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117-484: Upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder , which referred to an artisan who makes fabric furnishings. The term is equally applicable to domestic , automobile , airplane and boat furniture, and can be applied to mattresses , particularly the upper layers, though these often differ significantly in design. A person who works with upholstery is called an upholsterer . An apprentice upholsterer

234-590: A car body and interior trimmings. Trimmers would produce soft furnishings, carpets, soft tops , and roof linings often to order to customer specifications. Later, trim shops were frequently an in-house part of the production line as the production process was broken down into smaller parts manageable by semi-skilled labor. Many automotive trimmers now work in automotive design or with aftermarket trim shops carrying out repairs, restorations, or customer conversions directly. A few high-quality motor car manufacturers still employ trimmers, for example, Aston Martin . This

351-452: A "reasonable" time and be significantly lighter than the traditional fillings. (In this context, foam is graded by its weight per cubic metre. 50 kg per cubic metre or 5% mass is typical). It is also relevant to include a reference to the way furniture has evolved with regard to recreational use, e.g., television watching. Lower cost allows more regular change to take account of such issues as design, moving accommodation, and deterioration due to

468-442: A basic level, squab cushions were made more stable using tufting ties. Stuffed edge rolls appeared on seat fronts, providing support for cushions to be retained and later for deeper stuffing to be held in place under a fixed top cover. What we now consider "classic" upholstery shapes and techniques flourished in the 18th century. Frames of elegant line and proportion were sympathetically matched by expertly executed upholstery. By now,

585-452: 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

702-515: 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 , but the practice of sitting in chairs at that time was rare. It was not until the 12th century that chairs became widespread in China . Scholars disagree on

819-428: 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 materials, or be drilled with holes for decoration; a low back or gaps can provide ventilation . The back may extend above

936-738: A demonstrative ( þis , þat ), after a possessive pronoun (e.g., hir , our ), or with a name or in a form of address. This derives from the Old English "weak" declension of adjectives. This inflexion continued to be used in writing even after final -e had ceased to be pronounced. In earlier texts, multisyllable adjectives also receive a final -e in these situations, but this occurs less regularly in later Middle English texts. Otherwise, adjectives have no ending and adjectives already ending in -e etymologically receive no ending as well. Earlier texts sometimes inflect adjectives for case as well. Layamon's Brut inflects adjectives for

1053-422: 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 rest height

1170-430: A formal meal or banquet. 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. Some chairs have two curved bands of wood (also known as rockers) attached to the bottom of the legs. They are called rocking chairs . A kneeling chair adds an additional body part,

1287-633: A journey of creative adaptation and technological advancement. Initially, boaters made do with simple wooden benches or flat surfaces. The advent of more resilient materials like plastic and vinyl in the 20th century revolutionized seat design, offering greater durability and water resistance. This change enabled more diverse and ergonomic designs. In the 21st century, technological progress has ushered in high-end features such as padded cushions, UV-resistant fabrics, and adjustable settings, enhancing comfort . Some contemporary seats even boast luxury features like in-built heating or massaging systems, signifying

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1404-502: A largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary (with many Norse borrowings in the northern parts of the country) but a greatly simplified inflectional system. The grammatical relations that were expressed in Old English by the dative and instrumental cases were replaced in Early Middle English with prepositional constructions. The Old English genitive - es survives in the -'s of the modern English possessive , but most of

1521-494: A lengthened – and later also modified – pronunciation of a preceding vowel. For example, in name , originally pronounced as two syllables, the /a/ in the first syllable (originally an open syllable) lengthened, the final weak vowel was later dropped, and the remaining long vowel was modified in the Great Vowel Shift (for these sound changes, see Phonology , above). The final ⟨e⟩ , now silent, thus became

1638-495: A lesser extent), and, therefore, it cannot be attributed simply to the influence of French-speaking sections of the population: English did, after all, remain the vernacular . It is also argued that Norse immigrants to England had a great impact on the loss of inflectional endings in Middle English. One argument is that, although Norse and English speakers were somewhat comprehensible to each other due to similar morphology,

1755-420: A niche craft, appreciated by discerning individuals who seek timeless beauty and unparalleled comfort in their furniture. An automotive upholsterer, also known as a trimmer, coach trimmer, or motor trimmer, shares many of the skills required in upholstery and can work with carpets. The term coach trimmer derives from the days when car frames were produced by manufacturers and delivered to coach builders to add

