Improvements in Reversible Seats and Back Rests for Children's Mail Carts and for other purposes.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Oct., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 18th July, 189:-Accepted, 22nd Aug., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Reversible Seats and Back Rests for Children's
Mail Carts and for other purposes.
We, REUBEN TOMLIN, of 65, Cuttell Road, Smallheath, Warwickshire, Coach
Builder, and JAMES HOPE, of back of 14, Arthur Street, Smallheath, aforesaid,
Fitter, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention consists in the herein described improved construction and arrange-
ment of reversible seats and back rests for children's mail carts, omnibuses, traincars,
railway carriages and for other purposes where the position of the back rest
relatively to the seat is required to be reversible to enable the user or rider to sit
either with his face or back towards the same direction and to enable persons using
two-adjacent seats to sit either vis à vis or back to back.
According to one arrangement of carrying out our invention the back of the seat
is made double that is to say it consists of two boards or frames which we will
call A and B hinged together at or near their upper edges the inner board or
frame A being also hinged to the edge of the seat. The outer board or frame B is
at each side jointed by a side link to a fixed point at a certain distance above the
seat these side links maintaining the back in its required upright or nearly upright
position. These side links are made of such a length and they are so situated at
their ends as to permit of the board or frame B of the back being turned over to
serve as the back of the other side of the seat when the board or frame A will lie
flat on the seat. The said links maintain the back in position also so long as the
board or frame A which now forms the seat is not raised.
When our invention is applied to a mail cart for two children it enables them to
sit either back to back or face to face or the mail cart to be used as a bassinette for
a child to lie in.
In a modification of our invention we use a single back and with side links as
above described but in this case the lower edge of the back is not hinged to the
seat but it fits in a groove or recess therein at either side.
Dated this 20th day of October 1890.
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY,
Agent for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Reversible Seats and Back Rests for Children's
Mail-carts and for other purposes.
We, REUBEN TOMLIN, of 65, Cattell Road, Smallheath, Warwickshire, Coach
Builder, and JAMES HOPE, of back of 14, Arthur Street, Smallheath, aforesaid,
Fitter, 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 consists in the herein described improved construction and
arrangement of reversible seats and back rests for children's mail carts, omnibuses,
tramcars, railway carriages and for other purposes where the position of the back
rest relatively to the seat is required to be reversible to enable the user or rider to
sit either with his face or back towards the same direction and to enable persons
using two adjacent seats to sit either vis à ris or back to back.
In the accompanying drawing we have illustrated our invention as applied to a
children's mail cart, our invention enabling two children to sit in the mail cart

page_text: either back to back or face to face, or the mail cart to be used as a bassinette for a
child to lie in.
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation and Fig. 2 is a plan of a mail cart with our
invention applied, the shafts however being represented as broken off; in these
figures the seat backs are in the positions to enable two children to sit face
to face.
Fig. 3 is an elevation and Fig. 4 a plan of the body part of the said mail cart
with the seat backs in the positions for two children to sit back to back.
The two usual seats of the mail cart are marked respectively C and D and as our
invention is applied to each of these seats in exactly the same manner the description
of our invention as applied to one of them, say the seat C, will suffice.
In carrying out our invention the back of the seat C is made double, that is to
say, it consists of two boards or frames marked respectively A and B (see Figs. 1
and 2) hinged together at e near their upper edges, the inner board or frame A
being also hinged at to the outside edge of the seat C. The outer board or
frame B is at each side jointed at y to one end of a side link h which at its other
end turns about a screw or pin i fixed to the side of the mail cart about half way
between the points e and f. The distance between the points g and i of each of the
side links has to be about equal to half the distance between the point g when
the board or frame B is in the position shewn by Fig. 1 and the position of the
same point when the board or frame B is in the position shewn by Fig. 3. The
side links h maintain the double back A B in its required upright or nearly upright
position as shewn by Figs. 1 and 2, and they also permit of the board or frame B
of the back being turned over to serve as the back of the other side of the seat C
when the board or frame A will be flat on the seat C as shewn in Figs. 3 and 4, the
links having turned through a semi-circle. The links maintain the back B in
this position (Figs. 3 and 4) also so long as the board or frame A which now forms
the seat is not raised.
When the backs of the seats C and D are turned up as shewn in Figs. 1 and 2,
the two children occupying the mail cart sit on the seats C and D face to face, their
feet resting on the usual central foot rest j, or the mail cart can, by placing a board
across from the seat C to the seat D to cover the space between the same, be used
as a bassinette for a child to lie in; and when the backs of the seats are turned to
the positions shewn by Figs. 3 and 4 the two children sit back to back their feet
resting on the usual foot rests k and I respectively.
Our arrangement of the boards or frames A and B and their side links is
applied to a mail cart having only one seat and to the seats of omnibuses, tramcars
railway carriages and to other seats similarly as hereinbefore described and
illustrated as applied to a mail cart.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
The construction and combination of the parts of reversible seats and back rests
for children's mail carts and for omnibuses, tram cars, railway carriages and other
seats hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing; that is
to say, making the seat back of two boards or frames such as A and B hinged
together, one of the said boards or frames being hinged to one edge of the seat and
the other connected by side links to fixed points at the sides of the seat, so that the
said two boards or frames can either be used as a double back at one edge of
the seat (Figs. 1 and 2) or be turned over and form a single back at the other
edge thereof (Figs. 3 and 4) substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated this 17th day of July 1891.
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY,
Agent for the Applicants.