Foldable rocking chair

Oct. 15, 1935. L. LEHNER 2,017,599

FOLDABLE ROCKING CHAIR Filed April 11, 1934

<img file="US2017599A_D0001.tif" />

<img file="US2017599A_D0002.tif" />

Patented Oct. 15, 1935

2,017,599

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

2,017,599 FOLDABLE ROCKING CHAIR Louis Lehner, Memphis, Tenn. Application April 11, 1934, Serial No. 720,003

Claims.

This invention relates to chairs and particularly to a rocking chair of the deck or beach type which is foldable and adjustable to several positions and collapsible to a small, compact mass 5 for storage and carrying purposes.

No success has heretofore been attained when attempting to construct a foldable chair of the deck or beach type which is provided with rockers. Whenever it was attempted to provide rock10 ers on chairs of this type, the resulting structure became awkward and cumbersome and was extremely uncomfortable and folded into a bulky mass.

In practicing the present invention, a back is 15 provided, pivoted to the rear edge of a seat, the pivots resting on rearwardly extending legs which are pivoted to the arm rest and a link which forms a parallelogram when the link is pivoted to the front edge of the seat. The rocker elements 20 are secured to the bottom edges of the rear and front legs, the latter being also pivoted to the front edge of the seat. Several notches are provided on the rearwardly extending legs to which the back is adjustably engaged to be tilted rela25 tive to the seat into straight or reclining position as the occupant may desire.

In view of the parallelogram construction provided by the seat, the arms, the back and the front links, the back may be variously sloped by 30 adjusting the pivot, between the seat and the back, in the notches on the rearwardly extending legs and any position so selected retains the arms of the chair in parallel relation to the seat which is retained in substantially horizontal position.

The chair itself with the exception of the rocker element and the front leg and links follows the construction as taught in the Alfred H. Haberstump application Serial No. 665,896, filed April 13, 1933, and assigned to the parent company of 40 the present assignee company.

Accordingly, the main objects of the invention are: to provide a chair of the rocker type which is simple in construction and which is readily foldable; to provide a chair of the rocker type 45 which is adjustable to have the back tilt in any desired manner; to provide a seat for the chair which is hinged to the back, the dowel hinge connection being extended to form support on which the back and seat are adjustably secured to rear50 wardly extending legs; to provide arm rests for the rocking chair which are retained parallel at all times with the seat; to provide rockers for the chair which are pivotally attached to the legs and which readily fold with the chair elements 55 to form a compact mass; to retain all of the ele(Cl. 155—75) ments in adjustable but fixed relation through the engagement of the pivot extensions of the seat and back in notches on the rear legs at a single point only on each side of the chair; and, in general, to provide a foldable chair of the 5 rocker type which is simple in construction, economical of manufacture and which, when in collapsed position, is of very small overall dimensions.

Other objects and features of novelty of the 10 invention will be either specifically pointed out or will become apparent when referring, for a better understanding of the invention, to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein: 15

Figure 1 is a side view, in elevation, of a chair embodying features of the invention,

Figure 2 is a front view of the chair illustrated in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a side view of the chair, illustrated in 20 Fig. 1, in folded position, and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1, taken on the line 4—4 thereof.

A chair 5 is illustrated in Fig. 1 comprising a 25 back 6, a seat 7, arm rests 8, arm rest supporting links 9, rearwardly extending legs i 1, front legs 12 and rockers. 13. The elements 6, 7, 18 and 11 are similar in construction, arrangement and operation as that of the chair illustrated 80 and described in the above mentioned copending application. The front leg element of the application, however, is divided into two portions 9 and 12, as pointed out hereinabove, which are pivoted at 14 to the front end of the chair seat. 35 The element 9 forms a parallelogram with the arm 8, seat 7 and the lower portion of the back 6, for the purpose of retaining the arm rest parallel to the seat in all positions and to provide rigidity to the chair structure. A pivoted joint 15, pro- 40 vided between the back 6 and seat 7, has the pivot thereof extended outwardly to engage notches 16 provided in the rear legs II for retaining the chair elements in fixed desired relation through the adjustment of the pin in any 45 of the notches to position the seat and back angularly relative to each other. The rocker elements !3 are pivoted at 17 to the ends of the rear legs ί I and front legs 12 and permit the compact folding of the chair structure. 50

When it is desired to fold the chair it is only necessary to raise the back to disconnect the pivots 15 from the notches 16 and by grasping the front edge of the seat 7 and raising the seat against the back, all of the elements move to- 55

2,017,599 gether into a compact mass as illustrated in Fig. 3. The links 9 and legs 12 scissor inwardly upon each other in extension of the end of the seat 7 as illustrated in Fig. 3 to permit the front end of the rocker 13 to move into engagement with the seat back 6.

It will be noted in Fig. 2 that the back is provided with a top cross bar 18 and a bottom cross element 19 which are interconnected with a plurality of slats 21. This construction is followed in the seat 7 wherein the front seat rung 22 and rear seat brace 23 are interconnected by a plurality of the slats 2 i.

I wish further to point out that the slats 21 in the seat 7 are unique in that they follow the contour of the cross members 22 and 23, The two slats opposite to the center slat is twisted, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The rear ends of the slats are disposed on an upwardly presenting arc while their front ends are disposed on a downwardly presenting arc providing a twist to the slats which will cause the seat, formed by all of the slats, to assume a combined shape of the top edges of the members 22 and 23. The seat thus formed is extremely comfortable.

The chair thus constructed is exceedingly simple, rigid, and provides the novel rocking features never employed successfully heretofore in this type of chair. The chair is readily handled by any person, it being only necessary to raise the back to disconnect the pivot 15 from the notches i 6 and raise the front edge of the seat 7 to have all of the elements move into compact folded relation.

While only a single embodiment of the invention has been described and illustrated herein, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, omissions, additions and substitutions may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the accompanying claims.