![Set of fourteen side chairs MET DP110780](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Set_of_fourteen_side_chairs_MET_DP110780.jpg)
A chair is a type of
seat
A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense.
Types of seat
The following are examples of different kinds of seat:
* Armchair (furniture), ...
, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or
upholstered
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.
''Upholstery'' comes from the Middle English word ...
in various colors and fabrics.
Chairs vary in design. An armchair has armrests fixed to the seat; a
recliner
A recliner is an armchair or sofa that reclines when the occupant lowers the chair's back and raises its front. It has a backrest that can be tilted back, and often a footrest that may be extended by means of a lever on the side of the chair, ...
is upholstered and features a mechanism that lowers the chair's back and raises into place a
footrest
A footstool (foot stool, footrest, foot rest) is a piece of furniture or a support used to elevate the foot. There are two main types of footstool, which can be loosely categorized into those designed for comfort and those designed for fun ...
; a
rocking chair
A rocking chair or rocker is a type of chair with two curved bands (also known as rockers) attached to the bottom of the legs, connecting the legs on each side to each other. The rockers contact the floor at only two points, giving the occupant ...
has legs fixed to two long curved slats; and a
wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...
has wheels fixed to an axis under the seat.
Etymology
''Chair'' comes from the early 13th-century English word ''chaere'', from Old French ''chaiere'' ("chair, seat, throne"), from Latin ''cathedra'' ("seat").
History
![Plastic Tuinstoel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Plastic_Tuinstoel.jpg)
The chair has been used since antiquity, although for many centuries it was a symbolic article of state and dignity rather than an article for ordinary use. "The chair" is still used as the emblem of authority in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and in many other settings. In keeping with this historical connotation of the "chair" as the symbol of authority, committees, boards of directors, and academic departments all have a 'chairman' or 'chair'. Endowed professorships are referred to as chairs.
It was not until the 16th century that chairs became common. Until then, people sat on
chests,
benches, and stools, which were the ordinary seats of everyday life. The number of chairs which have survived from an earlier date is exceedingly limited; most examples are of
ecclesiastical,
seigneurial or
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
origin.
Chairs were in existence since at least the
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
The Early Dynastic Period or Archaic Period, also known as the Thinite Period (from Thinis, the supposed hometown of its rulers), is the era of ancient Egypt that immediately follows the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in . It is generall ...
(c. 3100 BC). They were covered with cloth or
leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...
, were made of carved wood, and were much lower than today's chairs – chair seats were sometimes only high.
In ancient
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, chairs appear to have been of great richness and splendor. Fashioned of
ebony
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...
and
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
, or of carved and
gilded wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
, they were covered with costly materials, magnificent patterns and supported upon representations of the legs of beasts or the figures of captives. Generally speaking, the higher ranked an individual was, the taller and more sumptuous was the chair he sat on and the greater the honor. On state occasions, the pharaoh sat on a
throne
A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign on state occasions; or the seat occupied by a pope or bishop on ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the monar ...
, often with a little footstool in front of it.
The average Egyptian family seldom had chairs, and if they did, it was usually only the master of the household who sat on a chair. Among the better off, the chairs might be painted to look like the ornate inlaid and carved chairs of the rich, but the craftsmanship was usually poor.
The earliest images of chairs in China are from 6th-century Buddhist murals and
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
, but the practice of
sitting
Sitting is a List of human positions, basic action and resting position in which the body weight is supported primarily by the bony ischial tuberosities with the buttocks in contact with the ground or a horizontal surface such as a chair seat, in ...
in chairs at that time was rare. It was not until the 12th century that chairs became widespread in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Scholars disagree on the reasons for the adoption of the chair. The most common theories are that the chair was an outgrowth of indigenous Chinese furniture, that it evolved from a camp stool imported from Central Asia, that it was introduced to China by Christian missionaries in the 7th century, and that the chair came to China from India as a form of Buddhist monastic furniture. In modern China, unlike
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
or
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, it is no longer common to sit at floor level.