1872-593: A process called apophony ), as in Modern English. With the discontinuation of the Late West Saxon standard used for the writing of Old English in the period prior to the Norman Conquest, Middle English came to be written in a wide variety of scribal forms, reflecting different regional dialects and orthographic conventions. Later in the Middle English period, however, and particularly with

1989-433: A simple dome shape sloping towards the seat. Only towards the end of the 17th century did upholsterers start developing techniques to distribute and shape the stuffing into more controlled shapes. Curled horsehair was used more consistently for stuffing, making it easier to hold in place with twine stitches developed from saddlery techniques. Thus, layers of stuffing could be distributed evenly and secured to stay in place. On

2106-410: 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

2223-524: A variant of the Northumbrian dialect (prevalent in northern England and spoken in southeast Scotland ). During the Middle English period, many Old English grammatical features either became simplified or disappeared altogether. Noun, adjective, and verb inflections were simplified by the reduction (and eventual elimination) of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw considerable adoption of Anglo-Norman vocabulary, especially in

2340-493: 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 – 60 pounds (27 kg) of confectioners' sugar. Chair design considers intended usage, ergonomics (how comfortable it is for the occupant), as well as non-ergonomic functional requirements such as size, stacking ability, folding ability, weight, durability , stain resistance, and artistic design. Ergonomic design distributes

2457-432: Is a craft that evolved over centuries for padding and covering chairs , seats, and sofas before the development of sewing machines, synthetic fabrics, and plastic foam . Using a solid wood or webbed platform, it can involve the use of springs , lashings, stuffings of animal hair, grasses, coir, wools, hessians, scrims, bridle ties, stuffing ties, blind stitching, top stitching, flocks and wadding all built up by hand. In

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2574-409: 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

2691-436: Is an archaic word that was historically used to refer to an “upholsterer”. However, it seems to carry a specific connotation of repairing furniture rather than creating new upholstered pieces from scratch, similar to the distinction between a cobbler and a cordwainer . In 18th-century London , upholders often took on the role of interior decorators , managing all aspects of a room’s decor. These individuals were members of

2808-485: Is an early work showing his and his wife Jeanne Claude’s iconic style of partially or wholly hiding objects within wrapped cloth and ropes. Their work developed into large-scale public site-specific artworks and environmental art, which the pair are most well known for. For Wrapped Chair , Christo plays with the identity of the object by concealing parts and revealing others. There are multiple variations of this work and similar ones involving chairs displayed at museums around

2925-487: Is known for its durability and resistance to UV radiation , while Monel staples are highly resistant to corrosion . Any wood used in marine upholstery must be of marine quality to resist rot and decay. Typically, high-resiliency, high-density plastic foam with a thin plastic film is used to keep out water that might get by the seams. Closed-cell foam is often used for smaller cushions, which can sometimes double as flotation devices. The evolution of boat seating reflects

3042-497: Is no longer common to sit at floor level. In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the Renaissance 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 visited

3159-433: Is now rare and used only in oxen and as part of a double plural , in children and brethren . Some dialects still have forms such as eyen (for eyes ), shoon (for shoes ), hosen (for hose(s) ), kine (for cows ), and been (for bees ). Grammatical gender survived to a limited extent in early Middle English before being replaced by natural gender in the course of the Middle English period. Grammatical gender

3276-403: 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. 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

3393-404: Is sometimes called an outsider or trimmer . Traditional upholstery uses materials like coil springs (post-1850), animal hair (horse, hog and cow), coir , straw and hay, hessians , linen scrims , wadding, etc., and is done by hand, building each layer up. In contrast, today's upholsterers employ synthetic materials like dacron and vinyl , serpentine springs, and so on. The term “upholder”

3510-429: 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. 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. An office chair

3627-463: 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 15–17 inches (38–43 cm) 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"

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3744-662: Is the type of upholstery work offered to businesses. Examples would be restaurant seating consisting of booth seats, dining room chairs, bar stools, etc. Also, churches, including but not limited to pews and chairs for the congregation, hospitals, and clinics consisting of medical tables, chiropractic tables, dental chairs, etc. Also common to this type of upholstery would be lobby and waiting-area seating. Upholstered walls are found in some retail premises. Upholsterers may be called upon to repair or replace seating, cushions, cabin furnishings, headliners, and boat carpeting. Marine upholstery, in particular, requires special considerations due to

