US1912728A

US1912728A - Support for furniture

Info

Publication number: US1912728A
Application number: US433474A
Authority: US
Inventors: Roe De Forest
Original assignee: COLSON Co
Current assignee: COLSON Co
Priority date: 1930-03-05
Filing date: 1930-03-05
Publication date: 1933-06-06
Anticipated expiration: 1950-06-06

Description

June 6, 1933. DE FoREs-r' ROE 1,912,728

SUPPORT FOR FURNITURE Filed March 5, 1950 V Egg Patented June 6, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE DE roansr non, or, ELYRIA, OHIO, ASSUIGNOREO THE COLSON co umna or ELYRIA,

01110, A CORPORATION or onro SUPPORT FOR FURNITURE Application filed March 5,

This invention relates to supports for furniture.

Various articles of furniture, such as .desks, tablesand the like, which stand upon 7 legs, tend to mar the surface of the floor,

article of furniture are not of exactly the same length, the article of furniture will rock objectionably on the longer legs. Also, when the legs are of unequal length, the weight of the article of furniture being con- 1 centrated on the longer legs tends to warp the article of furniture, and where the longer legs are supported directly on the floor, it tends to augment and intensify the marring action thereof.

It is one of theobjects ofthis invention to provide a furniture support upon which the le s of an. article 9f furniture may rest and which will function to prevent marring of the supporting floor surface, and which will also function to compensate for furniture legs ofdifferent length and, therefore,

Another object is to provide a furniture support onwhich the ends of the legs of an article of furniture may be placed and constructed or formed from yieldingly resisting,

preferably resilient material the upper surface of which is adapted'tobe depressed by the weight. of the article of furniture resting thereon.

, Another object is to provide a support for the legs of an article of furniture formed or constructed from resilientor yieldingly resistant material, in which that portion of i the support upon which a leg of the article of furniture rests is so shaped or has such cross-sectional configuration that the area of contact witha leg of the article of furniture H will vary in proportionto the Weight of the article of furniture.

Another ob ect is to provide a support for the legs of an article of furniture adapted to automatically compensate for furniture a legs of different lengths, and/or for uneven to obviate the objections thereof mentioned 1930. Serial No. 433,474.

floor surfaces to support the article of furniture by all of its legs and prevent rocking thereof on a pair of legs.

Another objectisto provide a furniture support composed of yieldingly resistant or resilient material, so formed that the weight supported thereby causes the material on portions within the periphery of the area of contact of the support with the floor to be depressed, whereby the support is prevented from imprinting or, impressing its pcripheral. outline on relatively soft floors or floor coverings, such as linoleum.

Another object to provide a support for furniture which will be cheap to construct and efficient in operation.

Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains.

My invention is fully disclosed in the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a furniture support of my invention; L

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view not in perspective. a

Figs. 3 and 4 are views showing the operation of my invention under respectively differentconditions.

As shown in the drawing, the furniture support of my invention is molded or otherwise formed in a single piece from yieldingly resistant or resilient 'material. The preferred material is rubber of a softness or compliancy adapted to the weight of the furniture to be supported and as will be further discussed hereinafter.

.The support comprises a main body portion 1, which in the form illustrated is rectangular in plane and having a base surface 2 upon which the support may rest on a floor. The outer side walls 33 of the body are preferably inclined inwardly upwardly so that the general configuration of the support is that of a truncated four-sided pyramid.

The upper surface of the body 1 is depressed to form a cavity bounded. by walls or heads 5; The floor 6 of the receptacle 4 is convergingly inclined from the walls 510' toward a depressed central point 7. The floor 6 may be variously formed, but I prefer to form it of four plane

triangular surfaces

8, 8.

Although in the preferred form of my invention, the support is of rectangular outline, thus resulting in a rectangular wall or rim 5 and triangular surfaces 8, it will be understood, particularly in View of the func tions performed'by the support and to be presently described, that the support may be made of circular or other variant form and the bottom 6 of the receptacle portion 4 may be conical or of other form, the essential feature being that the floor 6 will slope.