In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
that the chair ceased to be a privilege of state and became a standard item of furniture for anyone who could afford to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use. Almost at once the chair began to change every few years to reflect the fashions of the day.
Thomas Edward Bowdich
Thomas Edward Bowdich (20 June 179110 January 1824) was an English traveller and author.
Life
Bowdich was born at Bristol and educated at Bristol Grammar School. In 1813, he married Sarah Wallis, who shared his subsequent career.
In 1814, thr ...
visited the main Palace of the
Ashanti Empire
The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: ), today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted between 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana as well as parts of Iv ...
in 1819, and observed chairs engrossed with gold in the empire.
In the 1880s, chairs became more common in American households and usually there was a chair provided for every family member to sit down to dinner. By the 1830s, factory-manufactured “fancy chairs” like those by
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
, Roebuck, and Co. allowed families to purchase machined sets. With the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, chairs became much more available.
The 20th century saw an increasing use of technology in chair construction with such things as all-metal folding chairs, metal-legged chairs, the Slumber Chair, moulded plastic chairs and ergonomic chairs. The recliner became a popular form, at least in part due to radio and television. In the 1930s,
stair lift
A stair lift is a mechanical device for lifting people, typically those with disabilities, up and down stairs. For sufficiently wide stairs, a rail is mounted to the treads of the stairs. A chair or lifting platform is attached to the rail. A per ...
s were commercially available to help people suffering from
Polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
and other diseases to navigate stairs.
The modern movement of the 1960s produced new forms of chairs: the
butterfly chair
The butterfly chair, also known as a ''BKF chair'' or ''Hardoy chair'', is a style of chair featuring a metal frame and a large sling hung from the frame's highest points, creating a suspended seat. The frame of the chair is generally painted bl ...
(originally called the Hardoy chair),
bean bags, and the
egg-shaped pod chair that turns. It also introduced the first mass-produced plastic chairs such as the Bofinger chair in 1966. Technological advances led to molded
plywood and wood
laminate chairs, as well as chairs made of
leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...
or
polymers
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic an ...
. Mechanical technology incorporated into the chair enabled adjustable chairs, especially for
office
An office is a space where an Organization, organization's employees perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize objects and Goals, plans, action theory, goals of the organizati ...
use. Motors embedded in the chair resulted in
massage chair
A massage chair is a chair designed for massages. It can refer to two types of products. Traditional massage chairs allow a masseur to easily access the head, shoulders, and back of a massage recipient, while robotic massage chairs use electronic ...
s.
Materials
![Paris Chaises jardin des Tuileries 2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Paris_Chaises_jardin_des_Tuileries_2014.jpg)
Chairs can be made from wood, metal, or other strong materials, like stone or acrylic. In some cases, multiple materials are used to construct a chair; for example, the legs and frame may be made from metal and the seat and back may be made from plastic. Chairs may have hard surfaces of wood, metal, plastic, or other materials, or some or all of these hard surfaces may be covered with upholstery or padding. The design may be made of
porous
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure ...
materials, or be
drilled with holes for decoration; a low back or gaps can provide
ventilation
Ventilation may refer to:
* Ventilation (physiology), the movement of air between the environment and the lungs via inhalation and exhalation
** Mechanical ventilation, in medicine, using artificial methods to assist breathing
*** Ventilator, a m ...
. The back may extend above the height of the occupant's head, which can optionally contain a headrest. Chairs can also be made from more creative materials, such as recycled materials like cutlery and wooden play bricks, pencils, plumbing tubes, rope,
corrugated cardboard
Corrugated fiberboard or corrugated cardboard is a type of packaging material consisting of a fluted corrugated sheet and one or two flat linerboards. It is made on "flute lamination machines" or "corrugators" and is used for making corrugated ...
, and
PVC pipe
Plastic pipe is a tubular section, or hollow cylinder, made of plastic. It is usually, but not necessarily, of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow—liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of sm ...