3861-410: 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). For someone seated, the buttock popliteal length

3978-524: The Augustinian canon Orrm wrote the Ormulum , one of the oldest surviving texts in Middle English. The influence of Old Norse aided the development of English from a synthetic language with relatively free word order to a more analytic language with a stricter word order. Both Old English and Old Norse were synthetic languages with complicated inflections. Communication between Vikings in

4095-597: The Danelaw and their Anglo-Saxon neighbours resulted in the erosion of inflection in both languages. Old Norse may have had a more profound impact on Middle and Modern English development than any other language. The effect of Old Norse on Old English was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. Like close cousins, Old Norse and Old English resembled each other, and with some words and grammatical structures in common, speakers of each language roughly understood each other, but according to historian Simeon Potler

4212-616: The Early Modern English and Modern English eras. Middle English generally did not have silent letters . For example, knight was pronounced [ˈkniçt] (with both the ⟨k⟩ and the ⟨gh⟩ pronounced, the latter sounding as the ⟨ch⟩ in German Knecht ). The major exception was the silent ⟨e⟩ – originally pronounced but lost in normal speech by Chaucer's time. This letter, however, came to indicate

4329-649: The Norman Conquest , had normally been written in French. Like Chaucer's work, this new standard was based on the East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Clerks using this standard were usually familiar with French and Latin , influencing the forms they chose. The Chancery Standard, which was adopted slowly, was used in England by bureaucrats for most official purposes, excluding those of

4446-773: The University of Valencia states the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly coincided with the High and Late Middle Ages . Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography . Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English literary variety broke down and writing in English became fragmented and localized and was, for

4563-480: The Worshipful Company of Upholders , a guild whose traditional role, before the 18th century, was to provide upholstery, textiles, and fittings for funerals. In the prominent London furniture-making partnerships of the 18th century, it was common for a cabinet-maker to pair with an upholder. Notable examples include partnerships like Vile and Cobb, Ince and Mayhew , and Chippendale and Rannie or Haig. In

4680-626: 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 or polymers . Mechanical technology incorporated into the chair enabled adjustable chairs, especially for office use. Motors embedded in the chair resulted in massage chairs . Chairs can be made from wood, metal, or other strong materials, like stone or acrylic. In some cases, multiple materials are used to construct

4797-645: The 12th century, incorporating a unique phonetic spelling system; and the Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group , religious texts written for anchoresses , apparently in the West Midlands in the early 13th century. The language found in the last two works is sometimes called the AB language . Additional literary sources of the 12th and 13th centuries include Layamon's Brut and The Owl and

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4914-422: The 13th century and was replaced by thorn. Thorn mostly fell out of use during the 14th century and was replaced by ⟨th⟩ . Anachronistic usage of the scribal abbreviation [REDACTED] ( þe , "the") has led to the modern mispronunciation of thorn as ⟨ y ⟩ in this context; see ye olde . Wynn, which represented the phoneme /w/ , was replaced by ⟨ w ⟩ during

5031-409: The 13th century. Due to its similarity to the letter ⟨p⟩ , it is mostly represented by ⟨w⟩ in modern editions of Old and Middle English texts even when the manuscript has wynn. Under Norman influence, the continental Carolingian minuscule replaced the insular script that had been used for Old English. However, because of the significant difference in appearance between

5148-527: The 14th century, even after the loss of the majority of the continental possessions of the English monarchy . In the aftermath of the Black Death of the 14th century, there was significant migration into London , of people to the counties of the southeast of England and from the east and central Midlands of England, and a new prestige London dialect began to develop as a result of this clash of

5265-663: The 1540s after the printing and wide distribution of the English Bible and Prayer Book , which made the new standard of English publicly recognizable and lasted until about 1650. The main changes between the Old English sound system and that of Middle English include: The combination of the last three processes listed above led to the spelling conventions associated with silent ⟨e⟩ and doubled consonants (see under Orthography , below). Middle English retains only two distinct noun-ending patterns from

