets
which do not pass through the band or strip, but are placed at intervals
some above and some below the band; then I place inside against the
band a second crown which presses. the band against the outer crown.
The two crowns which thus hold the circumference of the steel plate
between them are firmly connected together by bolts or rivets. The
inner crown carries below the full parts of the steel plate small counter-
plates the number of which varies according to requirement, and which
are rivetted to this crown.
I make the back of the seat also from one piece of steel plate punched
into the desired form, then applied on a mandril by which the upper
and lower ends are doubled or folded so that the plate is in section
somewhat of C form; the steel plate is finally submitted to tempering.
It is applied to the back frame by means of a projection or arm at each
corner of the plate. The seat proper and the back made as before
described may afterwards be covered with any suitable material.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Ferdinand Remy in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd August 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FERDINAND
REMY, of Paris, Rue du Faubourg St. Martin, No. 68, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Ferdinand Remy, Her special licence,
that I, the said Ferdinand Remy, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns, or such others as I, the said Ferdinand Remy, 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 "AN IMPROVED
STEEL SEAT OR CHAIR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Ferdinand Remy, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 Ferdinand Remy, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
The object of my Invention is to manufacture chairs, couches, and
other seats with a flexible steel bottom and a flexible steel back. The
seat bottom and the back are each cut separately from a piece of steel
plate or sheet steel which is submitted to various operations in order
to give the desired form to the bottom and to the back.
The mode of manufacture is based on a particular cutting by a punch
of the steel plate in order to obtain by means of openings or parts cut
away the clasticity and flexibility which are indispensable in the seat
bottoms and backs of metal chairs or seats. This mode of manufacture
will be understood by reference to the annexed Drawings and the
following description:
:-
In order to form the scat bottom or seat proper of the chair or other
seat, I take a piece of steel plate A, Figure 1, of suitable size, and I
submit it to the action of a punch to cut away parts thereof. I thus
obtain a plate with openings as represented at A¹, Figure 2. This plate
or seat bottom A' being thus formed I separate each tongue or section B
near the circumference only by removing a part of the metal at C, as
seen in Figure 3. The use of this operation is explained from the fact
that the diameter of the frame to which the seat bottom A' is to be fixed

page_text: is smaller than that of the seat bottom, and consequently the bringing
nearer together of the tongues or sections at the time of mounting or
fixing facilitates the bulging out of the steel bottom. A hole D pierced
in each tongue or section serves for the passage of the fixing rivets.
After these operations I temper the steel plate or seat bottom A¹, and it
is then only necessary to place it on the frame a, Figure 10. This
frame a is formed with holes in its periphery corresponding in number
to the tongues or sections of the seat bottom; I then fix cach tongue
following each hole of the frame a. .I strengthen each tongue below
near the circumference by pieces b and c represented in Figures 4 to 9.
The piece consists of a small counterplate of tempered steel formed
with a hole for the rivet; the piece c is a sort of lug support of iron
bent a little at the upper part in order that when a person sits upon the
seat the tongues or sections of the seat by bearing on these pieces may
be supported at the whole of the circumference. Four or more of these
pieces c carry a second lug d below, as seen in Figures 8 and 9; it serves
to fix the finished seat bottom to the chair. I first place the piece b
under the tongue or section of the seat bottom, I apply the support c
above and I rivet on the crown or frame a; it is the same with each
tongue. I have thus a flexible and solid metallic seat bottom. Figure 10
shews the bottom complete; Figure 11 is a vertical section to show
its internal parts; Figure 12 is a view of part of the seat bottom, as
seen from below.
The back of the seat or chair is constructed in an analogous manner.
I take a sheet or plate of steel which I cut or punch first, as shown
at D, Figure 13; I afterwards submit it to a second punching which
divides or separates the tongues or sections at the upper and lower ends,
as seen in Figure 14; I then temper it, and it is ready to be mounted
or fitted. Each tongue or section is rivetted between two bands fixed
to the frame of the seat back. The steel back may be bent on a mandril
to the form of the human back in order to be more comfortable.
My elastic seat bottoms and backs, each composed of a single piece
of steel, apply to seats of various descriptions; several examples are
shown in Figures 15 to 19.
Figures 20 and 21 represent the elastic bottom applied to a chair of
bent wood or rattan. I take a crown or circular piece of wood fin
which a mortise is cut; I place the elastic seat bottom therein. (see.
Figure 21) and secure it there by rivetting, cement, or otherwise.. The

page_text: seat bottom being thus complete it is fixed to the chair in the manner
hercin-before described. This mode of fixing will be found convenient
for transport or removal, as the seat can be readily taken to pieces and
put together.
My scats or chairs may, if desired, be covered with any desired fabric
or other material.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the
construction of steel seats or chairs, of which the seat bottom and the
back are (or either the bottom or the back) are cach made from one
piece of steel, with openings formed therein to give elasticity and
flexibility, substantially as herein-before described and represented in
the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ferdinand Remy, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
23, B. de Strasbourg,
Paris.
FERDINAND REMY. (L.S.)