Preferably, the body 1 is not reenforced by metal or other inserts and the bottom 6 is adapted to directly receive the end of a leg of the article to be supported so that the yielding resistance of the material of the body 1 may respond to the weight of the article supported, whether the weight be distributed over a large area of the bottom 6 or whether it'be concentrated on a relatively small area thereof.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 4, the furniture support ofmy invention is shown supporting the square leg of a piece of furniture such as a desk. In F 3, the leg 10 represents a leg of the desk which happens to be longer than the other legs thereof which for any other reason supports a weight greater than that supported by other of the legs, and the leg 11 of Fig. 4 is a leg shorter than other of the legs such as the leg 10, or which for any other reason supports a relatively lighter weight. In Fig. 3, the lower end of the leg 10 rests upon the bottom 6 of the support and depresses the resilient material thereof.

Due to the downwardly inwardly sloping form of the wall 6, the squareenc of the leg depresses the surface of the body 1 of the support a greater amount towards the border of the leg and surface and by diminishing amounts toward the center thereof.

The total amount of the compression is indi-- cated by the distance 0;, between the top edge of the rim 5 of the support and the final lowermost position of the leg end.

As will be observed in Fig. 4, where the leg 11 is shorter or the weight thereon is lighter, the distance 1], measured the same as in Fig. 3, is less than the distance 00.

In this connection, it will be observed that when the desk leg is placed upon the support when installing the same, the end of the leg will gradually depress the surface of the body 1 until the Weight on the leg is supported thereby and as the depression takes place, the area of contact with the end of the leg progressively increases inwardly from the periphery of the leg end. Also, it

will be observed that the depression of the surface of the body 1 is greatest at the periphery of the leg end and least or actually zero at the center of the leg where the leg end is actually out of contact with the point 7 of the support.

The action of the support in thus compensating for legs of different lengths and weights of different amounts on the different legs is quite different from that which would result if the body 1 of the support were of uniform vertical thickness. With the bottom 6 of the support downwardly and inwardly sloping, a relatively slight pressure of the leg end thereon will depress the material of the support and the pressure required to depress it gradually but rapidly increases at greater and greater amounts of depression so that the support automatically and sensitively adapts itself to legs of different lengths and to different weights thereon, compensating for such irregularities, and supports the desk or like article of furniture in an ideal manner.

In Fig. 4 I have illustrated also the action of my improved furniture support when resting on relatively soft surfaces such as linoleum or like .floor coverings. By making the base 2 of the support relativcly large and by permitting the body 1 to respond freely. to pressure wherever -applied on the bottom 6, the resultant pressure on the base 2 is maximum within the periphery thereof and is minimum or zero at the periphery thereof.

Thus, practically no weight is carried by the support at its periphery and, therefore,

in the first instance not unsightly and secondly will in a short time entirely disappear.

My'invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described. Many modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention or sacrificing the advantages thereof.

For example, although I have shown and described the floor 6 as upwardly concave, many of the advantages of my invention may be retained by forming the fioor upwardly convex. When so formed the weight of the furniture leg when applied to the support will depress the floor at the center thereof and as the Weight becomes greater and greater, the area of contact will become greater and greater progressively outwardly from the center, being maximum in the center and minimum at the periphery of the furniture leg.

I claim:

1. In a support for articles of furniture, a body portion of generally rectangular contour in horizontal planes composed of yieldingly resistant material adapted to rest upon the floor and on its upper surface provided with a socket portion for receiving the leg of an article of furniture to be supported, the socket portion having a socket bottom wall having upwardly outwardly extending plane surfaces mutually joined along dihedral angles 2. In a support for articles of furniture, a body portion of generally rectangular contour in horizontal planes composed of resilient material adapted to rest upon the floor and on its upper surface provided with a socket portion for receiving the leg of an article of furniture to be sup orted, the

socket portion havinga socket ottom upwardly concave and comprising plane surfaces mutually joined along dihedral angles.

3. In a support for articles of furniture,

a body portion composed of resilient Inaterial adapted to rest upon the floor and on itsupper surface provided with a socket portion for receiving the leg of an article of furniture to be supported, the socket portion having a socket bottomupwarclly concave and comprising plane surfaces mutually joined along dihedral angles.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature this 28th day of. February, 1930.

"DE FOREST ROE.