5382-494: The British Isles took a lot longer to warm to Baroque-style furniture. England eventually adopted a lot of baroque-style furniture during this period, as a maritime nation with expanding trading links to Asia, heavy tropical woods were imported which allowed furniture of this style to be created, as well as Asian decorative techniques becoming fashionable. Also during this period, although their origins were thought to be in

5499-572: The Church and legalities, which used Latin and Law French respectively. The Chancery Standard's influence on later forms of written English is disputed, but it did undoubtedly provide the core around which Early Modern English formed. Early Modern English emerged with the help of William Caxton 's printing press, developed during the 1470s. The press stabilized English through a push towards standardization, led by Chancery Standard enthusiast and writer Richard Pynson . Early Modern English began in

5616-472: The Middle Ages, domestic interiors were becoming more comfortable, and upholstery was essential in interior decoration. The decorations consisted mainly of what we would now consider as "soft furnishings". However, there were simple platforms of webbing, canvas, or leather for stools, chairs, and elaborately decorated coverings that already demonstrated the rudimentary beginnings of upholstered furniture. By

5733-557: The Nightingale . Some scholars have defined "Early Middle English" as encompassing English texts up to 1350. This longer time frame would extend the corpus to include many Middle English Romances (especially those of the Auchinleck manuscript c.  1330 ). Gradually, the wealthy and the government Anglicised again, although Norman (and subsequently French ) remained the dominant language of literature and law until

5850-591: The Norse speakers' inability to reproduce the ending sounds of English words influenced Middle English's loss of inflectional endings. Important texts for the reconstruction of the evolution of Middle English out of Old English are the Peterborough Chronicle , which continued to be compiled up to 1154; the Ormulum , a biblical commentary probably composed in Lincolnshire in the second half of

5967-544: The Old English -eþ , Midland dialects showing -en from about 1200, and Northern forms using -es in the third person singular as well as the plural. The past tense of weak verbs was formed by adding an -ed(e) , -d(e) , or -t(e) ending. The past-tense forms, without their personal endings, also served as past participles with past-participle prefixes derived from Old English: i- , y- , and sometimes bi- . Strong verbs , by contrast, formed their past tense by changing their stem vowel (e.g., binden became bound ,

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6084-713: The Old Norse influence was strongest in the dialects under Danish control that composed the southern part of the Northern England (corresponding to the Scandinavian Kingdom of Jórvík ), the East Midlands and the East of England , words in the spoken language emerged in the 10th and 11th centuries near the transition from Old to Middle English. Influence on the written languages only appeared from

6201-539: 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 lifts were commercially available to help people suffering from Polio and other diseases to navigate stairs. The modern movement of the 1960s produced new forms of chairs: the butterfly chair (originally called the Hardoy chair), bean bags , and

6318-463: The United States, cities like Grand Rapids, Michigan , and Hickory, North Carolina , are well-known centers for furniture manufacture. Similarly, in England, Long Eaton , Nottinghamshire , is recognized for its furniture industry, and many of the best upholsterers can still be found there. Nottinghamshire is also home to Webs Training Ltd, a company that specializes in training apprentices in

6435-710: The abundance of Modern English words for the mechanisms of government that are derived from Anglo-Norman, such as court , judge , jury , appeal , and parliament . There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the chivalric cultures that arose in the 12th century, an era of feudalism , seigneurialism , and crusading . Words were often taken from Latin, usually through French transmission. This gave rise to various synonyms, including kingly (inherited from Old English), royal (from French, inherited from Vulgar Latin), and regal (from French, which borrowed it from Classical Latin). Later French appropriations were derived from standard, rather than Norman, French. Examples of

6552-494: The areas of politics, law, the arts, and religion, as well as poetic and emotive diction. Conventional English vocabulary remained primarily Germanic in its sources, with Old Norse influences becoming more apparent. Significant changes in pronunciation took place, particularly involving long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift . Little survives of early Middle English literature , due in part to Norman domination and

6669-510: The arm of easy chairs or sofas and used to hold remote controls for home cinemas . 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 is a cloth covering for a headrest to protect the fabric and enable easy washing. Christo created Wrapped Chair in 1961 with found objects (chairs), lacquer, canvas, rope, and paint. It