.
In rare cases, chairs are made out of unusual materials, especially as a form of art or experimentation. Raimonds Cirulis, a Latvian interior designer, created a volcanic hanging chair that is handmade out of volcanic rock. Peter Brenner, a Dutch-born German designer, has created a chair made from lollipop sugar – of confectioners' sugar.
Design and ergonomics
Chair design considers intended usage,
ergonomic
Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as human factors) is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Four primary goals of human factors learnin ...
s (how comfortable it is for the occupant), as well as non-ergonomic functional requirements such as size, stacking ability, folding ability, weight,
durability
Durability is the ability of a physical product to remain functional, without requiring excessive maintenance or repair, when faced with the challenges of normal operation over its design lifetime. There are several measures of durability in us ...
, stain resistance, and artistic design.
Seat height
![Bar Stools (49907001456)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Bar_Stools_%2849907001456%29.jpg)
Ergonomic design distributes the weight of the occupant to various parts of the
body
Body may refer to:
In science
* Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space
* Body (biology), the physical material of an organism
* Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anima ...
. This is done by having an easily adjustable seat height. A seat that is higher results in dangling feet and increased pressure on the underside of the knees ("
popliteal fold"). It may also result in no weight on the feet which means more weight elsewhere. A lower seat may shift too much weight to the "seat bones" ("
ischial tuberosities").
Gas spring
A gas spring is a type of spring that, unlike a typical mechanical spring that relies on elastic deformation, uses compressed gas contained within an enclosed cylinder sealed by a sliding piston to pneumatically store potential energy and wit ...
s are attached to the body of the chair in order to give height adjustment and more comfort to the user.
Some chairs have foot rests. Around 15% of women and 2% of men need foot rests, even at the chair height.
A
stool or other simple chair may have a simple straight or curved bar near the bottom for the sitter to place their feet on.
Actual chair dimensions are determined by measurements of the human body or
anthropometric
Anthropometry () refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthropology and in various atte ...
measurements. The two most relevant anthropometric measurement for chair design is the
popliteal height and
buttock popliteal
A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense.
Types of seat
The following are examples of different kinds of seat:
* Armchair (furniture), ...
length.
For someone seated, the popliteal height is the distance from the underside of the foot to the underside of the thigh at the knees. It is sometimes called the "stool height". The term "sitting height" is reserved for the height to the top of the head when seated. For American men, the median popliteal height is and for American women it is . The popliteal height, after adjusting for heels, clothing and other issues, is used to determine the height of the chair seat. Mass-produced chairs are typically high.
Researchers such as
Mary Blade and
Galen Cranz found that sitting on the edge of a high stool with feet on the floor is less harmful for the lower back than sitting up straight on a conventional chair.
Reclining angle
Different types of chairs can have a variety of seating positions, depending on the intended task. Typically, chairs intended for people completing work or dining can only recline very slightly (otherwise the occupant is too far away from the desk or table).
Dental chair
A dental engine is a large chair-side appliance (often including the chair itself) for use in a dentist's office. At minimum, a dental engine serves as a source of mechanical or pneumatic power for one or more handpieces.
Typically, it will a ...
s are necessarily reclined. Research has shown that the best seated posture is a reclined posture of 100°–110°. In order to recline, the back-rest may be independently adjustable. A reclining seat and back will reduce the load on the occupant's back muscles. In general, if the occupant is supposed to sit for a long time, weight needs to be taken off the seat area and thus "easy" chairs intended for long periods of sitting are generally at least slightly reclined.
Back and head support
The back of the chair will support some of the weight of the occupant, reducing the weight on other parts of the body. Some back-rests support only the
lumbar region, while shoulder height back-rests support the entire back and
shoulders
The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...
.
Headrests support the head as well and are important in vehicles for preventing "
whiplash
Whiplash may refer to:
* The long flexible part of a whip
* Whiplash (medicine), a neck injury
** Whiplash Injury Protection System (WHIPS), in automobiles
Film and television
* ''Whiplash'' (1948 film), a US film noir about a boxer
* ''Whiplas ...
