US2973026A - Armchair - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 28, 1961 R. HAALAND 2,973,026

/ ARMCHAIR Filed July 15, 195 2 Sheets$heet 1 'A RTQIE R. HAALAND Feb. 28, 1961 ARMCHAIR I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 15, 1958 FIG].

vii-hid t ate 2,973,026 ARMCHAIR Roald Haaland, Oslo, Norway, assignor to Arnestad Bruk, Oslo, Norway, a firm Filed July 15, 1958, Ser. No. 748,684

Claims priority, application Norway July 15, 1957 2 Claims. (Cl. 155-77) The present invention relates to an armchair consisting of a continuous seat and back unit suspended on a frame resting on the floor, in which the seat and back unit, besides being fixable in a number of positions relatively to the supporting frame, can also be released in order to be put into a limited rocking motion.

From earlier inventions both adjustable armchairs, in which the sitting angle can be varied, and rocking chairs are known, separately and in combination, but these chairs have usually been fitted with complicated adjusting mechanisms, and as regards the rocking chairs have been furnished with a large platform for the rocking path, in which children, for example, are apt to get fingers or toes trapped, and above all it has been impossible as a whole to furnish these chairs with a satisfactory upholstering and thereby attain the result that they become a part of the interior decoration as ordinary chairs, free from any disfiguring feature.

A special difiiculty with the rocking chairs has usually been to restrict the maximum length of swing and at the same time procure a satisfactory smoothness in the toand-fro movement. Chairs of this type have usually been fitted with rockers, which were kept in their course by helical springs placed in pairs in the middle of the course, and these springs were in the course of the rocking movement exposed to torsion, first to the one side and then to the other. Moreover these springs had to he still? and thereby exerted a considerable resistance to the rocking movement.

It is the object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and obtain a chair of normal appearance, in which the seat and back unit can be fixed in various positions relatively to the supporting frame by the sitter by means of an easily operated and accessible adjusting mechanism, which can also, as desired, release the seat and back unit in such manner that this can be put into a restricted rocking motion, whereby the chair is at the same time converted into a rocking chair.

It is, further, an object of the invention to obtain a smooth and pleasant to-and-fro movement during the rocking, when the chair is used as a rocking chair, with a smooth and frictionless change of rocking direction, with maximum swing.

The chair pursuant to the invention is in essential respects characterized by the fact that the swivelling seat and back unit is joined to the supporting frame by swivel hinges, fitted to a stretcher on the supporting frame, and springs, while a locking device holds the seat and back unit in a number of sitting positions in the supporting frame, and by release allows the chair to be put into a restricted rocking movement.

Further, the chair is distinguished by the fact that the spring connection between supporting frame and chair seat consists of helical springs, the attachment of which to the lower side of the chair seat is adjustably located in a bracket for regulation of the spriugs arm of moment.

A further feature of the chair pursuant to the invention is that the locking device consists of a toothed segment 2,973,026 Patented Feb. 28, 196i ice fastened to the lower side of the chair seat in cooperation with a bar pivotally journalled in a bracket in the support ing frame, and provided with an arm with handle for the adjustment, and that the tops of the teeth and the edge of the bar are given such a shape that the locking is facilitated by the position of the seat and back unit being automatically corrected when the bar is pressed against the toothed segment.

These and other features of the invention will appear from the following description, and by reference to the attached drawing.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 shows the chair seen from the side,

Fig. 2 shows the chair seen from the front,

Fig. 3 shows the chair seen from below,

Figs. 4 and 4a show on enlarged scale a detail of the spring attachment,

Fig. 5 shows the chair seen in perspective,

Fig. 6 shows a detail. of the toothed segment, and

Fig. 7 shows the same as seen from the side.

Number 1 denotes the seat and 2 the back of the chair, which jointly form a rigid unit furnished with such upholstering as may be found serviceable. Number 3 denotes the supporting frame, which may be executed in various ways, but preferably with arm-rests 3'.

The two side-pieces of the supporting frame, which carry the arm-rests 3', are joined-to one another'by crossbars. In the specimen shown there are three of these numbered 14, 15 and 16. The rearmost crossbar 16 must be located somewhat lower than the others, so as not to restrict the maximum oscillation of the chair. The middle crossbar 14 serves as the first attachment for two swivel hinges 4 of the chair, the second attachment being formed by a bar or the like underneath the chair seat ll These swivel hinges 4 serve as the horizontal turning axis of the chair. Further, between the lower side of the seat 1 and the supporting frame 3 there are two helical springs 5, one on each side and just behind the front edge of the frame 3.