6786-442: 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

6903-583: The beginning of the 13th century, this delay in Scandinavian lexical influence in English has been attributed to the lack of written evidence from the areas of Danish control, as the majority of written sources from Old English were produced in the West Saxon dialect spoken in Wessex , the heart of Anglo-Saxon political power at the time. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 saw the replacement of

7020-430: 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. The back of

7137-404: 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 16-inch (41 cm) 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

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7254-491: 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 . Headrests support the head as well and are important in vehicles for preventing " whiplash " neck injuries in rear-end collisions where the head is jerked back suddenly. Reclining chairs typically have at least shoulder-height back-rests to shift weight to

7371-759: The chairs take their name. The use of velvet in upholstered furniture becomes popular. During the reign of Charles I ( Caroline Era ), the Baroque style took hold in mainland Europe, and this style remained popular into the 18th century. It was characterised by the use of abundant ornamentation in furniture, and was initially promoted by the Catholic church as a response to the Protestant reformation, which perhaps explains why this style very quickly became popular in France, Spain and Italy yet Northern European nations and

7488-414: The clergy for written communication and record-keeping. A significant number of Norman words were borrowed into English and used alongside native Germanic words with similar meanings. Examples of Norman/Germanic pairs in Modern English include pig and pork , calf and veal , wood and forest , and freedom and liberty . The role of Anglo-Norman as the language of government and law can be seen in

7605-859: The combustibility of chairs when they are stacked. The 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: 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

7722-507: The comparative and superlative (e.g., greet , great; gretter , greater). Adjectives ending in -ly or -lich formed comparatives either with -lier , -liest or -loker , -lokest . A few adjectives also displayed Germanic umlaut in their comparatives and superlatives, such as long , lenger . Other irregular forms were mostly the same as in modern English. Middle English personal pronouns were mostly developed from those of Old English , with

7839-486: The development of the Chancery Standard in the 15th century, orthography became relatively standardised in a form based on the East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Spelling at the time was mostly quite regular . (There was a fairly consistent correspondence between letters and sounds.) The irregularity of present-day English orthography is largely due to pronunciation changes that have taken place over

7956-495: The different dialects, that was based chiefly on the speech of the East Midlands but also influenced by that of other regions. The writing of this period, however, continues to reflect a variety of regional forms of English. The Ayenbite of Inwyt , a translation of a French confessional prose work, completed in 1340, is written in a Kentish dialect . The best known writer of Middle English, Geoffrey Chaucer , wrote in

8073-531: The double consonant represented a sound that was (or had previously been) geminated (i.e., had genuinely been "doubled" and would thus have regularly blocked the lengthening of the preceding vowel). In other cases, by analogy, the consonant was written double merely to indicate the lack of lengthening. The basic Old English Latin alphabet consisted of 20 standard letters plus four additional letters: ash ⟨æ⟩ , eth ⟨ð⟩ , thorn ⟨þ⟩ , and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ . There

8190-418: The early 16th century, that ladder chairs became very popular. This type of chair has a tall back constructed of horizontal slats or spindles between the two uprights, a very practical chair design. Traditional upholstery traces its roots back to ancient civilizations, where the need for comfort and functionality led to the creation of padded seating surfaces. From ancient Egypt to ancient Rome, early upholstery

8307-460: 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. 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 chairs are necessarily reclined. Research has shown that

8424-468: The end of the Middle English period only the strong -'s ending (variously spelled) was in use. Some formerly feminine nouns, as well as some weak nouns, continued to make their genitive forms with -e or no ending (e.g., fole hoves , horses' hooves), and nouns of relationship ending in -er frequently have no genitive ending (e.g., fader bone , "father's bane"). The strong -(e)s plural form has survived into Modern English. The weak -(e)n form

8541-418: The exception of the third person plural, a borrowing from Old Norse (the original Old English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped). Also, the nominative form of the feminine third person singular was replaced by a form of the demonstrative that developed into sche (modern she ), but the alternative heyr remained in some areas for a long time. As with nouns, there

8658-481: The frame shape. Stuffings became even more complex, edges became elaborately shaped into rolls and scrolls, and fabrics were folded into soft padded shapes using buttoning. Modern furniture is more likely to be partly or wholly made with cellular Polyurethane foam. This foam provides structure, resilience (recovery from loading), and, most importantly, lightweight. It is then covered with an outer decorative textile.The synthetic polymer will age and lose performance within