" neck injuries in rear-end collisions where the head is jerked back suddenly.
Reclining chairs Reclining may refer to being in a:
* Reclining chair or recliner, being in an armchair or sofa that adjusts so that the back rest lowers and a footrest rises to allow a person to recline in a comfortable position
* Reclining position or supine typically have at least shoulder-height back-rests to shift weight to the shoulders.
Padding
There may be cases where padding is not desirable, such as chairs that are intended primarily for outdoor use. Where padding is not desirable, contouring may be used instead. A contoured seat pan attempts to distribute weight without padding. By matching the shape of the occupant's
buttocks
The buttocks (singular: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed ...
, weight is distributed and maximum pressure is reduced.
Armrests
A chair may or may not have armrests; chairs with armrests are termed "armchairs". In
French, a distinction is made between ''fauteuil'' and ''chaise'', the terms for chairs with and without armrests, respectively. In Germany, an armchair was once called a ''
Krankensessel'', or sick-chair, because it was intended for people who were too ill to stand or sit without extra support.
If present, armrests will support part of the body weight through the arms if the arms are resting on the armrests.
Elbow
The elbow is the region between the arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and the media ...
rest height is used to determine the height of the armrests. Armrests should support the forearm and not the sensitive elbow area. Hence in some chair designs, the armrest is not continuous to the chair back, but is missing in the elbow area. Armrests further have the function of making entry and exit from the chair easier (but from the side it becomes more difficult).
Seat size and legroom
![Plane Leg Room Diagram](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Plane_Leg_Room_Diagram.GIF)
For someone seated, the buttock popliteal length is the horizontal distance from the back most part of the buttocks to the back of the lower leg. This anthropometric measurement is used to determine the seat depth. Mass-produced chairs are typically deep.
Additional anthropometric measurements may be relevant to designing a chair. Hip breadth is used for chair width and armrest width. The buttock-knee length is used to determine "leg room" between rows of chairs. "Seat pitch" is the distance between rows of seats. In some airplanes and stadiums the leg room (the seat pitch less the thickness of the seat at thigh level) is so small that it is sometimes insufficient for the average person.
Types of chairs
![Rocking Chair (32443140351)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Rocking_Chair_%2832443140351%29.jpg)
A wide variety of chairs have emerged throughout the ages, some based on formal usages, and others based on domestic needs, and some based on needs within the workplace or various professions.
Office chair
An
office chair
An office chair, or desk chair, is a type of chair that is designed for use at a desk in an office. It is usually a swivel chair, with a set of wheels for mobility and adjustable height. Modern office chairs typically use a single, distinctive l ...
is one used by employees within an office. Modern office chairs are usually adjustable and wheeled.
Caster wheels are attached to the feet of chairs to give more mobility.
Dining room chair
A dining room chair is a specific type of design, used around a dining room table. It can be found in most ordinary residential homes, and also may appear in formal settings, such as any formal event or reception that includes a formal meal or banquet.
Work chair
A work chair is a specialized chair, adapted to the needs of a particular profession or setting. For example, a designing chair will be used for designers who sit at high easels; it will usually have added height.
Rocking chair
Some chairs have two curved bands of wood (also known as rockers) attached to the bottom of the legs. They are called
rocking chair
A rocking chair or rocker is a type of chair with two curved bands (also known as rockers) attached to the bottom of the legs, connecting the legs on each side to each other. The rockers contact the floor at only two points, giving the occupant ...
s.
