US1096678A - Car-seat. - Google Patents

Description

E. G. BUDD.

CAR SEAT. APPLICATION FILED APR. 4, 1908.

Patented May 12, 1914 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

ATTORNEY COLUMBIA PLANOORAI'H c0..wAsmNu'roN, D. c.

E. G. BUDD.

CAR SEAT.

APPLICATION IILEID A114, 1908.

Patented May 12, 1914.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

COLUMBIA MNOORAPH C0 WASHINGTON. D. c.

EDWARD G. BUDD, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE AS- SIGNMENTS, TO HALE AND KILBURN COMPANY, OF IHILADELPHIA, PENNSYL- VANIA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

CAR SEAT.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD Gr. Bum), a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful In'iprovements in Car-Seats, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to reversible seats adapted particularly for use in railway cars.

The object of the invention is to provide an improved reversible car-seat so constructed that the angular inclination of the back cushion thereof may be adjusted as desired in either of the operative positions of the hack and locked in the desired position.

The invention is of particular utility in a structure consisting of two reversible seats arranged side by side and adapted to be mounted at one side of the central aisle of a car and in which the reversal of the facing direction of the seat is effected by moving the back-cushion across the seat-cushion from one edge of the latter to the other rather than by rotating the seat structure as a whole through half a revolution.

In reversible car-seats it has been common heretofore to support the back-cushion on back-supporting arms arranged one at either edge of the back-cushion, the lower ends of these arms being supported upon the frame of the seat in such manner as will per-. mit movement thereof to carry the backcushion from one edge to the other of the seat-cushion. In accordance with my invention this construction is employed and provision is made for the adjustment of the inclination of the back-cushion by making each of these back-supporting arms in two parts which are pivotally connected so that their angular relation may be varied to vary the inclination of the back-cushion, a locking mechanism being provided for holding the two parts of each of the back-supporting arms against relative movement when the back-cushion has been moved to the desired. position. By this construction the facing direction of the seat may be reversed in the usual manner by 'moving the back-cushion across the seat-cushion to one or the other of its operative positions, and when in either of these positions, the inclination of the back-cushion may be adjusted by unlocking the devices which hold the two parts of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 4, 1908.

Patented May 12, 1914.

Serial No. 425,140.

the back-supporting arms against relative movement, moving the back as desired and then locking those parts together. The passenger occupying the seat may thus adjust the back-cushion to the position most eonducive to comfort. The seat thus constructed is strong compact, consists of comparatively few parts, may be manufactured at small cost, and may be readily manipulated. \Vith this construction of areversible reclining seat, the further and important advantage is obtained that the back-cushion may be readily removed as when cleaning or repairing of the cushion is necessary.

The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the seat, broken away and sectioned in part, Figs. 2 and 3 are detail views hereinafter referred to, Fig. 4 is a front view broken away and sectioned in part of a portion of the seat, Fig. 5 is a view of a portion of the backcushion removed from the seat, and Fig. 6 is a view of the side of the locking mechanism opposite that shown in Fig. 5.

Referring to these drawings, the seat is supported at the aisle end on a pedestal 1, on the upper end of which are secured two connecting-rails 2, the opposite ends of these rails being secured to a plate 3 which is mounted upon the wall of the car or upon a pedestal similar to the pedestal 1 and lying between two adjacent seats. A plate 4: similar to the plate 3 is fastened to the ends of the rails 2 at the aisle end of the seat and to this plate is secured a seat-end 5. The seat-cushion 6 is supported at either end upon a rocker 7 having inclined surfaces on the bottom thereof bearing upon the rails 2. Each of the rockers 7 has a verticallydisposed groove 8 formed therein adapted to receive a stud upon the lower end of a lever 9 which is mounted on a rod 10 pivoted in the plates 3 and -i1: at the ends of the seat. Secured to each of the plates 3 and t is a. rail 11 having an integral web extending horizontally therefrom and curved in the direction of its length so as to form an areshaped guiding and si'lpporting rail for the arms or levers carrying the back-cushion 12. These back-supporting arms are secured to opposite edges of the back-cushion l2 and extend downwardly therefrom and at their lower ends are provided with bifurcated lugs 13 spaced apart as shown in Fig. 1 and straddling the arc-shaped web of one of the rails 11. In each of the back-supporting levers is a vertically-disposed slot 14 into which extends a stud or roller carried by the upper end of the lever 9. It will be seen that by this construction the facing direction of the seat may be reversed as desired by pushing the back-cushion 12 from one edge of the seat-cushion 6 to the other, the lugs 13 on the back-supporting levers coacting with the webs on the rails 11 to guide the back in this movement; also in this movement of the back-cushion, the seatcushion will be moved in a direct-ion oppo site to that in which the back is moved by means of the levers 9 which coact at one end with the slots 14 in the back-supporting levers and at the other end with the rockers 7 and in the movement of the seat-cushion its forward edge will be raised above its rearward edge due to the inclined surfaces on the bottom of the rockers 7.