8775-471: The furniture manufacturing industry. These skilled artisans continue to create or recreate a wide range of antique and modern furniture pieces. Furniture reupholstery remains a thriving industry in the UK, with numerous small and large businesses offering these services. This ongoing tradition ensures that both antique and contemporary furniture pieces can be restored and maintained for future generations. During

8892-655: The harsh marine environment. Factors such as dampness , sunlight , and hard usage must be taken into account. Many sources now offer marine-grade vinyl, such as Spradling and Morbern, in hundreds of colors and styles. Each style of marine-grade vinyl is rated according to cold crack, rub counts, and mold resistance. These ratings ensure the material can withstand the challenging conditions at sea. Stainless steel hardware, such as staples and screws, must be used to prevent rust and early breakdown of hardware and fasteners. The newest products for fastening vinyl in marine applications include Tenara thread and Monel staples. Tenara thread

9009-427: 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 , and PVC pipe . 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

9126-405: The human body or anthropometric measurements. The two most relevant anthropometric measurement for chair design is the popliteal height and buttock popliteal 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

9243-412: The indicator of the longer and changed pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ . In fact, vowels could have this lengthened and modified pronunciation in various positions, particularly before a single consonant letter and another vowel or before certain pairs of consonants. A related convention involved the doubling of consonant letters to show that the preceding vowel was not to be lengthened. In some cases,

9360-539: The introduction of the UK Furniture Fire Regulations (FFR). While modern advancements have introduced new materials and techniques to the world of upholstery, the artistry and attention to detail that define traditional upholstery remain unparalleled. Although sewing machines and synthetic foams have expedited the manufacturing process, they have not replaced the skill and expertise of the upholsterer. Traditional upholstery continues to thrive as

9477-401: 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 cushions . 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

9594-407: 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 , 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

9711-419: 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. 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

9828-846: The main Palace of the Ashanti Empire in 1819, and observed chairs engrossed with gold in the empire. In the 1800s, 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 , Roebuck, and Co. allowed families to purchase machined sets. With the Industrial Revolution , 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,

9945-561: The main difference lied on their inflectional endings, which led to much confusion within the mixed population that existed in the Danelaw, this endings tended gradually to become obscured and finally lost, "simplifying English grammar" in the process. In time, the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged. Viking influence on Old English is most apparent in pronouns , modals, comparatives, pronominal adverbs (like hence and together ), conjunctions, and prepositions show

10062-417: The masculine accusative, genitive, and dative, the feminine dative, and the plural genitive. The Owl and the Nightingale adds a final -e to all adjectives not in the nominative, here only inflecting adjectives in the weak declension (as described above). Comparatives and superlatives were usually formed by adding -er and -est . Adjectives with long vowels sometimes shortened these vowels in

10179-427: The more complex system of inflection in Old English : Nouns of the weak declension are primarily inherited from Old English n -stem nouns but also from ō -stem, wō -stem, and u -stem nouns, which did not inflect in the same way as n -stem nouns in Old English, but joined the weak declension in Middle English. Nouns of the strong declension are inherited from the other Old English noun stem classes. Some nouns of

10296-490: The most marked Danish influence. The best evidence of Scandinavian influence appears in extensive word borrowings; however, texts from the period in Scandinavia and Northern England do not provide certain evidence of an influence on syntax. However, at least one scholarly study of this influence shows that Old English may have been replaced entirely by Norse, by virtue of the change from Old English to Norse syntax. While

10413-551: The most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470), and aided by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439, a standard based on the London dialects (Chancery Standard) had become established. This largely formed the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by Early Modern English , which lasted until about 1650. Scots developed concurrently from

10530-693: The old insular g and the Carolingian g (modern g ), the former continued in use as a separate letter, known as yogh , written ⟨ȝ⟩ . This was adopted for use to represent a variety of sounds: [ɣ], [j], [dʒ], [x], [ç] , while the Carolingian g was normally used for [g]. Instances of yogh were eventually replaced by ⟨j⟩ or ⟨y⟩ and by ⟨gh⟩ in words like night and laugh . In Middle Scots , yogh became indistinguishable from cursive z , and printers tended to use ⟨z⟩ when yogh