Kneeling chair
![Kneeling chair](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Kneeling_chair.jpg)
A
kneeling chair adds an additional body part, the knees, to support the weight of the body. A sit-stand chair distributes most of the weight of the occupant to the feet. Many chairs are padded or have
cushion
A cushion is a soft bag of some ornamental material, usually stuffed with wool, hair, feathers, polyester staple fiber, non-woven material, cotton, or even paper torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften th ...
s. Padding can be on the seat of the chair only, on the seat and back, or also on any arm rests or foot rest the chair may have. Padding will not shift the weight to different parts of the body (unless the chair is so soft that the shape is altered). However, padding does distribute the weight by increasing the area of contact between the chair and the body, and thus reducing the amount of pressure at any given point. By contrast, a hard wood chair feels hard because the contact point between the occupant and the chair is small. In lieu of padding, flexible materials, such as wicker, may be used instead with similar effects of distributing the weight.
Seats
![Cadeira Palmetal - Modelo I - Preta - Simples](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Cadeira_Palmetal_-_Modelo_I_-_Preta_-_Simples.jpg)
Chair seats vary widely in construction and may or may not match construction of the chair's back (back-rest).
Some systems include:
* Center seats where a solid material forms the chair seat
** Solid wood, may or may not be shaped to human contours
** Wood slats, often seen on outdoor chairs
** Padded leather, generally a flat wood base covered in padding and contained in soft leather
** Stuffed fabric, similar to padded leather
** Metal seats of solid or open design
** Molded plastic
** Stone, often
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
* Open center seats where a soft material is attached to the tops of chair legs or between stretchers to form the seat
** Wicker, woven to provide a surface with give to it
** Leather, may be tooled with a design
** Fabric, simple covering without support
** Tape, wide fabric tape woven into seat, seen in lawn chairs and some old chairs
**
Caning,
** Rush, wrapped from
rush, heavy paper, strong grasses, or hand twisted while wrapped with
cattail
''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in A ...
s to form the seat, usually in a pattern of four trapezoids meeting in the center, and on rare occasions, in elaborate patterns
**
Reed
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* ...
,
**
Rawhide
** Splint,
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
,
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
or
hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
strips are woven
** Metal, Metal mesh or wire woven to form seat
Standards and specifications
![MexicanChairs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/MexicanChairs.jpg)
Design considerations for chairs have been codified into standards.
ISO 9241
ISO 9241 is a multi-part standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) covering ergonomics of human-computer interaction. It is managed by the ISO Technical Committee 159. It was originally titled ''Ergonomic requiremen ...
, "Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) – Part 5: Workstation layout and postural requirements", is the most common one for modern chair design.
There are multiple specific standards for different types of chairs.
Dental chair
A dental engine is a large chair-side appliance (often including the chair itself) for use in a dentist's office. At minimum, a dental engine serves as a source of mechanical or pneumatic power for one or more handpieces.
Typically, it will a ...
s are specified by ISO 6875.
Bean bag chair
The Sacco chair, also called a bean bag chair, beanbag chair, or simply a beanbag (“Sacco” is Italian for “bag, sack”), is a large fabric bag, filled with polystyrene beans, designed by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro. The p ...
s are specified by
ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
standard ASTM F1912-98. ISO 7174 specifies stability of rocking and tilting chairs. ASTM F1858-98 specifies plastic lawn chairs. ASTM E1822-02b defines the combustibility of chairs when they are stacked.
Th
Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFMA)defines ANSI/BIFMA X5.1 (titled: General-Purpose Office Chairs – Tests) for testing of commercial-grade chairs. It requires:
* chair back strength of
* chair stability if weight is transferred completely to the front or back legs
* leg strength of applied from the bottom of the leg
* seat strength of dropped from above the seat
* seat cycle strength of 100,000 repetitions of dropped from above the seat
The specification further defines heavier "proof" loads that chairs must withstand. Under these higher loads, the chair may be damaged, but it must not fail catastrophically.
Large institutions that make bulk purchases will reference these standards within their own even more detailed criteria for purchase. Governments will often issue standards for purchases by government agencies (e.g. Canada's Canadian General Standards Board CAN/CGSB 44.15M on "Straight Stacking Chair, Steel" or CAN/CGSB 44.232-2002 on "Task Chairs for Office Work with Visual Display Terminal").
