US2278049A - Chair - Google Patents

Description

Ma .rch 31,' 1942. L. J. ZERBEE CHAIR Filed Feb. 4, 1939 INVENTOR.

@TT RNEY Patented Mar. 31, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT "OFFICE CHAIR Louis J. Zerbee, Bellefontaine, Ohio Application February 4, 1939, Serial No. 254,556

12 Claims.

This invention relates to'porch furniture and the like and more particularly to an adaptation of the use of high carbon steel screen that has been shown, described and claimed in my Patent No. 2,126,439 grantedAugust 9, 1938.

An object of this invention is to form the screen along at least one edge thereof, so as to reenforce the same.

Another object of this invention is to provide a screen to be used as a cushion for the seat of a chair, or the like, wherein the front and rear edges are supported without supporting the sides.

Another object of this invention is to provide a safety device for the unsupported edges of the screen.

Another object of this invention is to provide a cushioning member terminating in a partially rolled, unsupported edge.

Another object of this invention is to provide a metallic chair that is easily produced at a, low cost; but at the same time neat in appearance, .efficient and comfortable.

Other objects and advantages reside in the construction of parts, the combination thereof and the mode of operation, as will become more apparent from the following description.

In the drawing,

Figure 1 discloses a perspective view of the chair embodying my invention.

Figure 2 is a crosssectional view taken substantially on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary, detail, sectional view drawn to a larger scale, taken substantially on the line 33 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary, sectional view taken substantially on the line 4-4 of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a detail, fragmentary, sectional view taken substantially on the line 55 of Figure 1.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary, enlarged end view of the upper arcuate portion of the back rest shown in Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a fragmentary, sectional view show- 'vided with a reentrant flange portion 30b, that ing a battery of seats, formed like that shown in Figure 1, adapted for use in a settee.

In the aforementioned Patent No. 2,126,439, high carbon steel wire or other spring wire screen has been used as a cushioning device and back rest for a chair.

The present disclosure is an adaptation of the spring wire screen material used in connection with a spring base chair, wherein some of the edges ofthe screen remain floating without being provided with a support.

Referring to the drawing, a pair of spring base members l0 provided with horizontal portions Illa extending along the floor and having the rear ends supported on rubber snubbers l2; are provided with vertically extending portions 10b, which project into sleeves 14 held in position by suitable screws Hi. The legs III are held is clamped by a member 32, provided with a flange 32a seated in the bight of the screen, merging into an inverted U-shaped portion 321). Member 32 extends across the front of the chair and has the ends welded to the exterior of the sleeves 14. For convenience, the suspension of the forward edge of the screen 30 will hereinafter be referred to as underhung suspension. The rear edge of the screen, as may best be seen by referring to Figure 4, is seated in a channel member 34, substantially U-shaped in cross sectional area, the legs of the channel member 34 being clamped together, so as to clamp the rear edge of the screen. It is to be noted that the rear of the screen projects into the channel from the top, whereas the front end of the screen projects up into the channel directed downwardly. For convenience, the rear suspension of the screen will be referred to as overhung. The main body portion of the screen functions as a flexible beam in supporting the weight of the occupant. The weft and the warp strands of the wire flex or bend. The warp strands extending from the rear support to the front support have sufficient rigidity to support the weight of the occupant during normal use. While doing so, each warp wire that enters into the supporting of the weight is flexed-or bent much the same as aflexiblebeam. The curvature 30a at the front of the seat is of a greater extent than the curvature at the rear of the seat. This results in the front edge of the seat having greater resiliency than the rear portionof the seat, so that the forward edge of the seat yields more easily than the rear edge. Member 34 is held in fixed spaced relation from member32 by rods 36 having the ends welded to members '32 and 34. There is one rod 36 on either side of the chair.

The sides of the screen 30 are mounted for floating movement. In order to reenforce the sides of the screen, these terminate in reentrant flanges 30d, the reentrant portions 30c being located on the inside of the flange. In order to permit the screen to flex readily along the forward edge and the rear edge of the seat portion, the

flange 30d has been folded under the seat portion both along the front and along the rear of the seat. By this arrangement the folded under portions along the front and the rear of the seat tend to strengthen or stiffen the edges. The flange portions 3M strengthen the sides of the seat.