10647-423: The other case endings disappeared in the Early Middle English period, including most of the roughly one dozen forms of the definite article ("the"). The dual personal pronouns (denoting exactly two) also disappeared from English during this period. The loss of case endings was part of a general trend from inflections to fixed word order that also occurred in other Germanic languages (though more slowly and to

10764-403: The prestige that came with writing in French rather than English. During the 14th century, a new style of literature emerged with the works of writers including John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer , whose Canterbury Tales remains the most studied and read work of the period. The transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English had taken place by the 1150s to 1180s, the period when

10881-409: 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 or Japan , it

10998-485: The reign of James VI & I (1603-1625), the Baroque style emerged, and stitched edging appeared, meaning bespoke shapes could be created by stitched cushion pads on wooden frames, allowing for the first time design and artistic flair to become a hallmark of upholstered furniture of the age. Farthingale chairs (without arms, see below) were introduced, due to the popularity at the time of the large hooped skirt from which

11115-569: The resulting doublet pairs include warden (from Norman) and guardian (from later French; both share a common ancestor loaned from Germanic). The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not result in immediate changes to the language. The general population would have spoken the same dialects as they had before the Conquest. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, only dialects that evolved individually from Old English. Early Middle English (1150–1350) has

11232-483: The seat; a recliner is upholstered and features a mechanism that lowers the chair's back and raises into place a footrest ; a rocking chair has legs fixed to two long curved slats; and a wheelchair has wheels fixed to an axis under the seat. Chair comes from the early 13th-century English word chaere , from Old French chaiere ("chair, seat, throne"), from Latin cathedra ("seat"). The chair has been used since antiquity, although for many centuries it

11349-807: The second half of the 14th century in the emerging London dialect, although he also portrays some of his characters as speaking in northern dialects, as in " The Reeve's Tale ". In the English-speaking areas of lowland Scotland , an independent standard was developing, based on the Northumbrian dialect . This would develop into what came to be known as the Scots language . A large number of terms for abstract concepts were adopted directly from scholastic philosophical Latin (rather than via French). Examples are "absolute", "act", "demonstration", and "probable". The Chancery Standard of written English emerged c.  1430 in official documents that, since

11466-458: The second person singular in -(e)st (e.g., þou spekest , "thou speakest"), and the third person singular in -eþ (e.g., he comeþ , "he cometh/he comes"). ( þ (the letter "thorn") is pronounced like the unvoiced th in "think", but under certain circumstances, it may be like the voiced th in "that"). The following table illustrates a typical conjugation pattern: Plural forms vary strongly by dialect, with Southern dialects preserving

11583-464: The shoulders. 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 , weight is distributed and maximum pressure is reduced. A chair may or may not have armrests; chairs with armrests are termed "armchairs". In French ,

11700-486: The start of the 17th century, chair seats were being padded, but this upholstery was still fairly basic. All sorts of stuffings from sawdust, grass, and feathers to deer, goat, or horsehair were used, although, in England, the Livery Company forbade goat and deer hair and imposed fines for misdemeanors. The stuffing was heaped on a wooden platform and held in place with a decorative top fabric and nails. This produced

11817-409: The strong type have an -e in the nominative/accusative singular, like the weak declension, but otherwise strong endings. Often, these are the same nouns that had an -e in the nominative/accusative singular of Old English (they, in turn, were inherited from Proto-Germanic ja -stem and i -stem nouns). The distinct dative case was lost in early Middle English, and although the genitive survived, by

11934-490: The stuffing up to make a firm top edge) evolved. In the Victorian era, fashions of luxury and comfort gave rise to excesses of stuffing and padding. Mass production techniques made upholstered furniture available in large quantities to all sections of society. The availability of better-quality steel springs and the development of lashing techniques enabled upholstery to be built up on seats, backs, and arms independently of

12051-440: The top levels of the English-speaking political and ecclesiastical hierarchies by Norman rulers who spoke a dialect of Old French , now known as Old Norman , which developed in England into Anglo-Norman . The use of Norman as the preferred language of literature and polite discourse fundamentally altered the role of Old English in education and administration, even though many Normans of this period were illiterate and depended on

