Library Collections: Document: Full Text

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES L. BAUDER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRAVELING INVALID-CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,547, dated November 10, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHALRES L. BAUDER, of Cleveland city, Cuyahoga county, State of Ohio, have invented new and useful Improvements in Traveling Invalid-Chairs; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, making a part of this specification.

The nature of my invention consists in a spring lever, E, to hold and lock the seat when extended; also, a series of three driving-wheels, K, on a front axle operated by a crank and cog-gearing; also, the two guide-wheels operating on pivots at the back corners of the chair (moved by the arm of chair) from right to left or in a circle.

Figure 1 represents a side view of the chair; fig. 2, the guide-wheels and their jointed connecting-rods; Fig. 3, the front driving-wheels and their gearing devices.

A represents the back of the chair, and B the seat and cushion, the back being connected by a joint, C, near the top of the arm, and also connected with the seat at the joint D, for the purpose of regulating the inclination of the back and extending the seat B forward, which the invalid does by bearing his weight against the back of the chair and drawing upward with his finger the lever E, while the opposite and bent end of lever E falls out of the aperture G, (in side of seat,) there being five or six apertures, and the spring H holds the lever E in any one of the apertures, holding the lever as a lock.

J is a jointed lever and crank attached to the one end of the axle of the front wheels, K, so that the speed of the chair may be increased at any time when required; L, the handle or lever of the main driving-wheels K, which is attached to a toothed wheel, M, on the right side of chair. The wheel M is geared into another wheel, N, and wheel N gears into a third toothed wheel, P, which is fastened to the outside face of wheel K. The axle of wheels K operates in the lower ends of the front legs of the chair, and the center wheel K is slightly larger than the two outside wheels K, so that the chair may travel easier and accommodate itself to the unevenness of the floor.

The guide-wheels E operate in the back legs or corners of the chair by a pivot, S, that extends from the top of the support T. From the top of each support T is a short projecting rod, U, jointed and connected to a double-jointed cross-rod, V, At the center joint of rod V a parallel rod, W, is attached, which extends upward and is fasented -sic- to the movable arm X, and as the arm is moved with the motion of the hand slightly to the right or left the jointed rods U, V, and W move to the right or left, and guide the wheels E accordingly.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is --

1. The locking-lever E, for holding the chair at any inclination or extension required.

2. The mode of propelling the chair by the arrangement of the driving-wheels K and their cog-gearing, as herein described.

3. The manner of guiding the movement of the chair in any direction by the guide-wheels and their jointed rods, as herein described.

CHAS. L. BAUDER.

Witnesses: J. FRANKLIN REIGART, DAN ROULAND.