SWIVEL CHAIRS - A BRIEF HISTORY
Swivel chairs have been around since 1800 when Thomas Jefferson invented one to allow the poorly treated office workers of the time a bit more comfort whilst multitasking.Up until then the office chair was just a hard wooden affair, not dissimilar to a dining chair.
The swivel feature allowed the worker to easily access different areas of the desk, in order to undertake different tasks. These chairs, however, still looked like dining or captains chairs, just mounted on an early version of a 5 star base. Soon after the arrival of swivel chairs, some bright spark fitted furniture castors to the bottom of these bases, and the office swivel chair was born.
Thus, ingenuity was born out of necessity. Up until this time, office workers were treated as the lowest of the low, undertaking laborious but necessary tasks. Lined up in their hundreds, in dingy and damp offices, at nothing more that kitchen tables and chairs, they plodded through ledgers and journals, filing and copying documents by hand.
Big businesses soon realised that making these poor workers more comfortable, made them much more productive, so with the widespread adoption of electric lighting and heating, workstations also improved in design, along with the adoption of upholstered office swivel chairs.
However it was not until over 100 years later that upholstered steel framed office seating started to appear. The advantages with these chairs were immediately recognised; comfort, lightness, strength, and adjustability (even the first designs has a screw-thread central support which allowed the base to be lifted or lowered to suit the user).
Plus they were cheaper and quicker to make. Development continued over the next 30 to 40 years but with no major changes in the original design. Both wars caused big problems for steel chair and office furniture designers as all metal was required for the war effort, but once peace resumed, so did the development.
The potentially dangerous 4 star base was changed to a much more stable 5 star base and the design of the castors improved significantly, as well as the adjustment features on the swivel chairs.
Then, in around 1950’s “Ergonomics“ were invented. This was the study of the human anatomy in relation to how the body uses its environment. So in the office furniture world this meant how swivel office chairs could be designed to be comfortable as well as supportive, and could incorporate the necessary adjustments to obtain the maximum comfort and support possible.
Innovations such as gas lifts, reclining backrests, lumbar support systems, adjustable armrests and many others started to appear in every catalogue, with the manufacturers all claiming their product to be the best in the market. But behind this hype and the often irrelevant features, boffins had scientifically looked at what our anatomy required in terms of support from an office chair, and manufacturers started designing office chairs to meet their recommendations. Chair bases and backrest design became more contoured to fit and support the spine correctly, and upholstery moved from plush to firm but supportive. Features such a waterfall seat fronts and synchronomic backrest mechanisms appeared, which really made a massive difference to user comfort.
Even today office chairs are constantly being developed to provide outstanding long term comfort and support at the best possible price, and the use of modern composite materials is also starting to appear in the market.It may be a while until we see carbon fibre chair frames, but things have certainly come a long way since TJ screwed a turntable to the bottom of a dining chair.
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