12168-429: The top of the head when seated. For American men, the median popliteal height is 16.3 inches (41 cm) and for American women it is 15.0 inches (38 cm). 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 17 inches (43 cm) high. Researchers such as Mary Blade and Galen Cranz found that sitting on

12285-427: The transformation of boat seating from a fundamental element to a sophisticated, comfortable experience. Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME ) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but

12402-433: The upholsterers' technical knowledge meant that stuffing could be controlled along upright and sloping lines, giving new comfort levels and a stated elegance. Later in the century, the border was replaced by a single piece of linen or scrim , which took over the stuffed seat and tacked to the frame. At the same time, the locked blind stitch and top-stitching combination (pulling the side and top surfaces together and bringing

12519-428: The way it is used. Bed Mattresses may be considered the same way, with appropriate allowance for different usage, although the amount of time in use is probably higher. This has significant implications for the end of life of the materials used in manufacture and the end value of the materials.It is also worth noting that the above includes a high availability of air within the article, leading to ignition risk concerns and

12636-434: The weight of the occupant to various parts of the body . 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 springs are attached to

12753-722: The weight. Chair seats vary widely in construction and may or may not match construction of the chair's back (back-rest). Some systems include: Design considerations for chairs have been codified into standards. ISO 9241 , "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 chairs are specified by ISO 6875. Bean bag chairs are specified by ANSI standard ASTM F1912-98. ISO 7174 specifies stability of rocking and tilting chairs. ASTM F1858-98 specifies plastic lawn chairs. ASTM E1822-02b defines

12870-579: 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 in the United Kingdom and Canada , 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

12987-425: Was indicated by agreement of articles and pronouns (e.g., þo ule "the feminine owl") or using the pronoun he to refer to masculine nouns such as helm ("helmet"), or phrases such as scaft stærcne (strong shaft), with the masculine accusative adjective ending -ne . Single-syllable adjectives added -e when modifying a noun in the plural and when used after the definite article ( þe ), after

13104-611: Was not available in their fonts; this led to new spellings (often giving rise to new pronunciations), as in McKenzie , where the ⟨z⟩ replaced a yogh, which had the pronunciation /j/ . Chair A chair is a type of seat , typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. It may be made of wood , metal , or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in various colors and fabrics. Chairs vary in design. An armchair has armrests fixed to

13221-922: 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 origin. Chairs were in existence since at least the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt ( c.  3100 BC ). They were covered with cloth or leather , were made of carved wood, and were much lower than today's chairs – chair seats were sometimes only 10 inches (25 cm) high. In ancient Egypt , chairs appear to have been of great richness and splendor. Fashioned of ebony and ivory , or of carved and gilded wood , they were covered with costly materials, magnificent patterns and supported upon representations of

13338-520: Was not yet a distinct j , v , or w , and Old English scribes did not generally use k , q , or z . Ash was no longer required in Middle English, as the Old English vowel /æ/ that it represented had merged into /a/ . The symbol nonetheless came to be used as a ligature for the digraph ⟨ae⟩ in many words of Greek or Latin origin, as did ⟨œ⟩ for ⟨oe⟩ . Eth and thorn both represented /θ/ or its allophone / ð / in Old English. Eth fell out of use during

13455-417: Was ousted by it in most dialects by the 15th. The following table shows some of the various Middle English pronouns. Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources because of differences in spellings and pronunciations at different times and in different dialects. As a general rule, the indicative first person singular of verbs in the present tense ended in -e (e.g., ich here , "I hear"),

13572-704: Was primarily concerned with cushioning and supporting chairs, seats, and sofas. However, it was during the Renaissance period in Europe that upholstery flourished as an art form in its own right. Skilled artisans painstakingly handcrafted upholstery using techniques passed down through generations. One of the defining characteristics of traditional upholstery is its reliance on manual craftsmanship. Upholsterers, or "upholsterists", as they are sometimes called, possess unique skills that enable them to transform raw materials into exquisite furniture pieces. Traditional upholstery

13689-475: Was some inflectional simplification (the distinct Old English dual forms were lost), but pronouns, unlike nouns, retained distinct nominative and accusative forms. Third person pronouns also retained a distinction between accusative and dative forms, but that was gradually lost: The masculine hine was replaced by him south of the River Thames by the early 14th century, and the neuter dative him

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