Chairs may be rated by the length of time that they may be used comfortably – an 8-hour chair, a 24-hour chair, and so on. Such chairs are specified for tasks which require extended periods of sitting, such as for receptionists or supervisors of a control panel.
Accessories
![Eameslounch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Eameslounch.jpg)
In place of a built-in footrest, some chairs come with a matching
ottoman. An ottoman is a short stool that is intended to be used as a footrest but can sometimes be used as a stool. If matched to a glider chair, the ottoman may be mounted on swing arms so that the ottoman rocks back and forth with the main glider.
A chair cover is a temporary fabric cover for a side chair. They are typically rented for formal events such as wedding receptions to increase the attractiveness of the chairs and decor. The chair covers may come with decorative chair ties, a ribbon to be tied as a bow behind the chair. Covers for sofas and couches are also available for homes with small children and pets. In the second half of the 20th century, some people used custom clear plastic covers for expensive sofas and chairs to protect them.
Chair pads are cushions for chairs. They contain cotton or foam for padding. Some are decorative. In cars, they may be used to increase the height of the driver. Orthopedic back-rests provide support for the back. Car seats sometimes have built-in and adjustable lumbar supports. These can also be used on kitchen chairs.
Chair mats are mats meant to cover different types of flooring. They are usually made from plastic. This allows chairs on wheels to roll easily over the carpet and protects the carpet or floor. They come in various shapes, some specifically sized to fit partially under a desk.
Remote control bags can be draped over the arm of easy chairs or sofas and used to hold remote controls for
home cinema
Home cinema, also called home theaters or theater rooms, are home entertainment audio-visual systems that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood using consumer electronics-grade video and audio equipment that is set up in a room ...
s. They are counter-weighted so as to not slide off the arms under the weight of the remote controls.
Chair glides are attached to the feet of chairs to prevent them from scratching or snagging on the floor.
An
antimacassar
An antimacassar is a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric underneath.Fleming, John & Hugh Honour. (1977) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Art ...
is a cloth covering for a headrest to protect the fabric and enable easy washing.
As sculptural and art forms
![Pay2sit SteveMann SanFranciscoArtInstitute 2001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Pay2sit_SteveMann_SanFranciscoArtInstitute_2001.jpg)
The ''
Broken Chair'' is a
monumental sculpture in wood, constructed of 5.5 tons of wood, high standing across the street from the
Palace of Nations
The Palace of Nations (french: Palais des Nations, ) is the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva, located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was built between 1929 and 1938 to serve as the headquarters of the League of Nations. It has served ...
in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
. It has broken leg symbolizing opposition to
land mine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
s and
cluster bombs. In 2001,
Steve Mann exhibited a chair sculpture at San Francisco Art Institute. The chair had spikes that retracted when a credit card was inserted to download a seating license. Later other museums and galleries were equipped with the "Pay to Sit" chair, with a global central seating
license server located in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. The first sitting session was free, with a database of persons who had already used their free session.
In a performance piece at the
2012 Republican National Convention,
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...
addressed an empty chair, as if it represented President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
(meant to be construed as
MIA
Mia, MIA, or M.I.A. may refer to:
Music Artists
* M.I.A. (rapper) (born 1975), English rapper and singer
* M.I.A. (band), 1980s punk rock band from Orange County, California
* MIA., a German rock/pop band formed in 1997
* Mia (singer) (born 1983) ...
or ineffectual). The address was controversial, with critics describing it as bizarre and supporters describing it as poignant. Japanese designer
Tokujin Yoshioka
is a Japanese designer and artist.
He is active in the fields of design, architecture and contemporary art, and he is internationally acclaimed for his works dealing with light and nature.
Many of his works chosen as part of permanent collect ...
has created several chairs as art forms such as "Honey-pop": honey-comb paper chair (2001), "Pane chair": natural fiber chair (2006), "Venus": natural crystal chair (2007).