Oflhand, it would seem that there would be a tendency for the screen to crack along the edge f, that is, where the screen is formed at substantially right angles. However, this angle remains substantially a right angle, even though.

the center of the screen may be deflected downwardly, that is, the screen does not normally bend along this edge; but the flanges are directed outwardly when the seat is used, as shown by dotted lines in Figure 2. Thus, it is seen that even though a Weight is applied to the seat, there is no tendency for the screen to fail along the sharp corner found between the flange portion 36d and the main body portion of the seat. In the event a person should apply a force on the edge of the screen, as for example by standing on the edge, the bight formed between the flange 38d and the main portion of the seat, would rest upon the rods 36 underlying the edge of the screen, so as to limit the free movement of the edge'of the screen. In other words, the rods form safety devices limiting the free movement of the edges of the seat.

The rear of the seat that is, the back rest 22 is also formed from screen wire. The lateral edges of the screen have been wrapped around the upright side members 40, one on either side of the back portion. The rigidity of the screen is sufficient to enclose and fixedly hold members 40 in position. The screen may be folded over the bottom and over the top of members 40, so as to provide a complete enclosure for these mem bers. Suitable lugs 42 carried by the rear end of the arms 20 are bolted or riveted or otherwise secured to the side members 40 of the back rest 22 of the chair. The lower end of the screen forming the back extends along one side of channel shaped member 34 and is clamped thereto by a suitable strip of metal 46, held in position by screws 48, or any other suitable fastening device, spaced at frequent intervals throughout the width of the chair.

As may best be seen by referring to Figure 6, the top of the back rest 22 terminates in a rolled portion, simulating a scroll. In order to stiffen the free edge 5!! of the screen, a portion 52 has been folded under so as to form a flange-like portion. It has been found that a roll having a diameter of approximately 1 to 2" makes a neat appearance and provides sufficient rigidity for the top of the screen. This rolled portion of the screen eliminates the necessity for the use of a separate cross member.

The above structure that has been described results in a light weight metallic chair occupying a small space, easily transported or moved and at the same time neat in appearance, having easy seating qualities and a chair that may be produced at a low cost.

Furthermore, this chair may readily be knocked down for shipment. It is merely necessary to remove the screws I6, so as to remove the legs from the chair. By removing the screws 44, together with the screws 48, the back rest may be removed and the parts packed in nested relation in a crate. Upon arriving at destination, the chair is readily assembled and put into readiness for use.

The seat structure disclosed above may be utilized as units in a battery of seats, as shown in Figure 7, wherein the flanges 30d of adjacent seats are held in position by rivets 54 or by staples or in any other suitable manner. The number of sections used in the settee or the glider, as the case may be, depends entirely upon the length of each unit and the total length of the settee or glider. Thus, it is seen that a plurality of seat units may be used to form a battery constituting the seat of a glider or the like. When such a structure is used, a continuous channel member may extend across the entire front and another across the rear of the settee.

Although the preferred modification of the device has been described, it will be understood that within the purview of this invention various changes may be made in the form, details, proportion and arrangement of parts which generally stated consist in a device capable of carrying out the objects set forth, in the novel parts, combination of parts and mode of operation, as disclosed and defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a chair, the combination including chair supporting means including a transverse front member and a transverse rear member, means for holding said members in fixed spaced relation relative to each other, an upwardly bowed metallic screen cushion spanning the space between the front supporting member and the rear supporting member, said screen member having floating sides, each merging into a deflected portion terminating short of the end portions for reenforcing the side portions of the seat, the forward edge of said screen being fixedly attached to the front supporting member and the rear edge of the screen being fixedly attached to the rear supporting member.

2. In a chair, the combination including chair supporting means including a transverse front member and a transverse rear member, means for holding said members in fixed spaced relation relative to each other, a metallic screen cushion spanning the space between the front supporting member and the rear supporting member, said screen member having floating sides, each terminating in a deflected portion for reenforcing the side portions of the seat, the forward edge of said screen being provided with a downwardly and upwardly extending curve terminating in a downwardly projecting flange portion, said downwardly projecting flange portion being fixedly attached to the front supporting member provided with a complementary upwardly extending flange portion, the rear edge being deflected downwardly and fixedly attached to the rear supporting member, the curvature of the front edge of the seat portion being of a greater extent than that of the rear edge to provide greater resiliency.

3. In a chair, the combination including a front support and a rear support, means for holding said Supports in spaced relation, a cushioning member attached to said supports, said cushioning member being woven from spring wire for spanning the distance between the front support and the rear support so as to function as a flexible beam, and a back rest member made from woven spring wire and fixedly attached along the base thereof to the rear support, each of said members including at least one unsupported .edge merging into a deflected portion terminating in a flange-like portion reenforcing the unsupported edge.

