IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO REVOLVING OR SWIVELLING SEATS, CHAIRS, STANDS, TABLES, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT. to William Hughes Blain, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO
REVOLVING OR SWIVELLING SEATS, CHAIRS, STANDS, TABLES, AND OTHER
LIKE ARTICLES."
>
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hughes Blain at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th January 1881.
WILLIAM HUGHES BLAIN, of Liverpool, in the County, of Lancaster. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO REVOLVING' OR SWIVELLING SEATS, CHAIRS,
STANDS, TABLES, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES."
:
In revolving chairs, as ordinarily constructed, they revolve upon a centre, and
consequently remain uniformly over the same area of floor; now my Invention is
designed so that when the seat rotates or swivels it moves to one side, thus giving
the occupant greater ease of exit.
For ships' use I prefer to make the lower part or stand of the chair a tripod, and
a very convenient form of this, and appropriate for the purpose, is three dolphins
with their tails entwined or crossed, and their heads projecting out with castors or
projecting nobs below, the three heads being united by a base plate with a hole in
to screw or bolt the centre of the seat to the deck if desirable. -
The table of this stand has preferably two curved slots crossing, and in the
"heart" formed thereby a peg working in a pointed eliptical slot in the stool seat.
Bolts from the stool seat pass through the slots in the stand, but are free to slide
in the slot; by this means the seat is free to slide or rotate to a very considerable
angle on each side, and at the same time move sideways. An inferior form of
mechanism to this is a simple excentric pivot for the seat, said pivot being if
desired free to slide in a slot, but held preferably to the centre of the slot by
springs or slight inclines.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Hughes Blain in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th July 1881.
"IMPROVE-
WILLIAM HUGHES BLAIN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster.
MENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO 'REVOLVING' OR SWIVELLING SEATS, CHAIRS,
STANDS, TABLES, AND OTHER LIKE. ARTICLES."
In revolving chairs, as ordinarily constructed, the seat revolves upon a centre, and
consequently remains uniformly over the same area of floor. Now my Invention
is designed so that when the seat rotates or swivels it moves to one side, thus
giving the occupant greater ease of exit.
For ships' use I prefer to make the lower part or stand of the chair a tripod, and
a very convenient form of this, and appropriate for the purpose, is three dolphins
with their tails entwined or crossed, and their heads projecting out with castors or
projecting nobs below, the three heads being united by a base plate with a hole in
to screw or bolt the centre of the seat to the deck if desirable. Or the stand may
be of any convenient form, according to the purpose to which it is applied.
On the top of this stand I place a table or disc A with two long curved slots C, C',
formed in it, crossing each other near one end, and in the centre of the disc, and
between these slots I fix a bolt or peg D which slides in a pointed elliptical slot E
in the friction plate. The friction plate B moves over the surface of the disc A,
and is rigidly attached to the seat of the chair, and pins F, F, fastened in it pass
into and are free to slide in the slots in the disc. By this means the seat is free to
slide or rotate to a very considerable angle on each side, and at the same time
move sideways.
Referring to the Drawings, Fig. 1 is a plan view of the disc A with the friction
plate B, shown in dotted lines in its normal position when the seat is in use;
Fig. 2, a plan of the friction plate B; Fig. 3, a section on line x, x, and Fig. 4,
section of the friction plate on line y, y.
The position of a chair shown in Fig. 1 is that of one arranged to turn to the
left with the front of the seat at Z, and as it turns the pin F slides in slot C until
it reaches the other end at c, the slot E at the same time moving about the pin D,
until the end d of the slot is in contact with the pin D. The chair will then have
turned half way round, and the front edge (Z) of the seat will be level with the
edge of the disc at Y, thus leaving several more inches between the front
edge of the seat and another chair placed on the left hand side of it. The half
revolution is completed when the pin F¹ in the slot C¹ travels to f, and the end e
of the slot E has travelled round to the pin D..
An inferior form of mechanism to this is a simple excentric pivot for the seat,
said pivot being if desired free to slide in a slot, but held preferably to the centre
of the slot by springs or slight inclines.
Having now described my Invention, and the best mode known to me of
carrying it into effect, I wish it to be understood that what I believe to be new,
and desire to protect under the hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The manufacture of revolving or swivelling chairs, seats, stands, tables,
and other like articles in which the seat, stand, or table, instead of being pivoted
on its centre, is pivoted on a movable axis, or its equivalent, so that as it rotates or
swivels it moves to one side, and thus gives the person using it greater ease of exit.
Second. The general arrangement, design, and combination of parts, substantially

page_text: as herein described, no claim being made for any one part taken separately and
used for a different purpose, but only when used in combination as set forth.
"
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hughes Blain, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
WILLIAM HUGHES BLAIN. (LS.)