A swivel, spinny, or revolving chair is a chair with a single central leg that allows the seat to rotate 360 degrees to the left or right. A concept of a rotating chair with swivel castors was illustrated by the

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

patrician Martin Löffelholz von Kolberg in his 1505 technological illuminated manuscript, the so-called Codex Löffelholz, on folio 10r. It is purported that

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

drafted the

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ( ...

in 1776 while sitting on a swivel chair of his own design.

Types and examples

Swivel chairs may have wheels on the base allowing the user to move the chair around their work area without getting up. This type is common in modern

office An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...

s and are often also referred to as

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 ...

s. Office swivel chairs, like computer chairs, usually incorporate a

gas lift Gas lift or bubble pumps use the artificial lift technique of raising a fluid such as water or oil by introducing bubbles of compressed air, water vapor or other vaporous bubbles into the outlet tube. This has the effect of reducing the hydrosta ...

to adjust the height of the seat, but not usually large (e.g.

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, ...

) swiveling armchairs. A draughtsman's chair is a swivel chair without wheels that is usually taller than an 'office chair' for use in front of a

drawing board A drawing board (also drawing table, drafting table or architect's table) is, in its antique form, a kind of multipurpose desk which can be used for any kind of drawing, writing or impromptu sketching on a large sheet of paper or for reading a l ...

. They also have a foot-ring to support the legs when it is not possible to reach the ground.

Swivel seat

When the swivel chair is installed in an

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

, an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarde ...

or on a

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 ...

and can not move independently because it is on a fixed base, it is rather called a swivel seat. Some swivel seats are also

bucket seat A bucket seat is a car seat contoured to hold one person, distinct from a flat bench seat designed to fit multiple people. In its simplest form it is a rounded seat for one person with high sides, but may have curved sides that partially enclose ...

Origin

Kodex Löffelholz - Biblioteka Jagiellońska Ms Berol Germ Qu 132 - fol 10r

Using an English-style

Windsor chair A Windsor chair is a chair built with a solid wooden seat into which the chair-back and legs are round- tenoned, or pushed into drilled holes, in contrast to standard chairs (whose back legs and back uprights are continuous). The seats of Windsor ...

, possibly made by and purchased from

Francis Trumble Francis Trumble was an 18th-century chair and cabinetmaker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Trumble produced a variety of "fine furniture" in the Queen Anne style furniture, Queen Anne, Thomas Chippendale, Chippendale and Federal (style), Federal st ...

or Philadelphia cabinet-maker Benjamin Randolph,

constructed an early swivel chair. Jefferson heavily modified the Windsor chair and incorporated top and bottom parts connected by a central iron spindle, enabling the top half known as the seat, to swivel on casters of the type used in rope-hung windows. It had no wheels. When the Second Continental Congress met in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Jefferson's swivel chair is purported to be the chair he sat upon when he drafted the

in 1776. Jefferson later had the swivel chair sent to his

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

plantation,

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

, where he built a "writing paddle" onto its side in August 1791. Since 1836, the chair has been in the possession of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

located in Philadelphia.American Philosophical Society Museum Web Site Photo of Jefferson's original swivel chair.

References

{{Thomas Jefferson, state=collapsed American inventions Chairs Works by Thomas Jefferson

Types and examples

Swivel seat

Origin

See also

References