4. In a chair, the combination including a front support and a rear support, means for holding said supports in fixed spaced relation from each other, a cushioning member woven from spring wire, said cushioning member being rigidly attached to said supports so as to span the distance between the front support and the rear support thereby forming a seat for the chair, a back rest member for the chair, said back rest member being woven from spring wire, said back rest member having one edge fixedly attached to the rear support, means for supporting at least one other edge of the back rest member, another edge of the back rest member being unsupported but provided with a deflected portion forming a reenforcement for the unsupported edge so as to give the back rest member suificient rigidity.

5. In a chair, the combination including a pair of parallel supports, means for holding the parallel supports, and a screen cushioning member having the ends rigidly attached to said supports, said screen member being woven from spring wire arcuately spanning the distance between the supports leaving at least one edge unsupported so as to function as a flexible beam, the screen along the unsupported edge being provided with a flange extending substantially normal to the plane formed by the supports, said flange terminating short of the supports and reenforcing the unsupported edge so as to give it rigidity.

6. In a chair, the combination including a front support and a rear support, a screen cushioning member having the ends rigidly attached to said supports, said screen being woven from spring wire spanning the distance between the supports, the front of the screen being suspended in underhung relation with respect to the front support and the rear portion of the screen being suspended in overhung relation with respect to the rear support, the main body portion of the screen having the sides unsupported functioning as a flexible beam, and the side edges of the screen being provided with flanges extending substantially normal to the plane formed by the supports, said flanges terminating short of the supports and reenforcing the edges of the screen to give it rigidity.

7. In a seat assembly, the combination including a front support and a rear support, means for holding said supports in spaced relation with respect to each other, and a plurality of screen cushioning members woven from spring wire spanning the distance between the supports, the front edge of each cushioning member being fixedly attached to the front support and the rear edge fixedly attached to the rear support, the unsupported sides of the cushioning'members having the screen extending downwardly in a substantially vertical direction, the downwardly extending portions of adjacent screens being fastened together so as to form a continuous length cushion for the seat of the seat assembly, the screen members functioning as flexible beams while supporting the weight of the occupant.

8. In a seat assembly the combination including a pair of parallel supports, means for holding the supports, and a plurality of screen cushioning members having their ends rigidly attached to the supports, said screen members being woven from spring wire spanning the distance between the supports, the unsupported sides of each of the cushioning members being directed in a direction substantially normal to the plane formed by the parallel supports so as to form reenforcing flanges, the reenforcing flanges of adjacent cushioning members being fastened together so as to provide a continuous cushioning member extending along the length of said supports.

9. A cushioning device for use in a seat assembly provided with a plurality of interconnected cushioning devices, said cushioning devices including the combination of a pair of parallel supports, means for holding the supports and an arcuate screen member attached to said supports so that the intermediate portion of the screen member functions as a flexible beam, said screen member being woven from spring wire spanning the distance between the supports leaving at least one edge unsupported, the screen along the unsupported edge being provided with a flange terminating short of the supports, said flange extending substantially normal to the plane formed by the supports, said flange reenforcing the unsupported edge so as to give the unsupported edge of the screen member rigidity.

10. A cushioning device for use in a chair and the like including a pair of supports arranged in spaced relation from each other, means for holding the supports, anda woven metallic screen member spanning the distance between the supports, the ends of the main body portion of said screen member being resiliently interconnected to said supports with the floating edges of the main body portion being provided with downwardly directed flanges for giving the edges rigidity, the length of the flange along each edge being less than the length of the screen member, the main body portion of said screen member functioning as a resilient beam while in use.

11. A cushioning device for use in a chair and the like including a pair of supports arranged in spaced relation from each other, means for fixedly holding the supports in spaced relation with respect to each other, and a woven metallic screen spanning the distance between the supports, the ends of the screen being curved and interconnected to the supports, the sides of the screen being unsupported, the main body portion of the screen functioning as a flexible beam while in use, the'sides of the main body portion being provided with flanges for stifiening the same, said flanges terminating adjacent the curved ends of the screen so that the ends flex more easily than the main body portion of the screen.

12. A cushioning device for use in a chair and the like including a pair of supports arranged in spaced relation from each other, means for holding the supports, a metallic screen spanning the distance between the supports, the ends of the screen being curved and rigidly interconnected to the supports, the sides of the screen being unsupported, and means for stiffening the sides of the screen and means for reenforcing the edges of the curved portion of the screen, said means reenforcing the curved edges of the screen having greater resiliency than the means for stiffening the sides of the main body portion of thascreen.

LOUIS J. ZERBEE.

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