Type-writer's chair.

(Application filed AprI 5, 1901.)

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THE NORRIS PETERS CO.. PHOTO-LITHO.. WASHINGTON, 0. C.

United States Patent Office.

FRANKLIN CHICHESTER, OF POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK.

TYPE-WRITER’S CHAIR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 712,495, dated November 4,1902.

Application filed April 5,1901. Serial No. 54,552. (Nomodel.)

To ail whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Franklin Chichester, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Poughkeepsie, county of Dutchess, and 5 State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Type-Writers’ Chairs, of which the following is a specification.

This improvement relates to movable-back io chairs adapted to the use of type-writers and others, wherein the back is made adjustable to and fro, while at the same time it may be . made to yield; and the object is to simplify construction, enhance efficiency, and reduce 15 cost.

Prior to this invention a chair-has been made having an upright arm pivoted to the rear of the seat, such arm carrying a hinged chair-back, the arm being combined in opera20 tion with a toothed rack, and a latch for regulating the position of the arm. In that case the rack was worked by a longitudinal spring and the latch was operated by a separate handle-bar, with an additional spring acting 25 laterally to throw the latch into the teeth of the rack-bar, and the chair-back arm, though adjustable in different positions, was then rigid aud not susceptible of yielding. In the . present contrivance the separate handle is 30 dispensed with and also the latch-spring, while but two springs are employed when the chair is constructed with a yielding back.

For convenience in carrying my invention into practice I employ a fixture or casting 35 adapted in shape for permanent attachment to the chair underneath the seat at the rear and constitutes the stock or frame carrying all the working parts.

Referring to the annexed drawings, which 40 illustrate my invention, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the chair, partly in section, showing the fixture aforenamed affixed thereto. Fig. 2 is a view from beneath the chair-seat. Fig. 3 is a front view of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is 45 a modification.

A in the drawings indicates the fixture or casting before named and consists of the stock a, furnishing the pivot-bearing for the swinging arm B, carrying the chair-back C. 50 It also contains braces forming wings a! a'to receive holding-screws entering the edge of the chair-seat at the rear and fins &amp; to re ceive holding-screws entering the seat from beneath.’

To the lower extremity of the arm B the 55 toothed rack-bar D is connected at one end by a pin, the other end having a slot which . plays over the shank of a screw c, set in an ear d, part of the fixture A. The arm B and its chair-back C when made to assume dif- 60 ferent angles with reference to the seat give motion to the rack-bar D and may be set in different positions by a suitable latch i, which is made to enter the teeth or notches in the rack-bar. The latch is operated by the oc- 65 cupant of the chair by use of a handle-bar, and for simplicity the latch is here formed in one with the handle-bar and is bent around ’ with a return-bend, making a U-shaped spring, the confined end of which is secured in 70 a lip/, caston the fixture A. The said spring when the latch portion i is engaged in the rack-bar teeth exerts a resilience on the rackbar, and hence on the arm B, thus acting as a mainspring for throwing the arm B forward 75 to hold the chair-back against the back of the occupant. At the same time the latch i is capable of self-action laterally to spring into and engage the rack-bar teeth, as before noted. Moreover, it also serves as the handle- 80 bar, to which end the spring-latch is provided with a knob e as a handle. Thus there are united in one piece what formerly required four members—-viz., the latch, a handle-bar for operating it, the arm-spring, and thelatch- 85 spring. lu addition to the. U-form spring k described another spring is required, here represented by a spiral spring h, connected at the movable end with the arm B of the chairback by. attachment to the rack-bar and at 90 the fixed end to the chair-seat or some other stationary point thereof—in this case the stock A a. This spring, though coacting usually with the U-spring, at times acts, independently. Thus in operation this arm B is nor- 95 inally inclined forward toward the back of the occupant, obeying the impulse of the Uspring, and will yield to the occupant when leaning against the back C in whatever position the arm B may be adjusted; but when 100 the occupant desires to change the angle of arm B and the chair-back and lifts the latch by the knob e, disengaging it from the rackbar, the arm B loses all effect of the U-spring

712,495 and is controlled independently for the time being by the spring It until the knob is let go and the spring-latch takes into the rackteeth, when both the springs act together on 5 the arm B.

In the foregoing I do not confine myself to details, which may be varied within the invention. In Fig. 4 the U-form spring-latch is allowed only a lateral motion for engaging io in the teeth of the rack-bar, so that in this modification the chair-back does not yield when the latch is so engaged.