The rocking of the chair is brought about by the sitter alternately pressing the chair backwards (leaning on the arm-rests) and allowing it to swing forwards again, as the springs 5 will draw down the front edge of the seat again. In order to keep this rocking movement smooth and pleasant the resistance to the movement should be small except when the seat and back approach the rearmost extreme position, where it must increase quickly in order to give a smooth and frictionless change of direction, also at maximum oscillation. This can be attained by locating the fixed point of the springs 5 in the seat 1 nearer to the turning axis than the attachment point on the supporting frame 3.

By the fact that the attachment point on the frame is in addition made adjustable this elfect can also to some extent be made regulative, it being possible to adjust in advance the spring force and its progression. This adjustment is effected then by means of a nut 12 in a slot 13 in the bracket 11. The springs 5 are then fastened at its other ends to a fixed bracket 16 on the foremost crossbar 15 of the supporting frame 3.

The seat part is, further, provided on its lower side with a descending toothed segment 6 screwed firmly to the seat near the edge of this and immediately behind the foremost crossbar 15 of the frame 3. This crossbar should be broad, so that it conceals both the toothed segment 6 and the springs 5. Between this crossbar and the crossbar 14- there is a bracket 7 provided with an opening for the descending toothed segment 5 and with guides and a pivot for a catch 8. Said catch is in addition provided with an arm 9 with handle so located in the chassis of the supporting frame that it can easily be reached by the hand of the sitter. When this arm is 3 pressed backwards the catch 8 will enmesh with the toothed segment 6, and the heat and back unit is then looked in the desired sitting position. When the arm 9 is moved forwards, the seat and back unit are again rcl eased and can rock or, if desired, be locked in some other sitting position.

The lowest tooth on the toothed segment 6 is prolonged, as shown in Fig. 6 and will be unable to reach through the opening in the bracket 7 or past the catch 8, whereby the maximum oscillation of the chair by rocking is restricted. Further, the toothed segment is given a radius of curvature corresponding to the turning axis of the chair, so that it shall always have the same position relatively to the catch 8.

I claim:

1. A rockable chair of relatively open appearance and configuration comprising, in combination, an exposed open frame supported on the floor, a seat having a front half and a rear half rigidly connected to a back member to form a rigid unit, said seat being of relatively shallow vertical thickness, pivot means defining a pivot axis affixed to the rear half of said seat adjacent the general plane thereof and mounted on said frame pivotally mounting said unit to said frame for movement from nontilted to tilted positions, a planar crossbar defining a portion of and extending across the front of said frame below the front half of said seat, a first spring anchor affixed to the backside of said crossbar near each end thereof, second spring anchors afiixed to said seat front half vertically disposed above said first anchors, a spring interposed between each of said first anchors and the second anchor disposed thereabove, said first anchors being further from the axis of said pivot means than said second anchors whereby the included angle defined by a spring and a line passing through the spring connection to the associated second anchor perpendicularly intersecting the pivot axis is obtuse when said unit is in the nontilted position, said 4 first anchors being so located whereby said included angle approaches as said unit is increasingly tilted, a bracket afiixed to said frame adjacent the underside of said seat intermediate said crossbar and said pivot axis, a slot defined in said bracket, a toothed locking segment mounted on the underside of said seat extending downwardly through said slot, a dog operatively associated with an operating handle pivotally mounted on said bracket for selective locking engagement with the teeth of said segment, deviated surfaces defined on the ends of the teeth of said segment facilitating engagement of the dog with said teeth, said planar crossbar substantially hiding said first anchors, springs, bracket and locking segment from View.

2. In a rockable chair as in claim 1 wherein the lowermost of the teeth of said segment is of greater length than the other teeth of said segment whereby said lowermost tooth engages the underside of said bracket to limit pivoting of said unit with respect to said frame.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 401,089 Whittlesey Apr. 9, 1884 710,409 Behr Oct. 7, 1902 900,788 Simmonds Oct. 13, 1908 1,788,113 Leach Jan. 6, 1931. 2,222,578 Walenta Nov. 19, 1940 2,319,700 Miller et al May 18, 1943 2,606,594 Caldemeyer Aug. 12, 1952 2,797,737 Burton July 2, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 41,869 France Jan. 26, 1933 473,369 Great Britain Oct. 12, 1937 554,929 Great Britain July 26, 1943 620,810 Great Britain Mar. 30, 1949 694,675 Great Britain July 22, 1953

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