In order to permit of adjustment of the angular inclination of the back-cushion when the latter is in either of its operative positions, each of the back-supporting levers consists of two parts which are pivotally connected and a locking mechanism is provided between the two parts of each of these levers. The two parts of the backsupporting levers are indicated by the numerals 15 and 16. The part 16 is secured to the edge of the back-cushion and extends downwardly therefrom, its lower end be ing bifurcated and the bifurcated arms extending one on either side of a stud 17 on the part 15. If desired, a pin 18 may be provided extending through openings in the bifurcated arms to prevent the parts 16 from rising off the studs 17. The two parts of the back-supporting levers are thus pivotally connected. The upper edge of each of the parts 15 is curved on the arc of a circle about the stud 17 as a center and in the edge of this curved portion are provided a plurality of semi-circular notches 19. At the ends of this curved portion the metal is extended upwardly a slight distance beyond the line of the curve as shown at 20. At the lower edge of the back-cushion and either passing through the cushion or lying adjacent to its lower edge is a rod 21 the ends of which extend through openings in the parts 16 of the two back-supporting levers, this rod being adapted to turn in these openings. In the rod 21 adjacent to each of the parts 16, a slot is cut so that the rod is reduced to a semicircle in cross-section at these points (Figs. 2, 8 and 4t) thelength of these slots in the direction of the length of the rod being substantially equal to the width of the parts 15 of the back-supporting levers. Secured to one end of the rod 21 is a suitable collar and in the other end is a pinion 2-3 which meshes with a sector-gear 24 formed on a lever 25 which is pivotally mounted upon the part 16 of the back-supporting lever at that edge of the back-cushion. A spiral spring 26 is wound around the pivot of this lever and has one end connected to the lever and the other connected to the part 16. A casing 27 is secured to the part 15 and overlies the pinion 23 and the sector-gear 24 as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, this casing being provided with a slot in the upper edge thereof through which the end of lever 25 extends to permit of grasping the end of the lever and operating it to effect rotation of rod 21 by means of the gearing against the tension of spring 26.

The normal positions of the parts are those indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, the lever 25 being turned on its pivot by spring 26 to the position shown and the rod 21 being turned to such position that the solid portions of the rod at the points where the latter is slotted being lowermost and lying within the central notches 19 in the upper edges of the parts 15. hen in this position, rod 21 serves as a lock between the two parts of each of the back-supporting levers so that these parts cannot be moved relatively when the rod is in this position and the back-cushion may be moved across the seat-cushion in the manner above. described in order to reverse the facing direction of the seat. If, when the back-cushion is in one of its operative positions, it is desired to vary the inclination of the back, the operator grasps the end of the lever 25 extending through the slot in the gear-casing 27 and turns the lever on its pivot against the tension of spring 26, thus effecting rotation of rod 21. through 180 degrees, at which time the movement of lever 25 will be arrested by a suitable stop or by the end of the slot in the gear-casing 27. When rod 21 has been thus rotated the solid portions thereof at the points where the rod is slotted will be uppermost, as shown in Fig. 3, and will lie above the curved upper edges of the parts 15 of the back-supporting levers. The two parts of eachof the back-supporting levers are thus unlocked and the back-cushion may be moved as desired about the studs 17 as pivots to such position as is desired, X cessive movement being precluded by the extensions 20 at the upper corners of the parts 15. Then on releasing lever 25, spring 26 will turn the lever, pinion 23 and rod 21 until the solid portions of the rod at the points where the latter is slotted enter the notches in the parts 15 and again lock the two parts of the back-supporting arms against relative movement.

It wlll, therefore, be seen that in this manner a seat structure 18 provided inwhi'ch the facing direction of the seat is reversible by movement of the back-cushion across the seat-cushion, that the inclination of the back-cushion may be adjusted as desired to the position which the occupant of the seat finds most comfortable, and that this adjustment is obtained by making the back-supporting arms in two parts which are pivotally connected and which may be moved relatively as desired and then looked in the position to which they are adjusted. The mechanism for effecting these movements is simple and compact and the seat may be manufactured at small cost. It will also be seen that the back-cushion may be readily removed by withdrawing the pins 18 and then lifting the back-cushion and the parts 16 of the two back-supporting arms secured thereto, upward until the bifurcated arms at the lower ends of the parts 16 disengage the pins 17. A portion of the back-cushion iemoved thus from the seat is shown in Preferably, the seat is so constructed as not to require that the two parts of each back-supporting arm be accurately positioned relatively in order that the locking mechanism may be moved to operative position since one edge of the back-cushion is apt to lag behind the other in moving from one position to another due to an irregularity in the construction and to the point of application of the force for moving the back. Thus the parts of one arm may be moved relatively a slight amount while permitting movement of the locking mechanism at that end of the seat to locking position, so that during such movement the parts of the other arm may be brought to position permitting movement of the locking mechanism at that end of the seat to operative position. Moreover, it will be seen that the locking devices at both edges of the seat move into and out of operative position simultaneously so that there is no possibility of subjecting the back-cushion to a severe strain by looking it at one side of the seat and not the other.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a seat, a back-cushion, two backsupporting arms therefor each formed of two parts which are pivotally connected, a rod extending between said arms, a pinion on said rod, a gear meshing therewith, means 7 for actuating said gear to turn said pinion and rod, and means actuated by said rod when turned for permitting or precluding relative movement of the parts of each of said arms, substantially as described.

2. In a seat, a back-cushion, back-supporting arms therefor each formed of two parts which are pivotally connected, a rod extending between said arms, a pinion on said rod, a gear meshing therewith, a casing overlying said gearing, a spring connected to said rod for actuating the same, and a handle on the rod for turning the latter against the tension of the spring, said rod being adapted to permit or preclude relative movement of the two parts of each of said arms, substantially as described.

This specification signed and witnessed this 24 day of January, 1908.

EDVARD G. BUDD.

Witnesses:

P. J. TUCKER, R. M. FRIES.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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