US195548A - Improvement in folding chairs - Google Patents

Description

J. E. WAKEFIELD.

FOLDING-CHAIRS.

No. 195,548. Patented Sept.25,1877.

Nina; FHOTD-LXTHDGRAPHEH. WASHINGTON. D c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN E. WAKEFIELD, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO EDWARD W. VAILL, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN FOLDING CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 195,548, dated September 25, 1877; application filed July 9, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knownthat I, JOHN E. WAKEFIELD, of Worcester, in the State of Massachusetts, have invented-an Improvement in Folding Chairs, of which the following is a specification:

The present is a modification of and improvement upon the device shown in Letters Patent N 0. 179,979, granted to me.

In this chair I make use of a back and back legs in one frame, and front legs extending up to the back and hinged to the same at the upper ends. The rigid seat or seat-frame is pivoted to the back legs, and connected to the front legs by links that are pivoted to the seat near the middle thereof, so that when the chair is folded the back legs fold toward the front legs, and the seat, after being raised by the links, swings down again near the front legs.

When rockers are employed with this folding chair, they are pivoted to the front legs and connected by links to the back legs, so as to be very rigid when the chair is in use, or to swing up against the back of the back legs when the chair is folded.

This chair is very rigid when in use, and when folded for transportation it occupies but little space.

In the drawing, Figure l is a vertical section of the chair as open for use, and Fig. .5 is a side view of the same when folded together for transportation.

The back frame is composed of the back legs (1, extended up to form the side pieces of the back, and the cross pieces or rails 1) connect the parts a. The front legs a are pivoted at d to the back. These parts are similar to those in Reissue Letters Patent No. 6,815.

The seat '0 is rigid, either in the form of a frame upholstered or made of open-work, or otherwise, and the back edge of the seat is connected by pivot-s to the back legs of the chair. I have shown metal brackets at n, through which pass the pivot pins or screws.

The seat 2:, when open, rests upon the support or cross-rail r, and there are links 8 extending backward from the support and pivoted at t to the seat.

When the chair is opened for use the parts are very firm and rigid, because the tendency of pressure against the back of the chair is to force the back legs down, and the seatframe and links 8 act like toggles between the front and back legs to separate them and prevent the chair folding until the seat is raised sufficiently to cause the linkssto swing upwardly as the back legs fold toward the front legs. The further movement of the parts in folding brings the seat down again in front of the front legs, in which form the chair is very compact, and occupies little space in being transported.

The rockers f are pivoted at e to the lower ends of the front legs 0, and there are links g, pivoted at their upper ends to the legs a and at their lower ends to the rockers in front of the back legs, to connect the back legs to the rockers.

The rockers are preferably connected togetherby a cross-rail, I.

It will be apparent that the chair might be made use of without the rockers, as the seat and legs fold in the same manner whether the rockers are used or not, and when the rockers are used they fold up behind the back legs, in the manner shown in Fig. 2.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a folding chair, the rigid seat or seatframe 4) and links 8, pivoted at one end to the seat-frame and at the other end to the support 0' for the seat, in combination with the back and back legs, formed as one frame, and the front legs 0, pivoted at their upper ends to the back legs, the parts being constructed and arranged substantially as setforth,whereby the the seat, after being raised, folds downwardly in front of the front legs, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, in a folding chair, of the rockers hinged to the front legs and connected by links g to the back legs, the back and back legs formed of one frame, the front legs pivoted to the back, the rigid seat or frame, and the links 8, pivoted to the seat at their back ends and to the support 1' at their front ends, and folding in the manner and for the purposes set forth.

Signed by me this 30th day of J une, A. D.

J. E. WAKEFIELD. Witnesses:

TEoTT J. BABNARD, HENRY BAER.

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