New York
industrial designer
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactu ...
Ian Stell creates steel and wood
kinetic sculptures that transform into chairs, including ''Roll Bottom Chair'' (2016) that turns into a
secretariat
Secretariat may refer to:
* Secretariat (administrative office)
* Secretariat (horse)
Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...
desk and Loop that transforms into two interlocking chairs when expanded (2015).
Cultural significance
![Eisteddfod 1991](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Eisteddfod_1991.jpg)
In
Welsh culture, an
eisteddfod
In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music.
The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...
is a festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music.
The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from two
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
s: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be',
means, according to
Hywel Teifi Edwards
Hywel Teifi Edwards (15 October 1934 – 4 January 2010) was a Welsh academic and historian, a prominent Welsh nationalist, a broadcaster and an author in the Welsh language. He was the father of the BBC journalist Huw Edwards. ...
, "sitting-together." Edwards further defines the earliest form of the eisteddfod as a competitive meeting between bards and minstrels, in which the winner was chosen by a noble or royal patron.
[Hywel Teifi Edwards (2015), ''The Eisteddfod'', pages 5–6.]
In language
* If someone "nearly fell off their chair" after being informed about something, it was because they were very shocked or surprised.
* An
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
awards the best player in a particular section a "chair" or "principal seat" based on ability. The first chair of the section plays the solos, and in string sections, determines the bowings. In professional orchestras, the first chair player receives higher pay. It is also common for this position to be known as "first stand", a reference to the portable lectern on which the musicians put their sheet music. However, the person who is first chair in the first violin section is usually referred to as the
concertmaster
The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...
in the US or
leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
in the
UK.
* In academia, an
endowed chair
A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...
is a prestigious appointment for a professor, paid for by a dedicated funding source.
* A chair is the highest officer of an organized group, such as the
chair of the board, the head of the
Board of Directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
in a company or non-profit organization.
* "
Musical chairs
Musical chairs, also known as Trip to Jerusalem, is a game of elimination involving players, chairs, and music. It is a staple of many parties worldwide.
Gameplay
A set of chairs is arranged with one fewer chair than the number of players ...
" is a common
party game
Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games.Frankel, Lillian; ...
, and a colloquial expression to describe people shuffling from seat to seat, around different locations, or from one job title to another.
* In American slang, to say someone will "get the chair" is to say that they will be executed by an
electric chair
An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...
.
Alternatively, it can be a
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
for other harsh punishment.
See also
*
List of chairs
The following is a partial list of chairs with descriptions, with internal or external cross-references about most of the chairs. For other chair-like types (like bench, stool), see
0-9
* 10 Downing Street Guard Chairs, two antique chairs used ...
for an extended list types, such as the
lift chair
Lift chairs, or riser armchairs, are chairs that feature a powered lifting mechanism that pushes the entire chair up from its base and so assists the user to a standing position.
In the United States, lift chairs qualify as Durable Medical Equipm ...
,
papasan chair
A papasan chair (also called a bowl chair or moon chair) is a type of bowl-shaped chair.
Design
A papasan chair is a large rounded bowl-shaped chair with an adjustable angle. The bowl rests in an upright frame traditionally made of rattan, bu ...
,
swivel chair.
*
Chair pose
*
Chair squat
*
Riding-like sitting
*
Seating assignment
In live entertainment, there are several possible schemes for the seating assignment of spectators—including completely unassigned seating. There are several schemes which are most commonly used, though there are no hard and fast rules and alter ...
*
Splat (furniture)
A splat is the vertical central element of a chair back. Typically this element of a chair is of exposed wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organi ...
, the central vertical element of a wooden chair back
References
Further reading
*
*
* de Dampierre, F. (2006). Chairs: A History. Harry N. Abrams.
* Fiell, C. (2005). 1000 Chairs. (25th ed.). Taschen.
* Miller, J. (2009). Chairs. Conran.
{{Authority control
Furniture