Ix- PROVEMENTS IN ADJUSTABLE CHAIRS AND OTHER SEATS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alston, of Preston, in the County of
Lancaster, Builder and Cabinet Maker, for the Invention of “Ix-
PROVEMENTS IN ADJUSTABLE CHAIRS AND OTHER SEATS."
Sealed the 9th July 1875, and dated the 16th January 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alston at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th January 1875.
I, WILLIAM ALSTON, of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, Builder
¡ and Cabinet Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ADJUSTABLE CHAIRS AND OTHER SEATS," to be as
for
follows:-
The object of my Invention is to produce chairs and other seats of a
substatial and comparatively inexpensive character for domestic and
general use, in which the back and the seat shall be readily adjustable
and capable of being firmly fixed in various positions to suit different
attitudes of the human body, the backs of my improved chairs or seats

page_text: being especially designed to afford to occupants better support than in
chairs at present in use for the hollow portion or "small" of the back.
For theso purposes the seat or portion on which the occupant sits is at
its rear end pivoted, hinged, or jointed to the rearward portion of the
frame of the chair or seat in such wise as to permit of the raising or
lowering at will of the foreward part of the seat, which is arranged to
operate in conjunction with supports of different lengths projecting from
a shaft or spindle carried by the framing of the chair. These supports
when turned upward enter holes in the lower part of the seat, which is
retained in a position corresponding to the lengths of the particular
supports by which it is for the time being kept up.
By another arrangement the chair seat is made capable of being
slided to and fro from the front to the back of the chair in such a
manner that the length of the seat from, the back to the front of the
chair may be readily accomodated to the convenience of the occupant.
The adjustable back used in conjunction with the above described
adjustable seats is made so as to extend from about the bottom of the
shoulder blades of the user to within about four inches (more or less) of
the seat of the chair. This adjustable back is made to swivel in the
rearward portion of the chair, and has combined with it a quadrant
and set screw or equivalent means for holding it in any required
position.
The arrangement of adjustable parts above described is applicable
to various forms of garden and other seats, and is equally applicablo
to seats or chairs made of iron or metal as to those constructed of
wood..
The backs of my improved chairs may be so constructed as to readily
admit of the attachment thereto of a head rest, which I construct by
preference of steel wire, so formed as to make the natural elasticity of
the steel of which it is composed available as a spring, and so arranged
as to be easily removeable. The two ends of the steel wire of which tho
head rest is formed point downwards and enter suitable holes in the upper
framework of the chair back. That portion of the head rest against
which the head of the occupant presses is suitably upholstered. This
construction of head rest is also applicable to other chair backs.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Alston in the Great Seal Patent Offiec
on the 15th July 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ALSTON, of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, Builder and Cabinet
Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Alston, Her special
license that I, the said William Alston, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Alston, 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
ADJUSTABLE CHAIRS AND OTHER SEATS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Alston, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Alston, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, and the Sheet of Drawings therein referred
to (that is to say) :-
The object of my Invention is to produce chairs and other seats of a
substantial and comparatively inexpensive character for domestic and
general use, in which the back and the seat shall be readily adjustable
and capable of being firmly fixed in various positions to suit different
attitudes of the human body, the backs of my improved chairs or seats

page_text: Fig. 1 shews in side elevation a chair embodying my improvements,
the back being in its normal position.
Fig. 2 is a similar view of the same chair, but partly in section, and
shewing the adjustable back in an inclined position.
Fig. 3 is a detached view of my improved steel wire head rest, showing
the form of the wire without any upholstery.
A is the framework, which is of ordinary construction. a, a, aro thẻ.
cross stays or spindles which hold or brace the frames together. B is
the bottom or seat of the chair, supported at the rearward end on a
joint c, whilst at the foreward end it rests on projecting supports e
carried in sets at the ends of a spindle d. These supports e are of
different lengths, as shewn. The spindle d is pivotted at each end in the
framework of the chair, and is so fitted as to be rotated easily. A hole f
is formed underneath the foreward portion of the frame of the chair
seat B to receive the extremities of the projections e. represents the
chair back, which may be adjusted to the position of the sitter, being
hung upon a hinge h. i, j, shew an arrangement of mechanism by
which the adjustable chair back may be held in any required position,
the arrangement being such that the screw; may be within convenient
reach of the sitter. k is the steel wire head rest, which may be up-
holstered, as shewn, or in any other desirable manner. The two ends of
the wire of which the head rest is formed drop into suitable holes bored
in the upper framework of the chair back, as shewn at 7. Those boles
may be lined with brass or other metal tubes, and if desirable small
thumbscrews may be inserted at the back to enable the head rest to bo
raised or lowered.
Having described the nature of my said Invention of improvements
in adjustable chairs and other seats, and having explained the manner of
carrying the same into practical effect, I hereby declare that I do not
claim as of my Invention any of the individual parts herein-before
described or referred to, except when the same are used in and for the
purposes of my said Invention, as herein set forth. I would furthermore
have it understood that I am aware the following features are respectively
old, namely, the arranging a chair back to work on a hinge or pivot, the
use of a head rest, and the arranging a chair seat to work on a rearward
hinge or pivot, but what I consider to be novel and original, and there-
fore claim as the Invention secured to me by the heroin-before in part
recited Letters Patent, is as follows:-
•

page_text: 1. I claim combining a swivelling back and mechanism for holding it
in varions positions with a hinged or pivotted scat adjustable at its fore
part, as above described.
2. I also claim constructing the back of a chair or scat with a head
rest formed of steel wire, in the manner herein-before described.
8. I also claim the combination of parts forming the improved ad-
justable chair shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the Drawings.
In witness whercof, I, the said William Alston, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Fourteenth day of July, in the
year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
]